SeBaseball has posted a very good article about Robert Woodard taking the spotlight now for the UNC Baseball program. He has to replace the two cornerstones of the UNC rotation in Daniel Bard and Andrew Miller. Robert has to be a stud for UNC to have a chance of making it back to Omaha this season because the rest of the rotation is not up to the level of Bard or Miller. The full article from SeBaseball can be seen here.
Mitch Harris of the Naval Academy was named the second best pro prospect for this past summer in the Cal Ripken Senior League. Harris pitched in six games this past summer striking out 26 batters in his 25 innings of work.
We now enter the fall which means that this is the downtime for the College Baseball world in terms of news. I will continue to update the site as I find the stories but the updates will be as often as I find the stories which interest the great readers of this blog. We are getting a good base of readers in the last few weeks and I hope you guys continue coming to the site and commenting.
I can't wait till the 2007 season starts up and we can do some lively discussions about the best conferences in the country. I will probably be focusing on the ACC since I am in the heart of ACC living outside of Boston. I will also be following the former Providence College coaches in Charlie Hickey at Central Connecticut State and Paul Kostacopoulos at the Naval Academy. I will try to focus on the entire country but my weakness is going to be the Pac-10 since I don't know any of the teams that well.
Andrew Miller has been called up by the Detroit Tigers after pitching a total of five innings in professional baseball. In those five innings, Miller struck out nine batters. It was debatable if Miller was going to be a September call-up for the Tigers but he is now on the roster before the September. This is a huge accomplishment for College Baseball and should give the College Baseball World some more notoriety.
Full article from the AP can be seen here.
The USC Trojans have released their 2007 schedule for next season. Chad Kreuter is the new head coach at USC which is only their fourth in the last 77 years. He has a challenging schedule with the usual Pac 10 teams but faces Tulane and Georgia in OOC series.
Click here for the Full Schedule
The University of Georgia and my favorite head coach in the country in Dave Perno have annouced the 2007 baseball schedule. They open the season on Feb. 9th with the defending national champions coming to town in Oregon State. This should be a very interesting series as UGA has a ton of players coming back this season led by Closer Josh Fields.
The full schedule is available here.
The Texas A & M Baseball schedule has been posted on the A & M website and the new partner in AggieBaseball.net. The schedule includes a very tough nonconference schedule with entry in the 2007 Minute Maid College Classic (includes Rice, Houston, and Arizona State), 2007 Domino's Pizza Aggie Baseball Classic (National Champs Oregon State, Saint Louis, and New Mexico) and they also welcome the University of Florida for a weekend series in March.
Full Schedule can be seen on the official athletic site and aggiebaseball.net
I am asking the regular readers of this blog to step up and give me some more comments or e-mail me at bpfoley2004@yahoo.com with Hints or suggestions on articles.
Thanks
Zlax45
The Volunteers have released their 2007 schedule also. As previously discussed on here is their trip to FSU and they have a bunch of non-marquee OOC games. The full schedule can be seen here.
The 2007 baseball schedule for Florida State is out and is available. The University of Tennessee is making an appearance on Feb. 2nd-Feb. 4th in the only marquee Out of Conference match up for the Seminoles. My Boston College Eagles will be visiting from March 23rd to March 25th. Full Schedule is available here.
The Texas Tech Baseball schedule for the 2007 season has been released. There is no real surprises on their schedule with them facing the stiff competition in the Big 12 conference.
The schedule can be read here.
Nice article in the Napa Valley Register about sophomore to be Brett Wallace. He had an outstanding freshman season at ASU with a .371 average with seven home runs and 32 RBIs. He also had a productive summer in the Cape Cod League with the Falmouth Commodores. The whole article can be read here.
University of South Florida picked up four recruits for the 2007-2008 season. The four recruits are Kevin Quackenbush, Jonathan Koscso, Chris Jones and Todd Brazeal. Each of these prospective student-athletes were recruited heavy by some of the power players in the South. Quackenbush was recruited by FSU, Florida, Miami, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest. Jonathan Kosco has the Wahoos of Virginia, Army, Navy and Davidson giving him some looks. Chris Jones, a lefty from Gaither's had offers from Florida, Clemson, Alabama, Auburn and Georgia. Todd Brazeal was getting looked at LSU, Clemson, and South Carolina but chose the Bulls over them.
