Schools opening up Fall season

Many schools have started Fall practice with classes starting back up recently. We have found six teams that have put out releases recently.

TCU
Vanderbilt
Penn State
Utah
Brown
Virginia Tech

Brown's Dietz signs with D-Backs

Brown University pitcher Jeff Dietz has signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the 2008 season. He won the Ivy League pitcher of the year award in 2007 while leading the Bears to the Ivy League title and their first ever NCAA tournament berth. Dietz went 9-3 including a complete game victory over Penn in the Ivy League championship series in which The College Baseball Blog was in attendance for. The CBB recap of the Ivy Championship is available by clicking here.

Brown Summer League Update

The Brown Media Relations department has put out a release recapping the summer leagues the Brown Bears took part in. The article looks at Rob Hallberg (Manchester (CT) Silkworms NECBL) and Jeff Dietz (Wareham Gatemen CCBL) who led the Bears to the 2007 Ivy League championship. The full release is available here.

Florida releases 2008 Schedule

New Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan and The University of Florida athletic department has released the 2008 baseball schedule on Wednesday. The Gators will open the season on February 22nd when they take on Siena for a three game set. The Gators will make the trip down to the University of Miami the next weekend before coming back home to take on defending Ivy League Champs Brown. The Gators will play Florida State three times this season with a game in each teams respective ballpark and a neutral site game in Jacksonville. In addition to the strong OOC schedule, Florida will play a full 30 games in the SEC which is highlighted by a visit from SEC power Vanderbilt to end the season. The full schedule is available here.

Round Rock Regional Day 2!

Wake Forest eliminates the Brown Bears 4-2!

Converted reliever Ben Hunter continued his brilliance as a starter for Wake Forest, pitching the Demon Deacons past Brown, 4-2, in the NCAA Regional Tournament Saturday afternoon at The Dell Diamond.

Hunter (8-6) led the Deacons to victory, allowing just one run in a career-long eight innings of work. The righthander tied his career-high with 10 strikeouts in his eighth start of the season.

Wake Forest spotted Hunter two runs in the first inning but didn't score again until the ninth. Hunter made the runs hold up, though, as he allowed just a run in the third inning before giving way to relievers Eric Niesen and Josh Ellis in the ninth.

The win advances the Deacs (34-28) in the loser's bracket and eliminates Ivy League champion Brown (27-21). Wake will now face the loser of tonight's game between top-seeded Texas and second-seeded UC Irvine on Sunday at 12 p.m. CT. The winner of that game will advance to the Regional championship on Sunday at 6 p.m. CT. If the Deacons advance that far, they would need to win on Sunday evening and then again on Monday afternoon to make the Super Regionals.

WakeForest Recap

Brown Bears Recap

They've said all year that they're better.

They have better hitting. They have better defense. They have a better attitude.

The Texas Longhorns have sworn all year that 2007 is not 2006. But one year later, they're in the same place, the same scary situation.

A flat Longhorns team was taken out of its game Saturday, frustrated by strong pitching by Scott Gorgen and an aggressive UC Irvine team, which sent Texas to the loser's bracket with a 3-1 victory in the Round Rock Regional at Dell Diamond.

It was in the second game of regional play last year that Stanford shocked Texas 12-8, sending the Longhorns into the loser's bracket and headed toward elimination.

The Horns swear this is not a repeat of last year.

"It's not," Texas coach Augie Garrido said. "This team has a different attitude. I see it in the way they carry themselves, in the way they approach the game and in the way they stay focused no matter what."

The Longhorns are going to need to stay focused for three straight games to advance. It starts at noon today when Texas (45-16), the top seed in the regional, takes on third-seeded Wake Forest at Dell Diamond in an elimination game. The winner will take on UC Irvine at 6 p.m.

The Anteaters (42-15-1) made it look easy Saturday. They made the plays defensively. They made the pitches.

Texas didn't.

UC Irvine opened the game with a triple by Taylor Holiday and an RBI single by Ben Orloff to take a 1-0 lead.

In Texas' first at-bat, the Longhorns were robbed of an RBI double off the bat of Russell Moldenhauer, as Anteaters center fielder Ollie Linton, who began the year on the bench but was inserted for his speed, made a beautiful catch in right-center field.

He took away another RBI double off Moldenhauer's bat in the sixth inning.

"The separation oddly enough was in the outfielder," Garrido said. "The two plays by the center fielder off of Moldenhauer's bat took away runs. It was all of their defense. Basically they did not give us an extra base or an extra out the entire game."

The Longhorns made three errors, including two by shortstop Chais Fuller. One of those miscues led to a run and a 2-0 deficit in the third inning.

"They put a lot of pressure on you with their guys in motion and the bunting, but I don't think that we were playing tight defensively," Fuller said. "I just made a couple of bad plays. It happens. I feel horrible about it."

