UC-Irvine announces 2008 schedule and new pitching coach

The UC-Irvine Anteaters and new head coach Mike Gillespie have announced the 2008 schedule. The team will open the season on February 22nd when they head to Nevada to take on the Wolfpack in a three game series. The Anteaters will open the home slate on February 29th when the University of San Francisco heads down the coast. The following weekend they will fly across the country to New Orleans to take on the Tulane Green Wave from March 7th-9th. They will also host Hawaii and take part in the Arizona State tournament before opening up the conference season. The full schedule is available here.

Mike Gillespie has also announced that Ted Silva has been named the new pitching coach for the Anteaters. He spent the 2007 season with the Fresno State program where he developed the team to the second lowest ERA in the conference. Before taking the job with Fresno State, He spent the 2005-2006 season with the Cal-State Fullerton program where he led the team to a nation best ERA. The full release is available here.

Wake Forest releases 2008 schedule

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons have announced their 2008 schedule this past week. They will open the season on February 22nd when they head to Malibu CA to take on the Pepperdine Waves for the beginning of a four game set over three days. The next weekend the Deacons will head to Troy to take part in a tournament where they will play Kennesaw State and Penn State for single game and Troy for two games. The Deacons will host conference opponents Clemson, Maryland, Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Duke. Wake will head on the road to face conference opponents Miami, Boston College, NC State, Virginia, and Georgia Tech. The full schedule is available here.

White defeat Orange to win the Fall World Series!!

The White squad posted a 7-2 win in the finale of the University of Texas Fall World Series at The Dell Diamond on Friday and won the series 2-0-1.

The Orange struck first when Russell Moldenhauer launched a solo home run over the leftfield wall in the bottom of the first inning.

The White responded with two runs in the top of the third inning when Kyle Russell hit a triple down the first base line bringing in Tant Shepherd and Russell scored on single by Cameron Rupp for the 2-1 lead.

Connor Rowe knotted the bottom of the third with triple to leftfield, plating Brandon Belt who reached on a walk.

Russell hit his second triple of the game in the top of the fourth bringing in Ben Kaplan, Pat McCrory and Jordan Danks to stake the White to a 5-2 lead.

In the top of the fifth inning, the White added two insurance runs when McCrory hit a two-out, two-run to inflate the cushion to 7-2.

McCrory lead all hitters going 3-for-5 with two singles, one home run and 2 RBI.

Cole Green earned the win for the White allowing two runs in four innings and Garrett Clyde pitched three innings of scoreless relief to earn the save.

The Fall World Series wrapped up UT's autumn practice session and the Longhorns return to action February 22 with a three-game home series against Virginia Commonwealth University.

For the rest of my pictures from the game CLICK HERE.




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Checking in on Coastal Carolina

Coastal Carolina had a very successful season in 2007 where they were named as a Regional host for the first time in school history. They also accumulated 50 wins for the second time in the last three seasons. Doug Kroll of CSTV recently checked in with head coach Gary Gilmore about his expectations for the upcoming season and including some of the challenges facing the program . The full article is available here.

CBB Top Pitchers to Watch in 2008

We are starting up with our previews of the 2008 season. We have broken down the top five pitchers in the country. Stay tuned for more previews of the upcoming season as the season gets closer.

Aaron Crow, Jr. Missouri



Crow was named the top pitching prospect in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League this summer. Crow has a mid-90's fastball with a plus slider and a solid cutter. Crow went 9-4 with a 3.59 last season but got bombed in the NCAA Tournament by Louisville as he let up seven runs in 2/3 of an inning.

Jacob Thompson, Jr. Virginia

Thompson had a breakout season in 2007 where he led the Virginia Cavaliers to the NCAA Tournament. He had a perfect 11-0 record with a 1.50 ERA. Thompson has a low 90's fastball with downward action on it with a solid curveball. Thompson pitched over the summer for the USA National Team where he got a chance to pitch in the Pan Am Games. He went 1-2 with a 1.27 ERA in 21.1 innings. He was shutdown after the Pan-Am Games to rest his arm for the 2008 season.

