UNLV announces 2008 Schedule

The University of Nevada-Las Vegas has announced their 2008 baseball schedule. The Rebels will open the season on February 22nd when Central Michigan begins a three game set in Vegas. The Rebels will also play two home games against Washington State and a three game series against Maine before heading on the road to play Arizona. They will also host WCC power San Francisco and head to Cal-State Fullerton before heading into conference play. The full schedule is available here.

LSU Takes 2008 CB Recruiting Title

Coach Paul Mainieri and Recruiting Coordinator Terry Rooney took home the title of #1 Recruiting Class of 2008. The Collegiate Baseball title was unsurprising as Coach M (in his first year at Baton Rouge after a successful stint in South Bend) and Coach Rooney had assembled a massive class including 12 Freshman and 7 JuCos, including several All-Americans.

The future is certainly looking bright for LSU, which is seeking to restore its position as one of the top programs in the country.

This was the 25th ranking of recruiting classes by Collegiate Baseball. The full release can be found here.

The list of top classes goes as follows:

Rank Team Recruits

1. Louisiana St. 19

2. Florida St. 20

3. Oregon St. 16

4. Notre Dame 14

5. UCLA 11

6. Cal. St. Fullerton 16

7. North Carolina 12

8. Arizona St. 17

9. San Diego 18

10. Texas 17

11. Washington 16

12. Auburn 14

13. Virginia 16

14. Oklahoma St. 18

15. Vanderbilt 13

16. Georgia 14

17. Rice 12

18. South Carolina 13

19. Missouri 16

20. Miami, Fla. 8

21. Clemson 10

22. Stanford 13

23. Georgia Tech. 11

24. Arizona 9

25. Mississippi 17

TCU announces 2008 Schedule

The TCU Horned Frogs have released their 2008 schedule recently. The Horned Frogs will open up the season on February 22nd when they host Cal-State Fullerton for the first game of a three game set. This game marks the beginning of the Dave Serrano era at Fullerton. The next weekend they will head up to Minneapolis to take part in the MetroDome tournament with Minnesota, Pepperdine, and Tulane. If you are in the Minnesota area, you need to make it to that tournament to see top of the line College Baseball as each school is expected to finish near the top of their conference. TCU then heads home for two non-conference weekday games before hosting Ole Miss for a three game set. TCU finishes their non-conference weekend schedule with a visit to Wichita State from March 14th-16th. TCU then heads into conference match-ups on the weekends and get the key match-up against Utah in Lupton Stadium on May 2nd-4th. TCU will also host the Mountain West Conference tournament on May 20th-25th. The full schedule is available in PDF format here. The College Baseball Blog expects TCU to make a run for the conference title in 2008.

SeBaseball Article

Mark Etheridge of SEBaseball.com checks in with an article about many different topics. The first topic which is discussed is the whole Oregon/UC-Irvine/Fullerton musical chair act that has been going on all summer including Rod Delmonico (former head coach at Tennessee) throwing his name in the hat at UC-Irvine. The next topic discussed is how Dave Perno of UGA has had to change up his staff for the 2008 season with an assistant coach moving on to a different school. He finishes up the article by talking about some of winners and losers in the summer in getting transfers. The full article is available here.

Fullerton and UC-Irvine News

The Daily Pilot wrote an article this weekend on Dave Serrano leaving UC-Irvine for Fullerton. The article discusses some of the reasons Serrano left Irvine for Fullerton which is led by the fact that the Irvine athletic department is currently operating without an athletic director. Serrano also states that Cal-State Fullerton athletic director Brian Quinn spoke with him in 2004 when Serrano left for Irvine and told him that he would be the next coach at Fullerton if Horton ever left. Quinn also reiterated this at Rosenblatt Stadium when the Anteaters were making their magical run. The article also discusses that former Tennessee coach Rod Delmonico has already been in contact with Serrano about taking over the Irvine job. The full article is available here.

More on Serrano going to Fullerton!!

As Brian reported earlier Dave Serrano has agreed to terms with Fullerton. Dave has signed a 4 year contract to be the new coach at Fullerton. Dave will bring over Sergio Brown from Irvine as an assistant.

For more on the story follow the link.

OCRegister.com


With Dave going to Fullerton where will Irvine start looking. Dave did not leave the cupboard empty with a team expected to compete for a conference and national championship in 2008.