These are four big recruits for new head coach Lelo Prado who is grabbing recruits away from the Big schools in the South like FSU and Miami. This should bode well for the USF Bulls chances of winning the Big East and getting a bid to the NCAA Tournament also.
USF also released their schedule for the 2007 season. Click here for the schedule.
Jack Leggett recently signed a new five year deal at Clemson to continue his run as the Tigers Head Coach. Leggett brought the Clemson Tigers to a 53-16 record last season and has won 608 games in his career. This is a great move for Clemson to lock up Jack as he is one of the class acts in College Baseball.
Charlotte Observer Article
The Gainesville Sun is reporting Matt LaPorta will be returning for his Senior year as he was not able to work out a deal with the Boston Red Sox who drafted him in the 14th round of this past year's draft. LaPorta's stock dropped dramatically this past season with only a .259 batting average after a super sophomore year when he was among the best players in the country. This is a huge story to see LaPorta return to the Gators lineup as they try to make the NCAA's in the upcoming season.
Article can be seen here.
Kevin Boggan and Terry Doyle (both of Boston College) came through in the clutch to win games 2 and 3 for the Yarmouth Dennis Red Sox which clinched the CCBL championship for the second time in the last three seasons. Boggan pitched 7.1 innings giving up only one earned run including striking out six batters. By winning this game, He forced a deciding third game on Sunday which was started by his YD and Boston College teammate Terry Doyle who was masterful on Sunday. He pitched six innings of two-hit baseball and only gave up a homerun to Bradley Suttle (Texas).
Cape Cod Baseball Release
Cape Cod Times Article
Cape Cod Times Article about the Team Chemistry of YD
The Standard Times gives us an Article about Wareham
This should bode well for the Boston College pitching staff next season. They return the Co-Pitcher in the Cape Cod League in Terry Doyle, a former Draft pick in Adam Crabtree (15th round in 2004 for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim), Dan Houston who pitched extremely well in the NECBL with a 1.90 ERA, and Kevin Boggan will be back in a closer or even a starter role for the Eagles under new head coach Mikio Aoki.
University of Indiana Baseball schedule is out for next season. They have scheduled two tournaments including Troy's and The AutoZone Classic which will be held in Memphis TN. They also travel to Florida State for a weekend series which is the highlight of their OOC schedule. Thanks to my buddy at the Big Ten Hardball blog for finding this news.
Click here to look at Full Schedule.
Ryne Reynoso, a seldom used pitcher and a starting outfielder for the Eagles decided to turn pro and sign with the Atlanta Braves. The Braves will pay him a $100,000 as a signing bonus and will pay for his senior year at Boston College also. Reynoso will be making the minimum $1,100 a month.
Full Article can be read here.
Yarmouth Dennis outlasted the Brewster Whitecaps by the score of 6-5. Yarmouth Dennis was led by a solid but not outstanding pitching performance from Bryan Henry. He gave up 4 runs in his seven innings of work. Barry Enright gave Brewster a poor start in the game by giving up 5 runs in his 4 innings of work. Cole DeVries gave up only one run in the last four innings for Brewster. Brad Emaus led the offense for YD by going 2-2 with 2 RBI's. Evan McArthur and Buster Posey both went 2-4 with an RBI.
Yarmouth-Dennis will host the Wareham Gatemen in the Championship series starting Friday afternoon at 3:00 pm.
Cape Cod Baseball League Game 3 Recap
Cape Cod Baseball League Brad Emaus article
Cape Cod Times article
Jason Ogata is planning on transferring from LSU to Oregon State. Ogata is going to be a sophomore next spring and is expected to compete for the second baseman job at Oregon State replacing Chris Kunda who had a wonderful career. Ogata was rated as the Best College Prospect from Oregon in 2005 and this move means he is going back to his home state.
Corvallis Gazette-Times Article
The Advocate Article
There is some rumors on Southeast Baseball that Cal-State Fullerton Titans and the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles have scheduled a home and home series in the 2008 and 2009 seasons. Southern Miss will go to Fullerton in March of 2008 and Fullerton will be visiting Hattiesburg in March of 2009. This is a good series for the Eagles as it will give them three more games against top of the line competition in the respective years.