Brian Matusz, Jr. San Diego

Matusz is a 6'4 left handed power pitcher for the University of San Diego baseball program. In 2007, He led the Toreros to the number 1 seed in the San Diego regional with a 10-3 record with a 2.85 ERA. He also struck out 163 strikeouts in 123 innings. He pitched for the USA National Team this summer where he compiled a 3-1 record with a 1.33 ERA in four starts. He was also shut down for the summer after the Pan-Am Games to rest his arm.

Kyle Gibson, So. Missouri



Gibson is a 6'5 right handed sinker ball pitcher who was named the number 3 overall prospect in the Cape Cod League by Baseball America and number 9 by Perfect Game. He lead the Missouri Tigers with help from Aaron Crow to the NCAA Tournament as he had a 8-3 record with a 4.12 ERA as he served as the closer with seven saves. He is expected to make the move to the rotation in 2008 and give the Tigers two legitimate aces on the staff.

Ryan Perry, Jr. Arizona



Perry dazzled scouts in the Cape Cod League with a mid-90's fastball which hit 97 on some guns over the summer. He struggled in 2007 with the Arizona Wildcats as he went 0-2 with a 6.35 ERA. Perry was recovering from a January 2007 accident when he crashed his motorcycle going over 80 MPH without a helmet on which he walked away with a broken non-throwing arm. Perry pitched in 18 games coming out of the bullpen while picking up four saves. His record for the CCBL season was only 1-2 with a 4.15 ERA. He is expected to become an impact player in the Pac-10 for the 2008 season.

The College Baseball Blog would like to thank Cape Prospects for providing the videos for some of the pitchers.

Northeastern releases 2008 slate

FROM NORTHEASTERN MEDIA RELATIONS
Head coach Neil McPhee of the Northeastern University baseball team has announced his 2008 schedule and it includes 30 CAA contests, the 19th annual Baseball Beanpot Tournament and the fifth annual exhibition with the 2007 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. The season will begin with the exhibition at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Fla. on Feb. 29. The team will then spend a week playing at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. before heading north. The Huskies will host CAA opponents George Mason, UNC Wilmington, Towson, Hofstra and James Madison at Friedman Diamond while traveling to Delaware, Georgia State, Virginia Commonwealth, Old Dominion and William & Mary. The CAA Tournament will take place May 21-24 at Brooks Field in Wilmington, N.C.

Full Story
2008 Schedule

Orange and White World Series Game 1!!!

The Orange and White played to a 5-5 tie in game one of the three-game Fall World Series Wednesday afternoon at The Dell Diamond.

The White drew first blood in the top of the first inning as Michael Torres scored on a wild pitch. Torres reached first with a single up the middle, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and advanced to third on a groundout by Tant Shepherd.

The Orange bounced back in the bottom of the first inning. Travis Tucker hit a leadoff home run to leftfield to tie the score at 1-1. With one out, Russell Moldenhauer and Kevin Keyes both singled and an error put the runners on second and third. Todd Gilfillan singled to centerfield bringing in Moldenhuaer and Keyes, staking the Orange to a 3-1 lead.

In the top of the second inning, Jeff Boes trimmed the lead to 3-2, hitting a solo home run to leftfield.

The fourth inning saw the White take a 5-3 lead when Cameron Rupp homered to leftfield driving in Shepherd and Kyle Russell, who reached on a walk and single, respectively.

The Orange trimmed the margin to 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning. Walks by David Hernandez and Keyes sandwiched around a single by Moldenhauer loaded the bases. Belt drew a walk to drive in Hernandez.

The Orange tied the game with a sacrifice fly by Hernandez plating Runey Davis. Davis drew a walk and the Orange loaded the bases when Clint Stubbs was hit by a pitch and Tucker was issued a walk.

Boes led the White, going 2-for-3 with one double and one home run. Tucker and Moldenhauer each had two hits for the Orange.

Keith Shinaberry was the pitching standout of the day, weaving three innings of scoreless relief. He yielded two hits and one walk, while striking out four.

The Fall World Series continues with a 4 p.m. contest at The Dell Diamond. Link

Coastal Carolina Announces 2008 Schedule!!