Serrano said it remained up in the air who his assistants would be, but that his first obligation is to his two assistants at UC Irvine, Sergio Brown and Greg Bergeron. He said he was informed that Irvine is going to conduct a national coaching search, but he hopes Brown or Bergeron is a candidate for the job. If both assistants decide they want to follow Serrano to Fullerton, and Vanderhook decides he wants to remain as well, Serrano will have to choose between the three coaches for two spots.

Serrano also confirmed that uncertainty surrounding UC Irvine’s commitment to athletics played a significant role in his decision to leave. UC Irvine’s previous athletics director, Bob Chichester, cited budget cuts and a lack of commitment to athletics by Chancellor Michael V. Drake as reasons for resigning in August. UCI is in the midst of a search for Chichester’s replacement, but no hire is expected for at least another month, according to Serrano.

Baseball America

BREAKING NEWS: Serrano to Fullerton

Baseball America is reporting that Dave Serrano will accept the head coaching position with Cal-State Fullerton after saying last week that he was going to stay at UC-Irvine. The article from Baseball America is available here. The College Baseball Blog will have more information as it becomes available.

Baseball America checks in with George Horton

Aaron Fitt of Baseball America recently had a chance to sit down with George Horton to discuss his move to Oregon. A major change in the Oregon situation is that Horton will have the full 11.7 scholarships in his first season and the school is looking to build about a 10-15 million dollar baseball stadium. Horton also believes that Rick Vanderhook should be named the next head coach at Fullerton. The full article is available here.

Horton completes staff

George Horton the new head coach of Oregon has completed his coaching staff with the hiring of Andrew Checketts from UC-Riverside and Jason Gill from Cal-State Fullerton. Checketts led the Riverside pitching staff to a nation best ERA of 3.68. Checketts will be making $120,000/year with a one time stipend of $25,000. Gill comes over from Fullerton where he helped Horton to the NCAA Title in 2004. The full release from Oregon is available here.

Oregon strikes gold

The University of Oregon introduced George Horton as its new baseball coach on Saturday, having reached agreement with the two-time national coach of the year who led Cal State-Fullerton to six trips to the College World Series in 11 seasons, including the national championship in 2004.

"The gold standard," director of athletics Pat Kilkenny said of Horton, who has a career record of 490-212-1.

"The bottom line is that the University of Oregon has immediate credibility as a baseball program. President (Dave) Frohnmayer said if you do it, be the best you can be and get the best you can get, and there's no doubt we did get the No. 1 coach in America."

The details of the agreement: A five-year contract that runs through June 30, 2012, subject to state approval, at $400,000 per year - a base salary of $150,000 per year and an additional $250,000 per year in guaranteed income derived in part from Oregon's contracts with the Oregon Sports Network and Nike.

RegisterGuard.com

Oregon.Scout.com

What about Tim Wallach??

Tim has been mention as a possible replacement to Horton at CSF. Whatever happens this really will shake up the landscape of College Baseball.

For the full article follow the link.

OCREGISTER

Domino Affect among the Coaching Ranks?

Following up the article by Brian posted earlier today about Horton going to Oregon, Who does coach Horton take to Oregon to fill out his staff? Does he take Gill from CSF? Then does he go get a coach that he has work with in the past? Maybe a Ted Silva or a Bryant Ward? With all this shaking out Rick Vanderhook could very well end up the Head Coach at CSF. You could see Vanderhook and Horton trying to get the same guys to work for them. Stay Tuned as the staff of the College Baseball Blog will bring y'all the breaking news as it happens.

Oregon set to hire Horton

According to a report on Rivals.com, George Horton of Cal-State Fullerton will become the new head coach of the Oregon Ducks which restarts their program in the 2008-2009 season. Horton has led Cal-State Fullerton to a 452-117-1 record in his eleven seasons with the Titans. His most successful season was in 2004 when he won the national championship. This move by Horton shows how important it was to the Oregon athletic department to get a huge name in the College Baseball world. Oregon failed to get Tim Corbin from Vanderbilt and Dave Serrano from UC-Irvine. They also had some flirtations with Pat Casey but never officially interviewed him. The full article from Rivals.com is available here and The College Baseball Blog will be all over this story in the coming days.

2008 Schedule Issues

Doug Kroll of CSTV checks in with an article going over a few schedules for the 2008 season and how they dealt with the uniform start date. He looks at UCLA, NC State, Cal-State Fullerton, Auburn, and Florida. The article is available by clicking here.

