David Doss and Sean Urena pick up awards

FROM NCBWA RELEASE
DALLAS - The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA)­ released the Pro-Line Athletic National Player of the Week awards for the period ending March 6, today. South Alabama sophomore third baseman David Doss was named National Hitter of the Week, while Cal State Fullerton freshman right-hander Sean Urena was named National Pitcher of the Week. The NCBWA Board reviews candidates from each Division I Conference each week and names winners each Tuesday throughout the season.

Doss went 12-25 (.480) in the six games played over the last week. The Cantoment, Fla., native ripped three doubles, two triples, two home runs and drove in an amazing 16 runs. He had two five RBI games. Doss also scored 11 runs for the Jaguars, who are now 10-4. Doss led South Alabama to a 6-0 week as the Jags swept Siena and Connecticut. He is currently riding a 13-game hitting streak.

Urena pitched his first-career complete game, one-hitting No. 6 Rice as Cal State Fullerton beat the Owls 6-1 in the series finale on Sunday. He carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning, but was broken up with a Jared Gayhart one-out triple. The right-hander from Rialto, Calif., retired 13 of the first 15 hitters he faced and then 14 of the last 15 after Gayhart's lone hit. Urena, who improves to 3-0 on the season, struck out a career-high six on 110 pitches and held the Owls to a .036 batting average.

BC visits FIU tonight

FIU will receive a visit tonight at 7pm from the Boston College Eagles. BC is coming off another devastating loss yesterday to Penn when Dan Houston picked up his third loss of the season. BC stands at 1-5 early this season. FIU enters the game with a 9-6 record after playing a weekend series with Wagner in which the Panthers took 2 out of three games.

FIU Game Preview

Kevin Cooney talks about the Bus Tragedy

Kevin Cooney of Florida Atlantic recently wrote his diary entry for the week on College Baseball Insider. He speaks about how the recent bus crash really hits home with him and the rest of college baseball. The article can be read here.

Penn State Gaffney also a Starter?

The Penn State Baseball program is coming off a 1-2 weekend when they were able to grab a game from the University of North Carolina. Scott Gaffney has been a pleasant surprise for the program by giving them two solid outings in the early part of the year. These starts were the first for him since he pitched in Little League so this has come as a surprise to everyone that he is succeeding as a pitcher. He is also the starting shortstop when he is not on the mound.

The Daily Collegian (PSU Student Paper)

Duke hosts Temple and Xavier

The Duke Blue Devils will host Temple on Tuesday and Xavier on Wednesday before opening the ACC season against the Boston College Eagles. Duke enters Tuesday's game with a 13-1 record while Temple enters with a record of 2-7. The Owls pitching has been atrocious in the early part of the season with a 9.95 Team ERA. Jeremy Gould (0-1, 6.52 ERA) will get the start for the Blue Devils while Rob Chamra (0-0, 27.00 ERA) gets the ball for the Owls. Xavier will enter with a 1-10 record coming off a three game sweep from Vanderbilt. They beat Oakland University to pick up their only win on the season. Both Duke and Xavier have not announced starting pitchers.

Duke Preview
The Chronicle Preview (Duke Student Newspaper)

NCBWA Mar. 5 Division I Poll

FROM NCBWA RELEASE
DALLAS - The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association continues its tradition of NCAA Division I polls for the 10th year with its 2007 weekly surveys. Weekly polls will be circulated from Feb. 12-June 26 following the NCAA World Series in Omaha, Neb.

The poll voters come from 32 college baseball writers and related media persons from throughout the nation. This week's poll has representation by 10 different conferences among the 293 baseball-playing schools in the '07 NCAA Division I ranks. For more information or to join the NCBWA, please go to www.ncbwa.com.