Four in-season tournaments, including the annual Baseball at the Beach at BB&T Coastal Field, 13 games against Atlantic Coast Conference competition, midweek games at traditional powers and 21 Big South Conference games highlight the 2008 Coastal Carolina University baseball schedule, annouced today (Oct. 29) by head coach Gary Gilmore.

Coastal will open the season Friday, Feb. 22 against Maryland in the IMIChotels.com INN-vitational. Coastal will have another game against the Terrapins and two games against Virginia Tech to wrap up that tournament. After a midweek game at the College of Charleston, the Baseball at the Beach Tournament will take place Feb. 29-March 2. Coastal faces Marshall Friday at 4 p.m., West Virginia Saturday at 4 p.m., and host both Western Carolina and George Mason on Sunday, March 2.

Coastal then hosts two more tournaments, the Springmaid Beach Resort Tournament and the Centex Homes Invitational. The Chanticleers will play Toledo and Ball State in the first tournament and Ball State and Michigan, a 2007 NCAA Super Regional participant, in the last in-season tournament of the year. A road game at North Carolina, the 2007 College World Series runner-up, will be in the middle of the two tournaments Tuesday, March 11 at 3 p.m.

Coastal travels to Clemson Tuesday, March 18 at 7:15 p.m. Clemson and Coastal faced off in the championship game of the 2007 NCAA Myrtle Beach Regional. A road game at UNC Wilmington follows the next day. The Chants host Albany for a three-game set March 21-23. After a midweek game at The Citadel, Coastal opens its Big South schedule at Liberty March 28-30. The home portion of the Big South schedule begins April 4-6 against Winthrop. Coastal hosts UNC Asheville and High Point while traveling to Charleston Southern, VMI and Radford on the conference schedule this year. The Chants also have home-and-home matchups with College of Charleston, UNC Wilmington, The Citadel, Elon and Wake Forest.

The Chanticleers have one more non-conference series as they travel to Atlanta, Ga., to face Georgia Tech May 2-4. After the three-game set at Radford May 16-18, the Chanticleers will travel to the Big South Tournament in Danville, Va., May 20-25.

“You look at the challenge we took on last year. I think this one follows suit,” Gilmore said. “It may even be a greater test. We have 13 ACC games plus two with Michigan, who will probably be a top-15 club coming out of the gate. We also have our normal nailbiters with teams from the region. It may be as competitive if not the most competitive schedule we’ve played. For us to ever host again and to one day have a chance to win a regional and move forward, these are the teams outside of our league that we need to play. We’re looking forward to it as we’re trying to build this program to be able to compete with these national powers day in and day out.”

Coastal (50-13) won 50 games in a season for the second time in three years in 2007. Coastal was a top-seed and hosted the 2007 NCAA Myrtle Beach Regional. The Chanticleers also won both the Big South regular season and tournament championship for the first time since 2002.

Press Release

Schedule

Alabama announces 2008 schedule!

The University of Alabama announced its 2008 baseball schedule today, which features 33 games in the state of Alabama and 20 games against teams that played in the 2007 NCAA Regionals, Super Regionals and College World Series.

The recent changes to the college baseball schedules have forced teams to play more games in a shorter period of time, creating five-game weeks for most teams throughout the country. Alabama is no different and the complexity of the schedule will have the Tide playing 26 road games this season, the most under head coach Jim Wells and the most by UA since playing 26 road games during the 1994 season.

“It was a very challenging schedule to put together due to the change in the format of the season,” Alabama head coach Jim Wells said. “First of all, we play in the toughest league in the country, then on top of that to have to play two midweek games makes it even more difficult.

“The NCAA’s uniform start date for all teams is Feb. 22, so we lost two weekends of baseball that we used to have,” Wells added. “I think we have a good schedule and we are playing some really good teams. We are on the road quite a bit this year, but most of the road games are in the state of Alabama against some really good in-state teams. We are excited to be going to Florence, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile and Jacksonville to showcase the Crimson Tide baseball program. I think that is a good thing.”

The Crimson Tide will play 30 home games this season, including 15 non-conference games and 15 SEC games.

The non-conference home schedule includes series with Cal Poly (Feb. 22-24), Youngstown State (March 7-9) and New Orleans (March 18-19). The Crimson Tide will also play single games against Troy (March 5), Samford (March 12), Jacksonville State (March 25), UAB (April 1), Mississippi Valley State (April 8), SE Louisiana (April 9) and Lipscomb (April 22).

