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

Commodores open with Beavers, ASU in 2008

NASHVILLE, Tenn. --Vanderbilt opens the 2008 baseball season against two-time defending champion Oregon State as head coach Tim Corbin released the schedule today. The Commodores will take on four teams that played in the College World Series a year ago and 11 teams that made it into the NCAA tournament.

"I think this is a challenging schedule right off the bat with two teams that made it to Omaha last season including the national champion, " said Corbin. "The SEC schedule is always tough and we have several midweek games against teams that made it to the NCAA tournament as well. We have an experienced team returning and look forward to the challenge."

The season opener against the Beavers will be played on Feb. 22 at Arizona State's tournament in Tempe, Ariz. VU will also take on 2007 CWS participant Arizona State (Feb. 23) and Miami of Ohio (Feb. 24) in the tourney. Vanderbilt starts a 15-game homestand against Evansville on Feb. 27 at 4 p.m. VU hosts Kansas, Iowa and Xavier in the Music City Classic Feb. 29-March 2. The Commodores will play a four-game series with Illinois-Chicago starting on Thursday, March 6 and ending on March 9. The Flames won the Horizon League last spring and participated in the NCAA tournament.

VU hosts another NCAA tourney team in Western Carolina (March 11-12) before opening Southeastern Conference play against South Carolina (March 14-16) at Hawkins Field. Louisville, a team that advanced to its first ever College World Series last June, comes to Nashville for a single game on March 18. Vanderbilt will close out the homestand against Lipscomb on March 19.

VU will make five SEC road trips in 2008, starting with Alabama on March 21-23. The Commodores will then return home for midweek games against Belmont (March 25) and Middle Tennessee (March 26), before hosting Arkansas (March 28-30). Saturday's game against the Razorbacks will be televised on Fox Sports Net at 3 p.m. CT.

Eleven road games are on the docket in April starting with a contest at Middle Tennessee (April 2). Vanderbilt will then take the first of back-to-back trips to Mississippi against Ole Miss (April 4-6). The Commodores will host Western Kentucky (April 8) and Austin Peay (April 9) in midweek action before traveling to Starkville, Miss., to take on 2007 CWS participant Mississippi State (April 11-13). Two road contests against Lipscomb (April 15) and Western Kentucky (April 16) precede a three-game series against Auburn (April 18-20) at Hawkins Field. The Commodores close out April with games at Austin Peay (April 22) and Belmont (April 23), and at home against Kentucky (April 25-27).

VU will open May with a three-game set at rival Tennessee (May 2-4), with the Saturday game set for television on Fox Sports Net. The Commodores will then take on Memphis at Pringles Park in Jackson, Tenn., on May 6. The Tigers were one of two area teams to play at the NCAA Nashville Regional along with Austin Peay last June. Tennessee Tech (May 7) and a series against Georgia (May 9-11) closes out the regular season home campaign. Vanderbilt will take on Florida (May 15-17) in Gainesville in a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series as eligible teams will have an extra day to prepare for the Southeastern Conference tournament (May 21-25) in Birmingham, Ala.

NCAA Regionals (May 30-June 2) and Super Regionals (June 6-9) will be played at school host sites, while the College World Series (June 14-25) is set for Omaha, Neb.

The full Commodores schedule is available here.

Pacific releases 2008 Schedule

The Pacific Tigers have released the 2008 schedule. They will open the season in Houston taking on the Cougars in a three game set from February 22nd-24th. They will then return home for a three game set the next weekend with PAC-10 member Washington which is proceeded by a mid-week game against Santa Clara. They will also play Gonzaga, Minnesota, and Stanford in OOC weekend home series. They will play a full Big West schedule in which they host UC-Santa Barbara, Cal-St. Fullerton, UC-Riverside, and Cal-State Northridge. They will head to conference opponents UC-Davis, Cal Poly, Long Beach State, and UC-Irvine. They will end the season on May 23rd-25th at Oregon State in their final three games of the season. The full schedule is available here.

LSU Takes 2008 CB Recruiting Title

Coach Paul Mainieri and Recruiting Coordinator Terry Rooney took home the title of #1 Recruiting Class of 2008. The Collegiate Baseball title was unsurprising as Coach M (in his first year at Baton Rouge after a successful stint in South Bend) and Coach Rooney had assembled a massive class including 12 Freshman and 7 JuCos, including several All-Americans.

The future is certainly looking bright for LSU, which is seeking to restore its position as one of the top programs in the country.

This was the 25th ranking of recruiting classes by Collegiate Baseball. The full release can be found here.

The list of top classes goes as follows:

Rank Team Recruits

1. Louisiana St. 19

2. Florida St. 20

3. Oregon St. 16

4. Notre Dame 14

5. UCLA 11

6. Cal. St. Fullerton 16

7. North Carolina 12

8. Arizona St. 17

9. San Diego 18

10. Texas 17

11. Washington 16

12. Auburn 14

13. Virginia 16

14. Oklahoma St. 18

15. Vanderbilt 13

16. Georgia 14

17. Rice 12

18. South Carolina 13

19. Missouri 16

20. Miami, Fla. 8

21. Clemson 10

22. Stanford 13

23. Georgia Tech. 11

24. Arizona 9

25. Mississippi 17

Spencer making changes at Texas Tech

Dan Spencer who recently moved to Texas Tech from two-time national champion Oregon State is making drastic changes with the Texas Tech pitching staff. Spencer is trying to get the pitching staff to do three things every time they take the mound: Throw strikes, Be Aggressive, and Compete on every pitch. It sounds simple but will be tough to implement as the Red Raiders have the worst Team ERA since 2003. The goal of the program is to have an ERA of 4.00 or lower which will make the Red Raiders competitors on the national scene. The full article is available here.

