Cornell releases 2008 schedule

The Cornell baseball program has announced their 2008 schedule which is highlighted by a season opening tournament where they will play face Siena and the host Virginia in four games. They will also take part in the Villanova Classic where they will play Temple, LaSalle, and the host Wildcats. The Big Red will make their annual trip to Florida but they have not announced opponents for the entire week. The team will open at home against Ivy League power Harvard on March 29th. The full schedule is available here.

Summer League Updates

We have compiled a list of summer league recaps which are available by clicking on each respective team.

Harvard
Northern Illinois
George Mason
Furman
Cincinnati

Stack-Babich to take part in Euro Championships

Harvard senior Tom Stack-Babich has been named to the 28 man Great Britain roster for the European Championships (Olympic qualifying tournament) which start on September 6th and run through September 17th. The team will be cut down before the tournament to 24 players but some players have already been guaranteed spots on the team. Stack-Babich played this summer with the Lowell All-Americans where he hit a respectable .273 with ten doubles in 40 games. The full release from Harvard is available 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.

Harvard's Wilson signs with the Brewers

The Harvard Crimson released a special article about Steffan Wilson on Thursday. The article talks about how Wilson signed with the Milwaukee Brewers over coming back for his senior season. The article also discusses how many people are doubting the decision to go pro including Keith Law. The full article is available here.

Beanpot Final Preview

The Boston College Eagles (16-21-1) will head to Fenway Park this Wednesday to take on the Northeastern Huskies in the Beanpot Final. BC is coming off a weekend sweep over Wake Forest in which they had walk-off wins on Friday and Saturday, On Sunday, the Eagles offense came together and put an 18 hit attack to blow out the Demon Deacons 11-5. The Eagles will probably send Ted Ratliff to the mound who has been a very solid mid-week starter. He enters with a 4-1 record and a 4.69 ERA.

Northeastern enters Wednesday game with a solid 19-10 record and took two out of three games with Georgia State this past weekend. The Huskies have been getting solid pitching throughout the season with a Team ERA of 4.80. The Huskies are led on offense by Mike Tamsin (.364 BA) and Dan Milano (.351 BA, 8 HR). The Huskies are expected to start Dan Zehr who is 3-2 with a 4.50 ERA.

I would like to see a great crowd at Fenway on Wednesday supporting college baseball in New England. The weather is suppose to be fine and enjoy a day of baseball at Fenway Park. It is not too often that you can get box seats at Fenway for five bucks.

Harvard will not be participating in the consolation game because of a scheduling conflict with Yale. According to the UMass Athletics site, They will take on Holy Cross at 12pm.

NU Stats
BC Stats
BC Student Paper Preview

BC and Northeastern to meet in Beanpot Final

The Boston College Eagles picked up a 5-2 victory over Harvard in Lynn Massachusetts in the opening round of the 2007 Baseball Beanpot. The Eagles received a complete game from Ted Ratliff who only allowed eight hits and two runs in his nine innings. Boston College was led on offense by Joseph Ayers who went 2-3 with an RBI for the only multiple hit game by a BC player. Harvard used a combination of nine pitchers as they used this game as preparation for their big series against Brown this weekend which will likely decided the Red Rolfe division title. Harvard offensive leader was Brendan Byrne who went 3-4 with a run scored.

BC Recap
Harvard Recap

In the other game in the Beanpot, Northeastern pounded UMass 17-6 at Friedman Diamond to put the Huskies in the Beanpot final next Wednesday at Fenway Park against Boston College. The Huskies used a four run first inning to jump on the Minutemen early and never gave them a chance to get comfortable in Brookline.

NU Recap
UMass Recap

The CBB checks in on Harvard/Yale

The College Baseball Blog had the chance to visit Cambridge MA on Saturday to take in some Ivy League Baseball action between the Harvard Crimson and Yale Bulldogs. The Crimson took both games of the doubleheader.

In Game 1, They received a very solid pitching performance from freshman Max Perlman who pitched a complete game allowing only three hits and a home run to Justin Ankney who crushed the first pitch of the sixth inning over the right field fence. The Crimson took advantage of five errors by the Bulldog defense including one by Dan Soltman and Ryan Lavarnway.