Alabama’s 2008 SEC home schedule features defending SEC Champion Vanderbilt (March 21-23), Ole Miss (March 28-30), Mississippi State (April 18-20), Auburn (April 25-27) and Florida (May 9-11).

Press Release

Schedule

Vanderbilt Fall Series Recap

The Vanderbilt Commodores finished up the Black and Gold Scrimmage over the weekend with the Gold team winning Game 1 by a score of 7-4. The Gold team was led by All-American Pedro Alvarez who went 2-4 including a homer with 2 RBI. Nick Christiani started the game for the Gold team going five strong innings while only allowing two hits to get the victory. Brett Jacobsen started for the Black squad and lasted five innings while giving up three runs on six hits. The leading hitter for the Black team was Parker Hanks who went 2-4. Game 2 was won by the Black team 7-4. The team was led by a very strong pitching performance from Mike Minor who pitched five no-hit innings while allowing only one walk to dominate the Gold lineup. Parker Hanks led the Black team again with three hits and three RBI in five at-bats. Dominic de la Osa led the Gold team in a losing effort by going 2-3. The final and deciding game on Sunday was won by the Gold team 6-2. The team was led on offense by Gabe Ortiz who went 2-4 with 3 RBI. We have linked to interviews and recaps from each day of the Fall Series below.

Game 1: Recap
Game 1" Box Score
Game 1: Photo Gallery
Game 1: Interview with Nick Christiani

Game 2: Recap
Game 2: Box Score
Game 2: Interview with Tim Corbin

Game 3: Recap
Game 3: Box Score
Game 3: Interview with Tim Corbin
Game 3: Interview with De la Osa

Three VBL Alums Help Red Sox to World Series, Lowell MVP

-Valley Baseball League Press Release-

For the second year in a row, the Most Valuable Player of the Major League Baseball World Series is a Valley Baseball League alum as third baseman Mike Lowell led the Boston Red Sox to the title in 2007.

Lowell played for the Waynesboro Generals in the Valley League in 1993. Two VBL alumni were also on the Boston roster as relief pitchers for the postseason. Javier Lopez played for the New Market Rebels in 1996 and Kyle Snyder competed for the Winchester Royals in 1997.

The 2007 series marks the second straight year that a former VBL player has been named World Series MVP. In 2006, former Harrisonburg Turks infielder David Eckstein led the St. Louis Cardinals to the title.

Lowell hit .400 in 15 at bats in the series with three doubles, one home run, and four RBIs as the Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies 4-0. For the postseason, he hit .353 with 18 hits, seven doubles, two home runs, and 15 RBIs. In the regular season, he hit .324 in 154 games with 37 doubles, 21 home runs, and 120 RBIs. It was the second World Series championship for the Puerto Rican native, who also helped the Florida Marlins to a title in 2003.

Lopez appeared in five games for the Red Sox in the postseason and pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and four runs. He appeared in one game during the World Series with two hits allowed. For the season, Lopez went 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA and ranked second for the Red Sox with 61 appearances.

Snyder did not make an appearance in the postseason for the Red Sox. During the regular season, he was 2-3 in 46 appearances with a 3.81 ERA in 54 1/3 innings.

Texas falls to Texas State in exhibition!!

FROM PRESS RELEASE
The University of Texas baseball squad dropped an exhibition game to Texas State University, 4-3, Friday afternoon at The Dell Diamond in Round Rock.

Texas State took the lead in the third inning with a run and inflated the cushion to 2-0 with a run in the fourth. Adam Witek hit an RBI single to drive in Cody Gambill to break the scoring seal for TSU. The second run came on an RBI double to the gap in right centerfield by Ben Theroit.

Texas shaved one run off the lead in the sixth inning with when Jordan Danks drew a leadoff walk, stole second base and scored on a throwing error an a ground ball by Cameron Rupp.

The Longhorns knotted the score in the seventh inning with another unearned run. Kyle Lusson drew a leadoff walk and a throwing error on a ground ball by Tant Shepherd put runners at the corners. With one out, Travis Tucker plated Lusson with a sacrifice squeeze bunt.