Rank-School-Conference-Overall Record-Previous Rank
1 Vanderbilt SEC 14-0 1
2 South Carolina SEC 10-1 2
3 North Carolina ACC 11-1 3
4 Florida State ACC 17-0 5
5 Virginia ACC 14-1 8
6 Cal State Fullerton Big West  12-5 9
7 Clemson ACC 7-3 4
8 Oregon State  Pacific-10 13-3 7
9 Rice Conference USA 11-6 6
10 Pepperdine West Coast 13-4   12
11 Texas Big 12 12-6 14
12 Arizona State Pac-10 12-5 10
13 Alabama SEC 12-2 16 (tie)
14 Miami (Fla.) ACC 9-5 15
15 Arkansas SEC 10-5 11
16 Mississippi SEC 9-4 18
17 Kentucky SEC 12-0 21
18 Auburn SEC 13-2 23
19 Long Beach State Big West 8-4 19
20 Oklahoma State Big 12 10-3 24
21 Texas A&M Big 12 15-1 30
22 Nebraska Big 12 5-4  13
23 Wichita State MVC 10-4 16 (tie)
24 Coastal Carolina Big South 12-2 26
25 Arizona Pac-10 13-5  20
26 Southern Miss C-USA 10-2 NR
27 NC State ACC 10-3 25
28 Tulane C-USA 9-4 27
29 Georgia Tech ACC 8-6 22
30 College of Charleston Southern 11-1  NR


Others receiving votes (listed alphabetically): Charlotte (10-3), Duke (13-1), Florida Atlantic (12-3), Kansas State (9-2), Lipscomb (11-5), Louisiana-Lafayette (11-2), Michigan (5-2), Mississippi State (6-1), San Diego (12-8), South Alabama (10-4), Southern California (13-7),       Stetson (10-3), TCU (10-4), Texas Tech (12-5), UC Irvine (12-4-1), UCLA (7-7), Winthrop (10-7)


Dropped Out: Florida Atlantic (28), Louisiana-Lafayette (29)


By conference: Atlantic Coast 7, Southeastern 7, Big 12 4, Conference USA 3, Pacific-10 3, Big West 2, Big South 1, Missouri Valley 1, Southern 1, West Coast 1.

Southern Conference Players of the Week

The Citadel's Justin Smith picked up the Pitcher of the Week Award from the Southern Conference for the week ending March 5th. Smith earned two wins out of the teams three games last week. He pitched 9.1 innings while only allowing the opponents to hit .118. Appalachian State hitter David Rubinstein picked up the Player of the Week Award by going 13-16 over the four games last week for a batting average of .812.

The Citadel Release
Appalachian State Release

C-USA Players of the Week and Notebook

Conference USA has released their players of the week for the week ending March 4th. Conference USA named two players of the week in Memphis second baseman Bill Moss and Tulane outfielder Nate Simon. Moss led the Tigers to a 4-0 record while batting .500 and hitting three homers on the week. Nate Simon led the Green Wave to a 4-0 record also and hit .500 with two homers to pick up the award. Southern Miss pitcher David Clark was named Pitcher of the Week for a complete game four hitter on Sunday.

C-USA Release
Tulane Release
Memphis Release
Southern Miss Release
Clarion Ledger Article

Conference USA has also posted the conference notebook which checks in with every team after the weekend can be read here.

ACC Players of the Week for March 5th

Tony Thomas Jr of Florida State was named Player of the Week in the ACC for the week ending on March 5th while Duke's Micheal Ness was named Pitcher of the Week. Tony Thomas Jr. led the Seminoles to a 4-0 record by hitting .611 (11-18) for the week. Ness picked up two victories this week with a start against North Carolina A & T and a relief appearance win against Holy Cross on Saturday.

ACC Release
FSU Release
Duke Release

Penn walks off

The Boston College Eagles have continued to struggle early in the season with another one run loss this time to the Penn Quakers. Kyle Armeny hit the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth over the right field wall to give the Quakers the 7-6 victory. Johnny Ayers went 3-5 to lead the Eagles on offense while the Quakers were led by Alex Nwaka who went 3-4 in the victory. The Quakers will be off on Tuesday and will play St. Bonaventure on Wednesday while BC heads to FIU for a Tuesday night game.