Interesting press release on the Cal State Fullerton Athletic Site which follows Vinnie Pestano first week after his Tommy-John Surgery. The slideshow can be seen here.
YD knocked off the Brewster Whitecaps tonight to advance to the Cape Cod League Championship series. A full report will be posted on Friday morning about Game 3 which was a thrilling 6-5 victory.
The USA National Team swept a doubleheader from Puerto Rico and the Czech Republic. The United States won the morning game against Puerto Rico by a score of 15-0. Nick Schmidt pitched 5 shutout innings giving up only two hits. Sean Doolittle pitched two perfect innings to end the mercy ruled game. J.P. Arencibia led the offense by driving in five runs and getting three hits.
The late afternoon game was against the Czech Republic. The Czechs were overmatched from the great pitching of Jake Arrieta in the 16-0 victory. Jake gave up the only hit of the game in the fifth inning which was his last inning of work. Tim Federowicz finished the game which was ended early because of the mercy rule again. Brandon Crawford led the USA offense with a 3-3 performance with 4 RBI and four runs scored.
The USA team will play Mexico on Thursday night at 8:45 pm.
Puerto Rico Press Release
Czech Republic Press Release
Peter was seen at the Cotuit-Wareham game on Tuesday night looking pretty good with his recent health problems. Here to Peter for a healthy and safe recovery.
The Wareham Gatemen knocked off the Cotuit Kettleers 1-0 in a thrilling game. Wareham scored in the fourth inning off of Cotuit starter James Simmons. Simmons pitched a complete game and scattered seven hits in his nine innings of work. Wareham starter Jeremy Bleich gave up four hits in his seven shutout innings. Nick Cassavechia pitched 1.1 innings of hitless baseball to pick up the save for the Gatemen. The only RBI of the game was a double by Jason Ogata which drove in Dominic de la Osa from second base.
Cape Cod Times article
Cape Cod Baseball League article
The Standard Times Article
Brewster Whitecaps pulled out a thrilling 4-2 victory over the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. YD held a 1-0 lead going into the top of the ninth inning when YD closer Joshua Fields came in the game to close it out. He proceeded to walk the first two hitters of the inning. The Whitecaps brought the runners along the basepaths to tie the game up with two groundouts. YD did not score in the bottom of the ninth. Brewster came through in the top of the tenth with a sacrifice fly from Barry Enright to take a 2-1 lead. YD came through with Alden Carrithers getting a single with one out and Brad Emaus hit a double to drive in the tying run. With 2 outs in the 13th inning, Daniel Turpin started to get wild. He proceeded to walk Trent Kline and Tavo Hall followed that with a single. YD made a pitching change to Nolan Gallagher. He then proceeded to hit Colt Sedbrook to load the bases. He then walked Andrew Romine to give the WhiteCaps a 3-2 lead. Danny Lehmann of YD had a passed ball a few pitches later to make it the final margin. Colt Hynes came into the game in the bottom of the 13th and got the Red Sox in order.
Cape Cod Times Article
Cape Cod League Press Release
Justin Smoak had a killer year in the Cape Cod League recieving a ton of attention this season on the Cape including leading the league with 11 HR's and finishing tenth in average with a .286 average. He also finished tied for third in RBI's with 27. Good article this past week about Justin in the Cape Cod Times. Click here for the article.
The USA National Team knocked of the Virgin Islands today by a score of 4-0. David Price (Vanderbilt) threw 4 shutout innings while only giving up two hits. He also walked none. Cole St. Clair (Rice) pitched two innings and only let up one hit while striking out four. The next pitcher was Casey Weathers (Vandy) who gave up three hits while striking out five in his two innings of work. Daniel Moskos closed the door in the ninth inning by giving up a hit and had a strikeout. The USA offense struggled mightily as they had not played in a week. They only had two hits in the game but scored four runs (three earned) while taking advantage of the six walks they received from Virgin Islands starter Deshaun Brooks. The USA team will play a Doubleheader on August 9th with Puerto Rico at 10 AM and Czech Republic at 4 PM. Hopefully they can win these two games to head to 3-0 in the tournament.