Texas State responded with two runs in the top of the eighth. Paul Goldschmidt drove in the go-ahead run with a single up the middle and Jerry Cervantes tacked on an insurance run with an single through the left side of the infield, staking the Bobcats to a 4-2 lead.

Kevin Keyes hit a home run over the leftfield wall with two outs in the ninth, his second home run of the exhibition season.

Brandon Workman, UT’s starter pitched two scoreless innings yielding two hits while striking out two. Stayton Thomas also pitched a pair of scoreless innings allowing one walk. Kyle Walker pitched a scoreless inning with two strikeouts and one walk.

For TSU, Mike Heart and Steven Siers each booked two scoreless innings.

Texas returns to action on Wednesday, Oct. 31, with the Orange-White World Series at 4:30 p.m. at The Dell Diamond.

For the rest of my pictures click HERE.

CSTV Fall Top 25

Doug Kroll of CSTV has released his top 25 poll based on Fall practices. It's worth checking out. Arizona State is listed as the top team. We will see about that.

Click here for the article.

UCSB releases 2008 slate

The University of California-Santa Barbara has released the 2008 schedule. The Gauchos will open the season on February 22nd against Marist in the beginning of a three game set. The next weekend the team will travel to Loyola Marymount for a four game set over three days. They will also head to Houston and host Southern Utah, St. Mary's, and USC in OOC weekend series. The Gauchos will play a 24 game conference schedule with Cal-State Northridge, UC-Davis, Cal-State Fullerton, and UC-Riverside all visiting Santa Barbara. The team will have conference road series against UC-Irvine, Long Beach State, Cal-Poly, and Pacific. The full schedule is available here.

Huskers Unveil Challenging 2008 Schedule

An impressive home schedule, 27 games against NCAA Tournament teams and a season-opening trip to national power Stanford highlight the 2008 Nebraska baseball schedule released Thursday.

The Huskers, who reached the title game of an NCAA Regional for the sixth time in the last eight seasons in 2007, will be tested against a slate that features five teams – Arkansas, Texas, Wichita State, Texas A&M and Missouri – which were No. 1 seeds in the 2007 NCAA Tournament.

According to Head Coach Mike Anderson, the Huskers’ non-conference schedule, which also features NCAA qualifiers UC Riverside, Louisiana-Lafayette and Creighton, will prepare Nebraska for the rigors of Big 12 action. Anderson credited the Huskers’ tough non-conference slate in 2007 as a key reason the Big Red reached postseason play for the seventh time in the last eight seasons.

“We’re going to challenge ourselves again with this schedule,” Anderson said. “We understand that, but it was worth it to get our team ready for the postseason.”

“Last year was an example where playing a tough schedule paid off in getting into the NCAA Tournament,” Anderson said. “Because of the tough non-conference schedule we played and the wins against good teams outside of the Big 12, it not only helped us prepare for the conference, but also helped us in the NCAA Regional.”

The 55-game regular-season schedule includes 32 home games, including a four-game series with NCAA qualifier UC Riverside to open the home schedule on Feb. 29. Other marquee non-conference tilts include a two-game series with SEC power Arkansas (March 18-19), a three-game series against Louisiana-Lafayette (May 2-4) and single games against Wichita State (April 15) and Creighton (April 22).

The Huskers open the 2008 season at Stanford’s Sunken Diamond for a four-game series with the Cardinal Feb. 22-24. It marks the Huskers’ first trip to Stanford since the 2000 Super Regional. One week later, the Huskers will open the home campaign with another familiar foe, as UC Riverside visits Hawks Field for a four-game series. The Huskers took on the Highlanders, who won the Big West Conference title in 2007, at the Tempe Regional last June. The four-game set begins a 10-game homestand prior to the Huskers’ Big 12 opener at Kansas State on March 14.

Following the series at K-State, Nebraska begins a seven-game homestand with a bang, as Arkansas makes its first-ever visit to Hawks Field for a two-game series on March 18-19. The week continues with a key Big 12 Conference series against Oklahoma and two games against Northern Colorado. The Huskers wrap up the month with a series at defending Big 12 regular-season champion Texas.