This was Dan Houston's third loss of the young season and hopefully the end of the experiment of him closing out game. I believe that Houston needs to head back into the rotation and switch with Adam Crabtree in the starter's role. It makes sense since neither player is getting their current jobs done on the field.

Boston College Recap
Penn Recap

Conference USA Wrapup

Conference USA has released their recap of the weekend where the conference teams went 11-2 in one run games. Memphis continues their strong start to the season with a three game sweep at the Autozone Classic in Memphis this past weekend. Marshall also picked up a four game sweep over University at Buffalo. Southern Miss also took 2 out of three games from the Ragin Cajuns in one of the better series of the weekend. The full release from C-USA is available here.

Southern Miss takes Rubber Game

The Southern Miss Golden Eagles won the series finale 1-0 on Sunday to knock off the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns in two out of three games this weekend. On Sunday, Southern Miss used a complete game shutout by David Clark to pick up the victory. The Southern Miss offense was held scoreless until the bottom of the ninth though when Drew Carson drove home Bailey Hartel with two outs in the ninth to bring in the winning run. On Saturday, Louisiana-Lafayette picked up a 4-0 victory and on Friday night Southern Miss pulled out a 7-4 win.

Sunday Southern Miss Recap
Sunday Louisiana-Lafayette Recap

Saturday Southern Miss Recap
Saturday Louisiana-Lafayette Recap

Friday Southern Miss Recap

UNC-Wilmington stops slide

The UNC-Wilmington baseball team was able to pull out a 16-11 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in 12 innings. This victory broke a four-game losing streak for the Seahawks. Wake Forest made a brilliant comeback when they were only two outs away from defeat. They scored 3 runs to force extra innings where it stayed scoreless until the top of the 12th. With a tie score in the 12th, Matt Holt led the inning off by striking out but reached on a wild pitch. Daniel Hargrave then followed with a sacrifice bunt to send Holt to second. Steve Halford then doubled down the left field line to drive Holt in for the lead run. Mark Carver then walked to set up a first and second situation. Nate Hall then hit a single through the infield to drive in Steve Halford. Grayson Evans then hit into a fielders choice to send Jonathan Batts to the plate with first and third. He then hit a three run homer to give us the final score. Wake Forest pitcher Ben Hunter picked up the loss after going 3.0 innings and allowing all five runs. His record is 1-2 this season. UNC-Wilmington pitcher Allen Floyd picked up his third win of the season against no losses by going 4.1 innings while blowing the three run lead in the ninth. Wake Forest is back in action on Tuesday with Gardner Webb while UNC-Wilmington will visit the Phoenix of Elon.

UNC-Wilmington Recap
Wake Forest Recap

Texas completes series sweep of Oral Roberts with 5-1 win!

The University of Texas received a strong effort by starting pitcher Austin Wood and scratched out five runs to complete a three-game series sweep of Oral Roberts University with a 5-1 win in collegiate baseball action Sunday afternoon at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

With the win, Texas (12-6) recorded its first series sweep of the season. The Longhorns have won 10 of their last 12 games after starting the season 2-4.

Austin Wood (2-0) posted the longest pitching performance of his career going seven innings to earn the win. He allowed one run on four hits and one walk while striking out four.

Pat McCrory, Keith Shinaberry and Randy Boone combined to pitch two scoreless innings to finish off a solid weekend for Texas' bullpen. The relief corps allowed just one run in 8.2 innings in the series against Oral Roberts.

Oral Roberts (4-8) drew first blood in the top of the third inning. David Genao hit a double to leftfield to lead off the frame. With one out, he was advanced to third on a groundout by Brendan Duffy and scored on a single up the middle by Marcus Tackett staking the Golden Eagles to a 1-0 lead.

