Navy releases 2008 Schedule

The Naval Academy and Head Coach Paul Kostacopoulos have released their 2008 schedule. They will open in the Service Academy Spring Classic where they will face Air Force twice and Arkansas State in a single game. They will open the Patriot League portion of the schedule when they head to Lafayette on March 29th and 30th. The Midshipmen will also visit Bucknell and Lehigh (two games) in Patriot League action. They will host Holy Cross, Army, and Lehigh (two games) in Patriot League showdowns. The league has changed the playoff system for 2008 in which four teams will make the postseason. The top seed will host a best of three series against the fourth seed and the second seed will host the third seed in the best of three series. The two winners will match up in the next weekend with the winning deciding the Patriot League championship. The press release is available here and the full schedule is available here.

2008 Air Force Schedule Released

The Air Force Academy has posted the 2008 schedule on their website. The Academy will open the season in the Service Academies Spring Classic with Navy and Memphis joining them from February 22nd-24th. They will be making a trip to Mississippi State for a three game set at the end of February. The Falcons will also take part in the Palm Beach Papa John's Challenge in Palm Beach, FL but the participants are not listed yet. The most interesting thing on the schedule is on April 18th-20th when they have games listed against UNC or UVSC in Colorado Springs. I wonder if this means that North Carolina is planning on heading to Air Force this year or is this a different UNC as in Northern Colorado. I suspect that it is Northern Colorado but the Falcons fans can hope that it is the two time CWS finalist North Carolina. The full schedule is available here.

Air Force to play Navy this weekend

The Air Force Academy will visit the Naval Academy on September 28th and 29th in part with the Navy-Air Force football game on Saturday. The game on September 28th will start at 3 pm and Saturday's game will begin at 9 am. The teams will open each other's season in Millington TN on February 22nd.The full release is available here.

Rivals Names Top 10 NCAA Seniors

Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com listed his top 10 Seniors on Monday. This list looks quite a bit like his recent article on returning draftees, but Kendall has some solid notes about each player.

Perhaps the most exciting thing to come out of the countdown is Kendall's new abbreviation for "switch pitcher": SWP. For those not in the know, that references Pat Venditte and the amazing nature of high level ambidexterity. My exuberance is not meant to be dismissive of Kendall's ranking, it's just that you take news when and where you can get it during the August slow season. Kendall does a great job of churning out news and interesting features and the Rivals CBB site is definitely a daily visit, much as the College Baseball Blog hopefully is for all of you.


You can read the countdown here: 10 through 6 and 5 through 1.


On to the countdown:


1. Blake Stouffer - Texas A&M - UT
2. Dominic De la Osa - Vanderbilt - RF
3. Cole St. Claire - Rice - LHP
4. Pat Venditte - Creighton - SWP
5. Joshua Fields - Georgia - RHP
6. Josh Satow - Arizona State - LHP
7. Phil Disher - South Carolina - C
8. Matt Hague - Oklahoma State - 3B
9. Mitch Harris - Navy - RHP
10. Zack Pitts - Louisville - RHP

Navy sweeps four games from Holy Cross

The Navy Midshipmen picked up four wins over Holy Cross this weekend. On Saturday, The Midshipmen picked up wins of 7-6 and 12-8. The Sunday games were 8-1 and 11-7 victories for the Midshipmen. Mitch Harris picked up the victory in Game 1 on Saturday by going 6.1 innings and giving up five runs (three earned) to get his sixth victory of the season. Harris had a huge weekend for the Midshipmen at the plate also by going 8-18 with eight runs scored, 12 RBI, and three homers. Navy increases their record to 22-9 and 4-0 in the Patriot League after thew weekend sweep. The Holy Cross Crusaders continue to struggle as the four losses drop their record to 2-13 overall and 0-4 in the Patriot League.

The CBB might attend the Holy Cross and Lehigh doubleheader next Sunday.