In Game 2, Shawn Haviland started for the Crimson and gave them eight shutout innings while only giving up seven hits. Jake Bruton pitched a perfect ninth to close out the doubleheader sweep. The Crimson offense was led by Matt Vance who went 2-4 with 3 RBIs. Yale starter Chris Wietlispach only lasted four innings while giving up all six runs (three earned) on five hits and three walks. The Yale defense did not back him up at all as Dan Soltman and Ryan Lavarnway each committed two errors in the nightcap.

The CBB was impressed with the level of pitching from the Harvard Crimson. They were able to throw a freshman in game 1 of the doubleheader and he was unhittable. The Bulldogs were off balance throughout the game. Steffan Wilson who plays third base for Harvard is a definite MLB prospect as he has all the tools scouts are looking for in an athlete. He made an excellent play on defense in which he charged a ball and threw out the runner by about three steps. The Harvard coaching staff also took advantage of many situations which arose in the game. They used a double steal (1st and 2nd) with two outs and an 0-2 count on the hitter which ended up getting the Crimson an extra run.

The College Baseball Blog might head down to Brown next weekend to see the battle for the Red Rolfe Division lead.

Harvard Recap
Yale Recap

CBB visits for April 14th and 15th

The College Baseball Blog will be making the trip down to Kingston RI to check in on the Charlotte 49ers and Rhode Island Rams on Saturday. The 49ers enter the weekend ranked as the 25th team in the country by the NCBWA. The 49ers have an overall record of 26-6 and 8-1 in the Atlantic 10. The 49ers weekend starters all have ERA's under 2.66.

Charlotte Game Notes
URI Game Notes

The CBB will try to head to Cambridge on Sunday (weather permitting) to take in the Harvard-Yale doubleheader which is a key Red Rolfe Division showdown in the Ivy League Conference. The Crimson have a 5-3 record in the conference while Yale is 3-5. Both teams are looking to pick up some key wins hoping to get into the Ivy League Championship series at the end of the year.

Harvard Game Notes

BC edges Harvard

The Boston College Eagles snapped a five game losing streak by knocking off cross-town rival Harvard on Wednesday by a score of 6-3. Terry Doyle started for the Eagles and worked the first four innings while giving up all three runs on three hits. Ted Ratliff followed him and finished the game off by pitching the final five innings while striking out ten batters which got his record to 2-1 on the season. Michael Belfiore led the offense by going 2-3 with an RBI. Matt Vance led the Crimson by hitting a three run homer which provided the only runs scored by them in the game. Ryan Watson picks up the loss for Harvard by pitching one inning and giving up three runs to send his record to 0-2. BC will head to Maryland for an ACC series while Harvard will host Yale for a pair of doubleheaders this weekend.

BC Recap
Harvard Recap

Crimson shutout Notre Dame

The Harvard Crimson picked up a 4-0 victory over Notre Dame in Clearwater Florida on Sunday. Eric Eadington and Max Perlman combined on a five hit shutout over the perennial Big East power. Steffan Wilson hit a sacrifice fly in the third and a two run double in the fifth to drive in three out of the four runs in the game. Harvard will be back in action on Monday when they visit Tampa to end the trip. Notre Dame will be back in action on Monday with NAIA school Webber International University. Notre Dame did pick up a 14-3 victory over Duquesne before losing to the Crimson.

Harvard Recap
Sons of Bart Brush Recap (Unofficial Harvard Baseball Site)
Notre Dame Recap

Harvard's new facility

The Harvard University Athletic Department has added a bubble to historic Harvard Stadium to provide an excellent indoor facility to the baseball program in addition to other spring sports. This is a big step forward for the spring sports at Harvard because it gives them a place to work out and get full field scrimmages in. The full article is available here.

Nice article on the Harvard Captain

Harvard Captain Brendan Byrne had a nice article written about him which discusses the amount of commitment it takes today to compete at the D-1 level in two sports. Byrne besides playing second base also plays Forward on the hockey team. This is an interesting combination since there is some overflow from the Hockey season to the beginning of the baseball team. Byrne is a local guy growing up in Dorechester and Milton. The full article is available here.

Harvard Releases the Pre-Season preview

Harvard University has posted the 2007 Pre-Season prospectus. The Crimson made the Ivy League Championship last season losing to Princeton in the final. They are expected to again compete for the Ivy League title behind the leadership of Brendan Byrne. The prospectus is available in PDF format here.