The Navy Midshipmen and Paul Kostacopoulos have released the class of 20 student-athletes for 2010. They are expected to be part of the massive turnaround that is going on in Annapolis with former Providence College and Maine Head Coach Paul Kostacopoulos. He was an excellent pick for this job and should bring success in NCAA bids in the near future with this class. Click here for the press release.
Milan Dinga of West Point has had a very easy summer since He did not have to do any summer training as part of his West Point education. He batted this past season .184 but was very successful out of the bullpen with a 1-0 record and a 1.35 ERA. He struck out 16 batters in 20 innings this season. The scouts believe he will be a very good pitcher and have their eyes set on him. The Cape Cod Times recently did a spotlight on him and it can be at this link.
The new LSU ace was spotted starting for the Hyannis Mets this past weekend by the staff of the College Baseball Blog. He is a big kid who can throw in the low 90's with a A- curveball. He is a huge pickup for Paul Mainieri and should be a very important part of the LSU pitching staff this season.
Maine Today's article can be read here.
Article from the Cape Cod Times about his no-hitter from earlier this summer.
The summer is winding down all around the country with the Cape Cod League playoffs starting tonight with Yarmouth-Dennis taking on Brewster and the Cotuit Kettlers playing the Wareham Gatemen. Cotuit was named the best summer league team by Baseball America writer Allan Simpson. The final should be between Cotuit and Yarmouth-Dennis but you never know what might happen in the great Cape Cod League.
Good article in the Boston Globe today with some decent pictures of some players working this summer. Article can be found here.
Terry Doyle was named Pitcher of the Week in the Cape Cod League this week. He had a no-hitter and had 16 strikeouts in his two starts combined. This is a serious boost to Mr. Doyle's accomplishments in this great summer season he is having. We can hope that he does this type of performance next season when the Eagles make a run for a Tourney berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Jared McGuire was struck in the head by a pitch on Friday night but was back in the lineup on Sunday after missing one game.
Keith LeClair, the former head coach of the East Carolina Pirates lost his battle this week with ALS. He was an exceptional head coach and a model citizen for the ECU family. An excellent tribute has been posted on the East Carolina baseball site which can be viewed here.
Dave Schrage has taken over the Notre Dame program effective immediately. He comes from University of Evansville where he brought the team to the Regional Final this past season. He compiled a 130-108 record in four seasons and has been the head coach previously at Northern Illinois and Northern Iowa. Full Press Release is available here.
Terry Doyle threw a no hitter last night as his Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox knocked off the Chatham A's 1-0. Doyle threw 129 pitches while striking out twelve batters. He had one walk which kept him from a perfect game. This is a good sign for the Boston College ace heading into next season in which he will be a top MLB prospect. Article can be read here.
The Oregon State Beavers knocked off the UNC Tar Heels in Game 3 of the Championship game tonight. This is the first victory for a true northern school since Ohio State won the title in 1966. The Beavers were led by a solid pitching staff and survived six elimination games to arrive with the title. This is Oregon State's first baseball championship and only the second in the school's history in any sport.
Reports out of Baton Rouge have Paul Mainieri taking over the LSU program. The official annoucement will be Wednesday.
Mikio Aoki was named the new head coach of the Boston College Eagles today as Peter Hughes is movign on to Virginia Tech. Aoki was the head coach at Columbia before coming to Chestnut Hill as an Associate Head Coach. He had a 87-140 record at Columbia which was a solid improvement from before he started.
UNC heads to Alabama for a SEC-ACC matchup. UNC is a better team then Alabama with solid hitting and 2 first round picks in there pitching staff with Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard. UNC should sweep them in the series
South Carolina visits Georgia for the Super Regional. Georgia has a ton of good arms and a good pitchign staff as they should take this series.
Stanford at Oregon State should be a win for the beavers
Missouri at Cal St Fullerton is a very easy pick if you look at it on paper but Cal State will be taken to 3 games but win the series though.
Oklahoma at Rice will have the Owls come out on top.
Miami at Ole Miss is a win for the Hurricanes.
