{"id":15900,"date":"2010-06-14T10:06:14","date_gmt":"2010-06-14T14:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=15900"},"modified":"2010-06-17T09:50:13","modified_gmt":"2010-06-17T13:50:13","slug":"avery-point-baseball-team-reaches-njcaa-championship-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/06\/avery-point-baseball-team-reaches-njcaa-championship-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Avery Point Baseball Team Reaches NJCAA Championship Final"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>THe<\/a>
The UConn-Avery Point baseball team at the NJCAA tournament. Photo supplied by UConn-Avery Point <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Avery Point campus baseball team<\/a> ended its best season on June 5 after winning 41 games and competing at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II World Series at Eunice in Enid, Okla. The team \u2013 known as the Pointers \u2013 went all the way to the championship game, before being defeated 10-2 by No. 3 ranked Louisiana State University.<\/p>\n

It was the third trip to the NJCAA World Series for the Pointers, ranked nationally at No. 6 and led by head coach Roger Bidwell. After qualifying for the national tournament in 1999 and 2004, this year was the first time the Pointers had won tournament games.<\/p>\n

In the double elimination tournament, the Pointers beat No. 1 ranked Western Oklahoma State twice, including a 13-inning game, to make it into the championship.<\/p>\n

Bidwell, who has directed athletics at Avery Point since 1982, says it is a challenge to remain consistently competitive with a roster that changes each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe core of this year\u2019s team from the World Series is leaving, and we have to replace them,\u201d he says, noting that two players \u2013 third baseman Ryan Fuller and outfielder Chris Davidson \u2013 hope to continue playing baseball in Storrs, as they move toward completing their degrees at UConn. The Huskies Division 1 team also completed its best season on June 6<\/a>, hosting the Norwich NCAA Regional and getting its first NCAA tournament win since 1979.<\/p>\n

Two Avery Point student-athletes \u2013 first baseman Tyler McIntyre and pitcher Brett Shulick \u2013 were recognized with all-tournament honors for their play in Oklahoma. Shulick also was named Pitcher of the Tourney, and McIntyre, who set a tournament record by hitting six home runs in six games, also was named Outstanding Hitter of the Tourney. Bidwell was honored as Coach of the Tourney.<\/p>\n

Avery Point also fields men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball teams competing at the NJCAA. The teams have no athletic scholarships but have the same demands for practice and academics, and the same expectation of success as their NCAA counterparts in Storrs. This past season, the women\u2019s basketball team nearly defended their 2009 NJCAA New England title, which sent them to the national tournament, by posting a 23-5 record in 2010 and reaching the semi-final game of the NJCAA New England regional championships.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five Avery Point baseball players have gone on to play professional baseball after leading the team to the New England regional seven times since 1990 and to the NJCAA World Series in 1999 and 2004, including current major leaguers John McDonald (1992-1994), shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays, and Rajai Davis (1999-2001), center fielder for the Oakland Athletics.<\/p>\n

\"<p>UConn-Avery<\/a>
UConn-Avery Point's Kyle Cummings tags out Western Oklahoma's Andrelton Simmons at second, during the NJCAA Div II World Series in Enid, Okla. on June 3. Enid News & Eagle photo by Bonnie Vculek <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<p>UConn-Avery<\/a>
UConn-Avery Point's Chris Davidson stands safely on second base as Western Oklahoma's Andrelton Simmons walks by, during the NJCAA Div. II World Series. Enid News & Eagle photo by Bonnie Vculek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 41 wins, the Pointers ended their best season June 5, losing to Louisiana State University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-15900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-02 08:30:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15900"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15974,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15900\/revisions\/15974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15900"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=15900"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}