San Diego releases 2008 Schedule

The University of San Diego and head coach Rich Hill have released their 2008 schedule which is highlighted by visits from Cal-State Fullerton, Missouri, and UC-Irvine. They will open the season on February 22nd when they play a four game three day home and home series with cross-town rival San Diego State. Some other highlights from the schedule are when the Toreros head to Hawaii-Hilo for a three game series from March 15th-17th before returning home to take on Ivy League power Harvard for a three game set. The press release is available here.

2008 Schedules

We have found that three schools have already released their 2008 schedules. The NCAA annouced in 2006 that they will have an unverisal start date which is Febraury 22nd this season. The LSU Tigers will open the season on the start date when they host Indiana for a three game set. The Cal State Fullerton Titans will also open up at TCU. The final schedule we have found is the UC-Riverside Highlanders who also start on the first possible day with a series at Washington.

LSU Schedule
Cal-State Fullerton Schedule
UC-Riverside Schedule

Making out the schedules

Scheduling big-name opponents has become a yearly struggle for the Southern Miss football program.

Then men's basketball team is beginning to have the same issues.

While both programs jump through hoops trying to secure home-and-home opportunities, the baseball program has done exactly that.

The Golden Eagles will travel to play a Cal State Fullerton for a three-game series beginning March 7, 2008, and the Titans will come to Pete Taylor Park in 2009.

Cal State Fullerton has 15 College World Series appearances and four national championships, including the 2004 title.

"In the last five years, we've enhanced our schedule and hopefully we can keep doing that," USM coach Corky Palmer said. "I'm just not big on the guarantee of going out somewhere, someone paying us a bunch of money and no return.

"We're fortunate in baseball, that you can do it. I know in other sports, people don't do it."

Complete story

UC Irvine wins in Wild Extra Inning Affair!

The game went for over 5 hours with UC Irvine winning in 13 innings 5-4. Bryan Peterson provided the heroics with a single to center field to drive in Cody Cipriano with the winning run to keep the Anteaters season alive. They will take on Arizona State on Tuesday at 7 pm with an elimination game.

Cal State Fullerton Recap
UC Irvine Recap
SeBaseball Recap

Oregon State knocks off CS-Fullerton 3-2

Oregon State picked up a 3-2 victory over Cal-State Fullerton in a real pitching duel between Jorge Reyes and Wes Roemer. Reyes gave the Beavers six strong innings while giving up only one run on three hits. Roemer was just as good by giving up three runs in eight innings. The Beavers offense was led with homers from Mike Lissman and Scott Santschi. The Titans got a homer from Nick Mahin in the losing effort. CS Fullerton will play UC-Irvine in an elimination game on Monday while Oregon State faces PAC-10 rival Arizona State in the winner's bracket.

Oregon State Recap
Fullerton Recap
SeBaseball Recap

CWS Preview of Cal State Fullerton

Cal State Fullerton ended the regular season with a record of 33-23 and in the Big West Conference; they finished fifth with a record of 10-11. Now, normally that kind of resume gets you a note saying that y’all will be spending the summer at home. However, Cal-Sate Fullerton has history on it side, they will be making their 15 appearances at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. Cal-State Fullerton and Omaha have become synonymous when talking about the College World Series.

Cal-State Fullerton entered the San Diego Regional as the two seed and had to travel to San Diego to play Fresno State the fourth seed, Minnesota, out of the Big 10 Conference, was the three seed and the Host San Diego, which had the number one seed. Cal State Fullerton won all three of its game to win the San Diego Regional. Cal-State Fullerton would get to host the Super Regional against the UCLA Bruins, which won the Long Beach State Regional. Cal-State Fullerton won the first game in convincing fashion 12-2 and then on Sunday night, it was a pitcher duel where the Titans prevail 2-1 to advance to the CWS for the 15th time in school history.

Leading the way for the Titans is the head Coach George Horton. Coach Horton has always been known for putting together a team that is known for its defense and pitching. Well this year is no difference than in years past. Leading the pitching staff are two very talented pitchers in Wes Roemer and Jeff Kaplan. Wes and Jeff is a combine 22-9 with an era of 3.2. The offense has struggle all year and when they got to the Tournament, it was a new year for the offense. During the tournament, Cal-State Fullerton’s offense batted a collective .336. During the regular season, it was at least 50 points lower.

With George Horton leading the way, Cal-State Fullerton has what it takes to make it back to the Championship Series at Omaha.

Cal State Fullerton web site.