College of Charleston visits the Yellow Jackets of Ga Tech in a Great Super Regional matchup this weekend. College of Charleston face a stiff Challenge from the hitting Jackets. Ga Tech is led by Super-Sophomore Matt Wieters who is from the Charleston SC area. Wieters has been hitting better since he got his contacts redone recently as evidenced in this article. Since May 1st, He is hitting .431 with 7 homeruns and 22 RBI's.
Charleston will send Nick Chigges to the mound in the opener on Friday on ESPN at Noon. Nick is 11-1 in 15 starts with a 1.32 ERA. He has struck out 94 guys in that time period. The biggest stat for him is that opponents are hitting .204 off of him. Josh McLaughlin is the closer for the Cougars and he has a 1.27 ERA with 15 saves. He has 71 strikeouts in 56.2 innings.
Georgia Tech also is led by Blake Wood who is their ace pitcher. He has a 5.01 ERA and is 10-4. David Duncan is a lanky left-handed pitcher with mediocre stuff but has a 7-2 record by a 5.50 ERA. The GA Tech rotation for the weekend is not complete as of this article so I can't tell you when they are going to pitch. Ga Tech needs to win this series with their bats and that is led besides Wieters by Jeff Kindel and Wes Hodges. Kindel is a solid outfielder with a good bat with some pop which I witnessed when GA Tech took on the Boston College Eagles in Chestnut Hill this season. Hodges is battling a stress fracture in his leg but still is hitting .337 with 11 HR's.
I predict an upset in this series with College of Charleston in 3 games. I just don't think Tech's batting will be able to beat this staff.
Clemson is hosting upstart Oral Roberts in the Super Regionals this weekend. Clemson came through the regionals with an undefeated weekend with victories over UNC-Asheville, Elon, and Mississippi State. Oral Roberts also went undefeated by going to Fayetteville Arkansas and knocking off Oklahoma twice and Arkansas once.
The Clemson Tigers are led by 10 MLB draft picks which include Tyler Colvin and Andy D'Alessio. There is a good article in The Post and Courier on Tyler Colvin this week which can be found here. Each of Clemson's weekend starters were drafted on Day 1 with Jason Berken going the highest in the sixth round. Clemson according to coach Jack Leggett says this team has a thick skin in this article from WLTX in South Carolina.
Oral Roberts is one of the hottest teams in the country heading into this series. They have won 31 out of their last 34 games to reach the Super-Regionals for the first time ever. They are led by junior catcher Andy Bouchie who batted .377 with 12 HR's and 53 RBI's. The Tulsa-based squad's pitching has become healthy which has also led to the great 31-3 record in the last 34 games. Chris Ashman heads to this Super-Regional 10-1 with a 2.02 ERA in 93.1 innings pitched.
I predict a 2 game sweep by the number 1 seeded Tigers.
The Regionals are over and now we can focus on the 16 teams fighting for the 8 spots in Omaha.
Friday through Sunday Super-Regionals
Oral Roberts at Clemson
College of Charleston at Georgia Tech
Missouri at Cal St. Fullerton
North Carolina at Alabama
Saturday through Monday Super-Regionals
Oklahoma at Rice
South Carolina at Georgia
Miami of Florida at Ole Miss
Stanford at Oregon State
A Full preview will be coming for each series in the coming days. So please come back.
According to an Article in a some newspapers, Peter Hughes will be named the next head coach of the Virginia Tech program next week. This is a major concern for Boston College baseball as they had a very good head coach who was starting to develop good ballplayers. The main problem here is that VA Tech is not a much better situation then BC. I think the administration at Boston College better look at themselves in the mirror and look at the status of the BC Baseball program. Where is the plans for this new ballpark that is in the works? Is the team fully-funded yet? Boston College needs to make a commitment to the program or the next head coach will leave too. Click here for the article.
The 2006 brackets have been revealed for the NCAA Baseball Championships for this season. There was some surprises with Mississippi State getting into the Tournament over LSU. They finished higher in the standings and qualified for the SEC Tournament which MSU was stuck at home watching.
The bracket can be seen here.