The Longhorns got a run back in the bottom of the third, when Bradley Suttle hit his 11th home run of the season, a smash to left field, but that was it.

Gorgen pitched his third complete game of the season, fooling the Texas hitters with a changeup-fastball combination.

After Suttle's home run, the Longhorns failed to get a runner past second base.

"I'm feeling great. I feel like it's the middle of March again," Gorgen said. "I'm feeling stronger than ever. We're going to have to stay mentally tough."

So will Texas, which has a big hill to climb. Left-hander Austin Wood will start against Wake Forest for a pitching staff that will be extremely thin for the next three games. And the Longhorns' bats have to come around.

"Our pitching staff is solid, and we have a much better offense than we had last year," Suttle said. "We're just going to have to come out and do what we've been doing all year."

They might need more.

"We're going to have to have a hero," Garrido said. "We get in this position and somebody is going to have to step up and be the hero. Here's everybody's chance to make history at the University of Texas.

"It's going to be done around the country in the 16 regionals. Multiple teams are going to come out of the loser's bracket. It happens all the time, every year."

Texas.SCout.com

Texas Recap

UC Irvine Recap

Round Rock Regional!!

Longhorns rally to beat Brown in regional opener

After slow start, Texas wins 8-2 and advances to face UC Irvine!

Nick Peoples' arm. Chais Fuller's strength.

Say hello to both of them.

It's OK if you haven't noticed them before. They haven't really been used.

The two seniors used two assets that haven't been displayed much this season to propel Texas to an 8-2 victory over Brown on Friday in the opening round of the Round Rock Regional at Dell Diamond.

With the fourth-seeded Bears leading 2-1 in the sixth inning Fuller, one of four shortstops used by the Longhorns this season, showed some pop, sending an 0-1 pitch over the left-field wall for a two-run home run.

It was Fuller's second home run of the season. The first came Feb. 16 against Stanford. Both homers came at Dell Diamond.

"I didn't think it was out, so I was running full speed around the bases," Fuller said. "I saw the left fielder run into the wall, so I thought the ball was off the wall."

Fuller's blast loosened up top-seeded Texas (45-15), the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

"Chais Fuller changed the momentum in the game," Texas coach Augie Garrido said.

The Longhorns will take on UC Irvine at 6 p.m. today with a spot in the regional championship game on the line. The Anteaters routed Wake Forest 13-0.

Texas needed to scratch and claw Friday in front of 9,230 fans.

"So much for being the (regional's) top seed and getting an easy game to begin with," Garrido said.

The Longhorns, who took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Kyle Russell's home run, found themselves trailing 2-1 after the Bears put together five consecutive two-out hits in the fourth inning to take a 2-1 lead.

It could have been worse.

Brown had Robert Papenhouse on second and Dan Shapiro on first with two outs when Brian Kelaher singled to center field. Papenhouse tried to score on the hit.

That's when Peoples, who doubled off a runner at first base in the second inning and almost threw out a second batter at home, showed his arm strength, throwing the ball on the fly to catcher Brett Lewis in time to get a sliding Papenhouse.

It was one of the few times all season Peoples has had a chance to make a play at the plate.

"It's kind of weird, throughout the year I haven't had a play throwing-wise from center field," Peoples said. "Jordan (Danks) and Kyle (Russell) have had so many chances, and I can't remember any."

Peoples showed off his arm a few times Friday, skipping the cutoff man and hitting his targets on the fly.

"That's not always a good thing," Peoples said, "but today I really wanted to get those guys. Every run you get now is a big run. Luckily I was able to put a couple of them out tonight."

Brown (27-20) didn't have many scoring opportunities after the fourth inning because relievers Joseph Krebs and Randy Boone came in and shut the Bears down. They combined to pitch five scoreless innings, and they struck out seven consecutive batters at one point. The final nine outs by the Bears, who were playing in their first regional game, were strikeouts.

The Longhorns added to their lead with a run in the seventh inning, when Brown starter Jeff Dietz, who threw 131 pitches, started to wear down.

"He's a great pitcher," said Longhorn Travis Tucker, who was 4 for 4. "He hit his spots."

Texas broke it open in the eighth when the Bears went to the bullpen.

Tucker singled, and Jordan Danks and Russell followed with walks. Chance Wheeless ripped a two-run double to right center before Russell scored on a wild pitch. Wheeless then scored on Russell Moldenhauer's grounder to first base.

Some were surprised that four seniors — Peoples, Fuller, Krebs and Boone — pulled the Longhorns through their postseason opener. They shouldn't have been.

"Experience matters," Peoples said. "Guys who have been in situations like this before tend to be a little more comfortable than the other guys. You can see that. This team is pretty deep and everybody has experience.

"Hopefully this team can draw from the winning teams of the past."

