Welcome to Episode 69 of The Podcast About Division III Baseball. This is our third of eight regional preview pods -- this one covers the Central region and its four conferences, and of course, Jake's beloved WashU Bears. Before, we get into the Central, we discuss how the D3 landscape looks a few weeks in and shoutout (at 3:00) the incredible 14-inning game between Piedmont and Adrian. Topics include:

• CCIW (at 10:00)
  •  North Central might have the best battery in the country in Rob Marinec/Charlie Klemm
  • Illinois Wesleyan has an ace in Quinn Gudaitis and could challenge for this conference if a few things break right
  • We'll see if anyone else like Wheaton (Ill.) or Augustana can make some noise
• SLIAC (at 17:00)
  • Webster was already loaded and brought back almost all of their seniors; the Gorloks are legit contenders
  • Spalding has a lot of talent but will have to prove it against the best competition
• ARC (at 29:50)
  • Coe has clearly established themselves as the team to beat but will have to replace some high-end talent
  • Buena Vista will need some younger players to step up if they want to defend their title
  • Wartburg used to run this conference but have been trending down -- but perhaps they are back?
• MWC (at 39:14)
  • This conference is fairly wide open so we touched on all the possible favorites: Chicago, Monmouth, Cornell, Ripon
•  UAA
  • WashU (at 45:00) doesn't have any seniors returning for #Year5 but they still have a ton of talent on the roster including potential regional Player of the Year Caleb Durbin

We concluded our player and pitcher of the year picks for the region, and our teams to beat. Then we say goodbye. Thanks for listening!

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