Release courtesy of Matt Higgins – MIAC Assistant to the Executive Director
St. Paul, Minn. – Mother Nature has not been kind to the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) this spring, particularly the league’s baseball teams. As a result, the league’s coaches and administration took action in an attempt to salvage the full conference season as well as the 2013 MIAC Baseball Playoffs. The MIAC announced Thursday the remainder of the MIAC baseball schedule has received a complete overhaul, beginning with games starting on Monday, April 22.
The new MIAC baseball schedule – which is listed below and also now updated on the MIAC web site and MIAC scoreboard site – has reshuffled the remaining conference games with the intent for each team to still complete all 20 conference games (one doubleheader vs. each MIAC opponent).
As of now, the 2013 MIAC Baseball Playoffs are still on as originally scheduled – as a four-team, double-elimination tournament. The MIAC Playoffs will return to Veterans Field in Minnetonka, Minn., for the third-straight season, and the three-day event will run May 10-12. As always, the MIAC Baseball Playoff champion will receive the MIAC’s automatic bid to the 2013 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament.
Thursday’s schedule overhaul is the result of much hard work and deliberation by the MIAC baseball coaches. After reaffirming the importance of both the MIAC regular season and the conference’s Playoffs, MIAC Executive Director Dan McKane and Assistant Director Afton Goebel re-worked the schedule to fit in all games between Monday, April 22 and Wednesday, May 8. Thursday morning the MIAC baseball coaches approved the scheduled changes unanimously.
“This has been an extremely challenging spring, and we’ve tried to be proactive about finding the best possible solution,” McKane said. “Our baseball coaches came up with some great proposals, and we’re excited we developed a plan that can hopefully help us provide a great experience for our student-athletes that includes both a full regular season and the MIAC Baseball Playoffs.”
“I’d like to thank the MIAC baseball coaches for their proactive approach to the scheduling challenges this spring has presented. It’s been great to see them collaborate and work together to reach a solution.”
The originally scheduled conference doubleheaders for Saturday, April 20, are still on as scheduled, but if inclement weather prevents those games from being played this weekend, they will be moved to Monday, May 6. At this time, there are a few other postponed conference doubleheaders that need to still be slotted in, and the MIAC office is working with those coaches to add those to the remainder of the schedule. Going forward, any postponed games will follow the prescribed MIAC rescheduling policy.
The revised 2013 MIAC baseball schedule is below with new dates, matchups and start times. The changes have already been applied to the MIAC schedules online. The MIAC web site and scoreboard will continue to reflect any other postponements or changes due to weather going forward this spring.