The Florida State Seminoles knocked the UNC Tar Heels out of the ACC Baseball Tournament today 7-6 in a wild come from behind win. Dennis Guinn hit a grand slam in the bottom sixth inning to take a 6-5 lead during the five run inning. UNC scored a run in the seventh to tie the game. The game continued tied until the bottom of the ninth inning when UNC closer Andrew Carignan came into the game. He immediately hit the lead off hitter in Tommy Oravetz, then walked Tony Thomas Jr., Danny Diaz then laid down a bunt to move the runners along by Carignan threw the ball to third base to try to get the lead runner but was too late as all runners were safe. Shane Robinson then came up and hit a single to right field with the infield and outfield in to win the game for the Seminoles.
Day 1 of the ACC Baseball Tournament got off to a flying start today.
FSU vs UVA
The Cavs and Noles opened the tournament up with a battle between each teams ace. Virginia sent Sean Doolittle to the mound to face the Seminoles ace in Bryan Henry. Doolittle pitched 6 innings giving up only 4 hits and striking out 9 Seminole batters while only letting up 1 run. Henry pitched 7 innings giving up 5 runs (4 earned) on 5 hits while only striking out 1 batter. The UVA offense was very proficient at moving runners along the bases. The Seminoles struck out 15 times on the day and this needs to change if the Seminoles want to get deep in the NCAA Tournament.
NC State vs UNC
The Wolfpack were led by Gib Hobson's complete game in a 9-3 victory over the number 2 seed North Carolina Tar Heels. Hobson gave up a three-run homer in the first inning to Chad Flack but settled down after that. He pitched the complete game scattered 10 hits with 1 walk and had only 3 strikeouts. Andrew Miller took the loss for the Tar Heels which is only his second on the season. He gave up 7 runs (5 earned) with 5 walks in 6 innings.
Miami vs Georgia Tech
This game was a pitching duel between Scott Maine (UM) and Blake Wood (GT) with the Jackets coming out with a 2-1 win. The Miami run came on a Eddy Rodriguez home run in the second inning. The Georgia Tech runs came in the bottom of the fourth when Jeff Kindel got a one out double. He moved to third base on a Whit Robbins single in which Robbins was thrown out when he was trying to stretch it into a double. Wes Hodges came up and lined a 2 out double down the left field line to drive the tying run in. The score stayed tied until the bottom of the eighth inning with two outs Mike Trapani hit a solo homerun to give you the final scoreline. Scott Maine pitched 7.2 innings giving up 6 hits and 2 earned runs. Blake Wood pitched 8.1 innings and gave up only 5 hits before turning it over to the bullpen. Brad Rulon picked up the save by getting the last two outs by way of the K.
Wake Forest vs Clemson
Clemson used a 13 hit attack to beat the Demon Deacons 13-1 in a 7 inning game which was shortened on the ten run rule which is in effect for the tournament. Clemson was led by Freshman D.J. Mitchell who got three RBI's in the game for the Jack Leggett Tigers. Taylor Harbin was a homer shy of the cycle in a 3 for 3 performance with an RBI. P.J. Zocchi allowed one run on four hits in six innings of work for the Tigers. Steve Richard pitched a scoreless 7th inning for the Tigers giving up two hits and striking out two. Wake Forest starter Eric Nielsen had a rough night pitching only 3.2 innings giving up 6 runs (5 Earned) on five hits and three walks. Wake reliever Kyle Young did not have an easier time either by pitching 2.1 innings and gave up 7 runs (4 earned) on eight hits and two bases on balls.
The ACC Baseball Tournament is being webcast on the internet. The games can be seen by clicking here. You will have to complete a brief registration before seeing the video.
The Clemson Tigers swept the Florida State Seminoles by scores of 9-1, 4-3 (10 innings), and 11-2. The Clemson Tigers picked up six huge wins in the ACC this past week which has led them to clinch the Atlantic Division title with one weekend to spare. The Clemson offense has been led lately by Andy D'Alessio who hit 4 home runs against Duke in the three game set and 4-10 with a homer and 3 RBI's against FSU. Marquez Smith also was a thorn in the side of the Seminoles by going 5-11 with six runs scored, three doubles, a homer, and 3 RBI's. Looks like Clemson will not be leaving the friendly confines of Doug Kingsmore Stadium until the College World Series in Omaha.
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