The Longhorns tied the contest in the bottom half of the third. Jordan Danks and Bradley Suttle led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Kyle Russell pushed runners to second and third with a groundout. Nick Peoples walked to load the bases and Preston Clark hit a groundout to shortstop, plating Danks and tying the score at 1-1.

Texas (12-6) took the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth inning. Suttle hit a leadoff double down the leftfield line. Russell drew a walk and Peoples hit a fly ball to rightfield, advancing Suttle to third. Russell stole second base and Brett Lewis was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Josh Prince singled up the middle driving in Russell and Suttle to give Texas a 3-1 cushion.

The Longhorns added insurance runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. Peoples hit an RBI single scoring Danks in the sixth and Prince scored on a wild pitch in the seventh.

For the third consecutive game, Suttle recorded three hits. He went 3-for-5 with one double and one run scored. Prince went 3-for-3 with one double, one run score and two RBI. Danks went 3-for-5 with two runs scored.

Michael Jarman (1-2) was saddled with the loss for the Golden Eagles. He allowed three runs on six hits and four walks over four innings.

Texas returns to action on Tuesday with the Longhorns traveling to Corpus Christi for a 4 p.m. contest against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Whataburger Field.

Texas Recap
Texas Scout.com Recap
Oral Roberts Recap
Austin American Statesman (Very bad pic of Austin Wood in the article)

UVA's Marsh comes through

Brandon Marsh hit a single in the bottom of the ninth inning to lead Virginia to a 3-2 victory over the Delaware Blue Hens. Mike Mitchell led off the bottom of the ninth by getting hit by a pitch from Todd Ozog. Brian O'Connor took a risk by trying to steal second base with Mitchell but Greg Miclat hit the ball back to the pitcher to protect the runner. So with a runner in scoring position, Brandon Marsh was able to get a single to left field to drive home Marsh with the winning run. Mike Schwimer pitched two scoreless innings to pick up the victory and Todd Ozog picked up his second loss of the season. Delaware now is 0-6 on the season while UVA continues to roll to a 14-1 record. Delaware now heads to Rider on Wednesday before opening the CAA season with Towson. UVA will play at James Madison on Tuesday and then head to Wake Forest to open the ACC season.

UVA Recap
Delaware Recap

Duke finishes off Holy Cross

The Duke Blue Devils played the final game of their 3 game series with Holy Cross on Sunday and came out with a 6-5 victory. The Blue Devils were led by catcher who went 2-4 with 2 runs scored. Alex Hassan got the start for the Blue Devils and gave up 3 unearned runs over his five innings of work. Kyle Butler of Duke was able to hold the Crusaders hitless over 1.2 innings to pick up the win. Dan Seip got the start for Holy Cross and let up all six runs in his seven innings of work. Holy Cross will be back in action tomorrow when they visit Campbell while Duke will host Temple on Tuesday.

Holy Cross Recap
Duke Recap

FSU Sweeps Siena

The Florida State Seminoles completed a sweep over Siena on Sunday by a score of 22-3. The Seminoles used a 15 run sixth inning to do most of the damage in the game. The Seminoles were able to get ten consecutive hits in that inning. This win puts the Seminoles record at 17-0 in the early part of the season. FSU will be back in action next weekend when the Hoosiers of Indiana come to visit while Siena will be back on the road next weekend when they visit Rocky Top Tennessee.

FSU Game 3 Recap
Siena Game 3 Recap

FSU Game 2 Recap
Siena Game 2 Recap

FSU Game 1 Recap
Siena Game 1 Recap

FAU takes Game 2

The Florida Atlantic University Owls picked up a 15-3 victory over the Boston College Eagles to split the two game set at a game a piece. The Owls jumped on Boston College starter Adam Crabtree in the fourth inning by scoring four runs in the inning to get a 5-1 lead. Trent Kavanaugh of Boston College ended up getting the game out of control in his 1.1 innings of work by allowing six runs (all earned) while giving up five hits and three walks. Robbie Widlansky went 3-4 for the Owls while Eric Campbell of BC went 2-4 with 2 RBI. FAU will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Maine while BC plays on Monday against Penn.