Texas Recap

TExas.SCout.com
Brown Bears Recap!

Senior Cody Cipriano and freshman Jeff Cusick drove in three runs apiece and starter Wes Etheridge pitched eight shutout innings to lead second-seeded UC Irvine to a 13-0 win over third seed Wake Forest Friday at The Dell Diamond to open NCAA regional action. The win gave UCI its first regional victory in the program's Division I history as the Anteaters climbed to 41-15-1 and will face the winner of the Texas-Brown match-up Saturday at 5:00 p.m. (PT).

UC-Irvine Recap

WakeForest Recap

Round Rock Regional Preview!

The Field

(1) Texas [#5]

The Longhorns are again right where they've been for much of this decade, sitting at home for regional play with a national seed in their back pocket following a stellar regular season. The 2007 campaign saw UT claim first place in the Big XII after putting together a 21-6 league mark and 44-15 overall record.

(2) UC Irvine

You may not know much about the Big West Conference, but the Anteaters will attest that it's no easy task with the likes of Cal State-Fullerton, Long Beach State, and UC Riverside on the schedule from week to week. Irvine survived quite nicely though, going 15-6 in conference play and 40-15 overall to earn the at-large berth.

(3) Wake Forest

Though the Demon Deacons finished a pair of games below .500 in ACC play and actually just six games above the break-even mark overall, they were awarded one of the final at-large berths to this year's NCAA tournament after losing to UNC in the ACC Tournamnet title game.

(4) Brown

A 27-19 overall record and 14-6 mark in Ivy League play was enough to earn the Bears a matchup with Penn in the conference playoffs. Brown took that series 2-0 to earn the only automatic berth in this regional.

Southerncollegesports.com

Round Rock Regional!

Ranked as the number four national seed coming into regional play, the Texas Longhorns will host their weekend regional in neighboring Round Rock. Traveling to take on the 'Horns will be second-seeded UC Irvine and third-seeded Wake Forest, as well as Ivy League champ Brown. The winner of that bracket will take on the winner from Wichita next week. The Shockers, like all other hosts this spring, are the top seed at home, and they welcome in a tough number two seed in Arizona, as well as both Oral Roberts and New Orleans.

(1) Texas [#5]

The Longhorns are again right where they've been for much of this decade, sitting at home for regional play with a national seed in their back pocket following a stellar regular season. The 2007 campaign saw UT claim first place in the Big XII after putting together a 21-6 league mark and 44-15 overall record.

(2) UC Irvine

You may not know much about the Big West Conference, but the Anteaters will attest that it's no easy task with the likes of Cal State-Fullerton, Long Beach State, and UC Riverside on the schedule from week to week. Irvine survived quite nicely though, going 15-6 in conference play and 40-15 overall to earn the at-large berth.

(3) Wake Forest

Though the Demon Deacons finished a pair of games below .500 in ACC play and actually just six games above the break-even mark overall, they were awarded one of the final at-large berths to this year's NCAA tournament after losing to UNC in the ACC Tournamnet title game.

(4) Brown

A 27-19 overall record and 14-6 mark in Ivy League play was enough to earn the Bears a matchup with Penn in the conference playoffs. Brown took that series 2-0 to earn the only automatic berth in this regional.

Southerncollegesports

The CBB heads to Ivy League Championship

The College Baseball Blog headed down to Providence to check out the Ivy League Championship between the Pennsylvania and Brown.

In Game 1, The story of the game was the starting pitching. Penn freshman ace Todd Roth pitched a complete game by letting up an unearned run in the eighth inning but Brown starter Jeff Dietz was better by pitching a complete game shutout while only giving up three Quaker hits to give the Bears the 1-0 victory. Dietz also drove in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth by hitting a sacrifice fly to second baseman Steve Gable in foul territory but Gable made a poor throw to the plate allowing Steve Daniels to score the winning run. This was the CBB first time seeing each team and came away impressed by freshman Todd Roth who has a plus curveball but an average fastball. Dietz kept the Quaker hitters on the defensive by throwing a solid slider that was getting the outside corner from home plate umpire Joe Cacciatore. Penn coach John Cole also got into a heated argument around the sixth inning with second base umpire Nick Zebilli over an issue that was not obvious to the fans or myself.

In Game 2, The Brown Bears jumped all over Penn starter Jim Birmingham for five runs in the first inning including a grand slam from Robert Papenhause. He would finish the day with three hits and six RBI. The second inning did not get better for Birmingham as the Brown Bears picked up another four runs on a Devin Thomas grand slam. Thomas finished the day with four hits in seven at-bats and seven RBI. The Bears would cruise to the 20-6 victory to win the Ivy League Championship for the first time in the school's history. Brown is now scheduled to have a few weeks off until they head to the NCAA Tourney.