The month of April is heavy into conference action, as NU hosts Texas Tech (April 4-6) and Kansas (April 18-20) and travels to Oklahoma State (April 11-13) and Baylor (April 25-27). The Huskers will play several midweek contests including the first two games of a three-game series with Creighton (April 1 and April 22) as well as matchups with Iowa (April 8), Wichita State (April 15) and two games against Western Illinois (April 29-30) which begin NU’s final homestand of the year.

The Huskers will spend the first two weekends of May at Hawks Field, hosting Louisiana-Lafayette (May 2-4) and Big 12 Tournament champion Texas A&M (May 9-11) in the final home weekend of the regular-season. NU wraps up its three-game series with Creighton in the annual game at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium on Tuesday, May 13, before closing conference play at Missouri on May 16-18.

Postseason play begins with the annual Big 12 Tournament at the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City from May 21-25 before NCAA Regionals (May 30-June 2), NCAA Super Regionals (June 6-9) and the College World Series (June 14-25) at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Press Release

For the full Schedule

Black & Gold game set for Saturday

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss baseball coach Corky Palmer has announced that the annual Black and Gold game will be held this Saturday (Oct. 27), at 1:30 p.m., at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

The game will conclude the Golden Eagles five weeks of fall practice and give fans a sneak preview of the 2008 squad. Nineteen letterwinners return from last year's squad that finished 39-21 - 14-10 in Conference USA, which was good for 3rd place - and reached the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season.

"This game is for our kids, and gives them a chance to play in front of the community as well as the parents and our fans," said Southern Miss coach Corky Palmer. "From what I have seen this fall, we have a good pitching staff and some offensive threats. Our seven through nine (spots in the order) could be a problem. At this point, I have no idea who is going to play third (base) or leftfield going into the year as those positions are up for grabs, but the rest of the positions are pretty solid."

The Golden Eagles also went through the fall without the services of two of its players, including senior Trey Sutton (Hattiesburg, Miss.) and junior James Ewing (Beaumont, Texas). Sutton has not participated in any of the fall drills because of a left knee injury that he sustained in last year's Conference USA tournament, while Ewing has been limited to defensive duties only due to a back injury.

Palmer, though, has lauded the pitching he has seen this fall including senior Barry Bowden (Vidalia, La.), senior David Clark (Columbia, Miss.) and junior transfer from LSU-Eunice, Josh Billeaud (Scott, La.), while the 10th-year coach has also seen some bright spots in his freshman class.

"Anthony Doss (Brandon, Miss.) and Austin Davis (Meridian, Miss.) have played real well and am real happy with the way they have played as true freshmen."

Fall Ball Update for October 24th

Here is the CBB Fall Ball update for October 24th. Click on the links below for the full articles.

Utah: Wrapping up Fall workouts
Wright State: Fall World Series Update
Vanderbilt: Feinberg Interview
UNLV: Beuerlein Right in Line
Washington: Fall World Series Update
Oregon State: Fall World Series Update from Daily Barometer
LSU: Gold takes Game 2 of Intersquad Series from Daily Reveille

Illinois 2008 schedule released

The Fighting Illini have announced their 2008 schedule which is highlighted by trips to Texas Tech, Baylor, and University of Texas-Pan American. The team will take part in tournaments at Baylor and UTPA while playing a three game set against the Red Raiders of Texas Tech. The team will make their annual spring break trip to Florida from March 14th-21st where they will play six games against Northern schools. The Illini will play conference home series against Michigan, Penn State, Northwestern, and Purdue. They will head on the road to play Michigan State, Indiana, Minnesota, and Ohio State for conference series. The conference tournament will take place from May 21st-24th at the regular season champs field. The full schedule is available here.

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.

Former UBC star Jeff Francis set to start Game 1

Jeff Francis is set to start for the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday Night in Game 1 of the World Series. He has pitched in two games in the playoff run where he has a 2-0 record with a 2.13 ERA. Hitters are only hitting a paltry .213 against the lanky lefty. Francis was a standout player with the University of British Columbia where he was drafted out of in the first round. Tbirdbaseball.net sent us a video of an interview done with the CBC about Francis which can be watched by clicking here.