FAU Recap
BC Recap

Bullpen and timely hitting leads Baseball to 5-3 win over Oral Roberts!

The University of Texas received solid performances by Joseph Krebs and Randy Boone out of the bullpen and strung together a pair of two-run rallies to post a 5-3 win over Oral Roberts University in collegiate baseball action Saturday afternoon at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

Texas (11-6) has won nine of its last 11 games after a 2-4 start on the season.

Adrian Alaniz struggled through 3.1 innings in which he allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits and two walks while striking out five and was lifted after throwing 82 pitches. Krebs (2-0) responded with 4.2 innings of relief, allowing just one run on four hits and one walk while fanning four to earn the win. Boone retired three consecutive batters in the ninth inning to earn his fourth save of the season.

With Oral Roberts leading 3-0, Texas started to chip away at the lead with two runs in the fifth inning. Russell Moldenhauer led off the frame with a single to centerfield. With one out, fellow freshman Josh Prince singled to right field. A fielder’s choice grounder by Travis Tucker put runners at the corners and Chance Wheeless plated both runners with a double to the wall in right centerfield, trimming the lead to 3-2.

The Longhorns took their first lead in the bottom of the sixth. Bradley Suttle and Kyle Russell both singled to start off the inning to put runners at the corners. An unsuccessful sacrifice squeeze bunt by Nick Peoples retired Suttle at home, but a groundout by Moldenhauer put runners at second and third for Preston Clark who drove home a pair with a single through the left side of the infield staking UT to a 4-3 lead.

Texas added an insurance run in the eighth inning. With two outs, Josh Prince drew a walk stole second base and scored on a fielding error by Brendan Duffy on a fly ball by Tucker.

Oral Roberts (4-7) drew first blood in the top of the first inning. Duffy led off with a single and moved to second on an error on a failed pickoff attempt. After Chad Rothford was hit by a pitch, Brian Van Kirk delivered an RBI single to leftfield giving the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

ORU added single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to inflate the cushion to 3-0. In the fourth, Warfle hit an RBI single up the middle to drive in Stephen Pearson. In the fifth, Kelly Minissale plated Jake Kahaulelio with a single to centerfield.

Texas offense was led by Wheeless, Moldenhauer and Suttle who racked up three hits apiece. Wheeless went 3-for-5 with one double and two RBI and extended his career long hitting streak to 13 games. Moldenhauer, who got his first career hit in his first at-bat, went 3-for-4 with one run scored.

Warfle went 3-for-4 with one double and one RBI to lead the Eagles offense.

Erik Crichton (0-3) was saddled with the loss for Oral Roberts. He allowed three runs, two earned, on seven hits and one walk over 3.1 innings. Marcus Tackett pitched well in the start, but didn’t have the endurance, allowing two runs on six hits and one walk over 4.2 innings.

Texas and Oral Roberts return to action on Sunday with the series finale scheduled for 1 p.m. at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

Texas Recap
Oral Roberts Recap
Box Score of game
Austin-American Statesman Recap

South Carolina silences Clemson

The South Carolina Gamecocks pulled out a 12-0 victory over the Clemson Tigers on Saturday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. The Gamecocks did it behind great pitching from Harris Honeycutt who worked a magical seven innings while only allowing three hits. Phil Disher and James Darnell each hit three run homers to lead the Gamecocks offense. Clemson is still playing without shortstop Stan Widmann who is nursing a neck injury which might cost him the entire season or even his career. The teams will on Sunday in Columbia to finish the brief two game set this weekend.

South Carolina Recap
Clemson Recap
SEBaseball.com Recap
The Post and Courier Recap
Widmann injury article from The Post and Courier