Brown Recap
Penn Recap

Ivy League Championship Series Preview

The Penn Quakers will head to Providence RI to take on the Brown University Bears in the Ivy League Championship series (Best of three). The winner of the series will punch the first ticket to the NCAA Tournament.

The Quakers won the Gehrig Division title last weekend after Princeton lost their final game of the year against Cornell in extra innings. Penn is led by second year head coach John Cole. He led the Quakers to a second place finish in 2006 in the Gehrig Division and won the Division title in only his second season. He had a ton of success at the Division 3 level at Rowan College where he compiled a 229-73 record. Cole has been receiving outstanding pitching from freshman pitcher Todd Roth who enters the weekend with a outstanding 6-1 record and an ERA of 2.25. He has thrown six consecutive complete game compiling a 1.50 ERA and 32 strikeouts while only walking six batters. Roth picked up a 5-3 victory over Brown on April 9th. He is expected to start Game 1 for the Quakers on Saturday. In Game 2, Penn is expected to send another freshman to the hill in Jim Birmingham who has a 4-1 record and a 3.30 ERA. The top hitter for the Quakers is Kyle Armeny who leads the team with a .326 average and eight homers.

The Brown Bears will be taking part in their first Ivy League playoff series in the 15 years of the playoff format. The Bears are led by Jeff Dietz who is tied in wins at 6 with Todd Roth of Penn. Dietz has had some outstanding performances throughout the season on the mound with a 6-3 overall record and an ERA of 3.57. He is expected to start Game 1 against Roth in a battle of aces. Dietz is also a solid hitter for the Bears as he plays first base when he is not pitching and has a .352 average with seven homers and 48 RBI in 39 games. Devin Thomas who is the starting catch for Brown has a very strong average of .372 and has hit 14 homers on the season.

The College Baseball Blog will be making the road trip down to Providence to check out the first two games of the series on Saturday and will provide a full report on Saturday evening.

Brown Game Notes
Penn Game Notes
John Cole Preseason interview with CBB
Baseball America Preview of series

UConn edges Brown

The UConn Huskies edged Brown on Wednesday 6-5 in a game which was moved from Providence to Storrs with tough weather in Providence over the last few days. Mark Burnett hit an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth inning to drive home the winning run in Ted O'Reilly. Freshman pitcher Robert Van Woert picked up his fifth win of the season by going four innings while allowing two runs on two hits. Brown used six different pitchers as this was the first mid-week game in three weeks so some pitchers needed some work before their key weekend series against Harvard. Paul Costa ended up getting the loss for the Bears to drop his record to 1-2 on the season.

UConn Recap
Brown Recap

Penn and Brown split a doubleheader

The Penn Quakers finished off a four game weekend by splitting a doubleheader on Monday afternoon with Brown. The Quakers took Game 1 by a score of 5-3 and lost Game 2 in a shootout by a score of 15-12.

The Quakers in Game 1 received a seven inning complete game from Todd Roth in which he only gave up three runs. His record now is 4-1 on the season. William Gordon led the Quakers offense by recording three RBIs in the victory. Brown starter Will Weidig picked up the loss in his 6.2 innings while giving up five runs. The loss drops his record to 2-2 on the season.

The Brown Bears used a 16 hit attack to handle the Quakers in a 15-12 game. The Brown Bears were led on offense by Bryan Tews who went 4-5 including a home run and three RBI in the win. Devin Thomas also chipped in with a 2-4 day with a homer and four RBIs. Brown starter Alex Silverman picked up his first win of the year by working the first five innings. Rob Hallberg picked up a rocky save by working the final 2.0 innings while giving up five runs. Doug Brown got the loss for the Quakers by giving up eight runs in 2.2 innings of work. The loss drops his overall record to a tough 2-4.

Brown Recap
Penn Recap

Bulldogs edge Bruno

The Citadel Bulldogs were able to slip by the Brown Bears to split their brief two game set with a 6-5 victory on Wednesday. Sid Fallow had an RBI single in the eighth inning which proved to be the game winner. The Citadel will be back in action on Friday when they head to Western Carolina for a three game set.

The Citadel Recap
Brown Recap

Bruno rallies to down The Citadel

Brown scored four runs in the top of the ninth to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 6-4 win. Steve Daniels hit a bases clearing triple with two outs to provide the game winning RBI and insurance runs to the Brown Bears. Zach Brown of The Citadel and Devin Thomas hit solo home runs in the game to lead each other's offenses. They will face off on Wednesday in finale of their quick two game set.

Brown Recap
The Citadel Recap

Dietz honored

Jeff Dietz was honored by the Collegiate Baseball as their pick for the Ivy League pitcher of the year. Jeff went 3-1 with a 2.73 ERA last season in the Ivy League and is expected to contribute more this season. The full release is available here.