Saturday's Recap from Navy
Saturday's Recap from Holy Cross

Sunday's Recap from Navy
Sunday's Recap from Holy Cross

Service Academy Spring Classic Recap

The Navy Midshipmen were limited to two hits by the Missouri Tigers on the final day of the Service Academy Spring Classic. Missouri pitchers Stephan Holst and Ryan Gargano both pitched 3.0 scoreless and hitless innings to start the game. Ryan Allen then came in and gave up two hits in the final three innings of the game. The no-hit bid was broken up with 2 outs in the eighth inning by freshman Stephen Soares. Navy will be back in action on Wednesday when they host Georgetown.

Missouri followed the Navy shutout victory with a 5-1 loss to Memphis on Sunday. Missouri will be back in action Friday for their home opener with Youngstown State. I have linked to all the other games at the Classic below.

Sunday's Game Recaps

Navy Recap
Missouri's Recap

Air Force vs Akron Recap (Zips Recap)
Air Force vs Akron Recap (USAF Recap)

Friday Game Recaps

Akron vs Missouri Recap (Missouri Recap)
Akron vs Missouri Recap (Akron Recap)

Akron vs Memphis Recap (Memphis Recap)
Akron vs Memphis Recap (Zips Recap)

Navy vs Air Force Game 1 Recap (USNA Recap)
Navy vs Air Force Game 1 Recap (USAF Recap)

Navy vs Air Force Game 2 Recap (USNA Recap)
Navy vs Air Force Game 2 Recap (USAF Recap)

BYU vs Missouri Game Recap (BYU Recap)
BYU vs Missouri Game Recap (Missouri Recap)

Thursday Games

BYU vs Memphis Game Recap (BYU Recap)
BYU vs Memphis Game Recap (Memphis Recap)

Navy takes series with FAMU

The Navy Midshipmen took the final game of their three game set on Sunday by a score of 5-1. This win gave the Midshipmen their second victory of the weekend to take the series two games to one. Matt White led the Midshipmen on Sunday pitching seven shutout innings while only letting up two hits. Mitch Harris hit a three run homer to led the offense. Navy will be back in action next weekend when they host Iona. FAMU will be visiting Florida on Tuesday night before heading down to Miami for a three game set.

Navy Game 3 Recap
FAMU Game 3 Recap

Navy Game 2 Recap
FAMU Game 2 Recap
Tallahassee Democrat Recap

Navy Game 1 Recap
FAMU Game 1 Recap
Tallahassee Democrat Recap

Navy Catchers and Infield Preview

The Naval Academy is continuing the series of releases previewing the upcoming season. They focus today on the catchers and the infield. They lost Jonathan Johnson to graduation who was the second team catcher in the Patriot League last season. They return a large percentage of their starters in the infield and should be fine there. The full preview is available here.

Navy Relief Pitcher Preview

The Navy Media Relations Department is continuing the series of previews on the Midshipmen baseball team. This week's release focuses on the relief pitching of the team. They need to replace career leader in saves Ryan Hefner and career appearance leader Joe Koessler. This will be a tough task but players are available for Paul Kostacopoulos including transfer from Wofford JD Melton who is expected to close. The full preview is available here.

Mitch Harris and Milan Dinga

Everyone that follows this blog knows that I have been a huge fan of Milan Dinga's game since I saw him pitch up at Holy Cross when he was pitching for Army last year. He came into a tight game and throw some fire to close the game out. He registered 94 MPH on the radar guns around me and really impressed me with his composure. He ended up spending the summer in the Cape Cod League playing for the Hyannis Mets where he impressed some scouts even more against the best competition in the country.

Mitch Harris is of a similar mode since he plays the Naval Academy. Harris was named the second best pro prospect in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League. I will have the chance to see Harris pitch against Holy Cross this year and I will give my impressions on this stud of a pitcher.

Doug Kroll of CSTV wrote an article about how Harris and Dinga face challenges that other college baseball players don't have to deal with. The article is available here.

Navy Pitching Preview

The Navy athletic department is doing a series of previews on the upcoming season. The first part is about the Starting Pitchers which is led by All-American Mitch Harris. He went 10-3 with a microscopic 1.74 ERA in 2006. He is expected to put up similar numbers again. The full preview is available here and the season prospectus is also posted here.