Oregon State set to visit White House

FROM PRESS RELEASE
HILLSBORO, OREGON—September 17, 2007—The next grassy field the two-time NCAA Division I National Championship baseball team will march onto will be the famed south lawn of the White House. President George W. Bush has invited the Oregon State University Beavers to his home at the nation’s capital city, Washington, D.C., on Friday, September 21st. The President is expected to formally congratulate the team for its repeat win at the College World Series in June.

OSU Head Coach Pat Casey will present President Bush with a team jersey and a unique, commemorative championship baseball bat made by Wilson/DeMarini. The bat is painted in the Beavers’ colors, black and orange, with the OSU National Champion Team logo hand-painted on it alongside the DeMarini logo.

The gift is notable, since not only is DeMarini an Oregon company located not far from Oregon State University, DeMarini has played a major role in OSU’s success at the world-class plate. In the two years OSU has been exclusively swinging DeMarini bats, they have won national championships. In addition to OSU’s success, the NCAA Division II and III national championship teams also won swinging DeMarini, as did many top players at the Little League World Series.

Established in 1989, DeMarini Sports took the bat industry by storm with the world's first high-tech softball bat. Acquired by Wilson Sporting Goods Co. in 2000, DeMarini continues to research, design and build high-performance softball and baseball bats in its state-of-the-art Hillsboro, Oregon facility.

What's In Store for 2008

Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com has been busy churning out quality content. Some of his latests items include:

- A rundown of the issues for SEC teams in 2008

- The same rundown for Big 12 squads

- A pre-Fall listing of the top 25 teams heading into the next season (not really a top 25, but rather a 25 teams to watch, listed in alphabetical order).

In his latest Mailbag, Kendall also discusses Irvine, Wake Forest, Oregon and Oregon State, and the differences between Fresno State and San Diego.

Beavers get chance to swing bats again

CORVALLIS — After pretty much destroying the field at last month's College World Series, Oregon State's baseball team found something else to demolish on Monday morning.

A handful of the Beavers, with bats in hand, began knocking down a house to make way for a new home for a deserving family on the television program "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

A group from OSU's national championship team — head coach Pat Casey, pitchers Eddie Kunz and Blake Keitzman, infielders Lonnie Lechelt and Brett Casey, outfielders Scott Santschi and Braden Wells, catcher Erik Ammon, injured catcher Casey Priseman and manager Peter Hughes — spent much of the morning at the job site in Lewisburg, just north of Corvallis. The players eventually got to blow off a little steam by clubbing walls, windows and fixtures for the cameras.

Shortly thereafter, a pair of backhoes began the heavy demolition of the home that formerly housed Rob and Rachel Byers and their family. Their 8-year-old daughter, Jenessa, has a form of childhood cancer and is fighting a recurrence.

Complete story

Texas Tech lands Oregon State pitching coach!

Texas Tech hired Oregon State pitching coach Dan Spencer on Monday with hopes that he can help the Red Raiders return to the top of the Big 12 standings.

Spencer helped lead Oregon State to national championships the last two seasons and was also the Beavers' recruiting coordinator. Spencer, an infielder at Tech from 1985 to 1987, will serve as the Red Raiders' associate head coach in charge of pitchers and catchers and as the recruiting coordinator.

"I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that Dan Spencer is the hottest pitching coach in America," said Tech head coach Larry Hays, who recently completed his 21st season. "He really left a lot of money on the table with other [offers]."

Hays said Spencer, 41, turned down head coaching jobs to take the Tech position and said Spencer also had offers to become the pitching coach at other Big 12 schools. Hays said once he retires, he would like to see Spencer take over Tech's program.

"If we do well, that should be a natural result," Hays said. "If we do a good job and he's not the head coach, it would be a crime."

Tech also announced Monday the hiring of assistant coach Trent Petrie, an assistant the last two years at New Mexico. Petrie, 36, was an infielder at Tech in 1992. Petrie will be Tech's infield coach and assist with recruiting.

Tech assistant coach Daren Hays has been reassigned to the director of baseball operations. Volunteer assistant coach Lance Brown, the former TCU head coach who has served as the Red Raiders' pitching coach the last two seasons, will work with outfielders and likely become the bullpen coach, Larry Hays said.

Dallas Morning News.com

Texas Tech Story!

Oregon State Story!

Texas Tech to name a new coach??

Texas Tech has scheduled a news conference on Monday at 1 pm local time to make an important announcement about the baseball program. Oregon Live is reporting Dan Spencer who is the top assistant coach of the Oregon State program will make the move back to Lubbock to work with current head coach Larry Hays. This story will be followed closely by The College Baseball Blog as this could be great news for the Red Raiders program.

Oregon Live article
Double T Nation article

Serrano and Casey named Coaches of the Year

The Collegiate Baseball Newspaper has named Pat Casey as their Coach of the Year for the 2007 season. He led the Beavers to their second consecutive national championship after finishing the season below .500 in the Pac-10 conference.

Full Release from CBN

Dave Serrano of UC-Irvine was named the National Coach of the Year by Baseball America after leading the Anteaters to their first appearance in the College World Series. The Anteaters were the story in the College World Series as they won two extra innings games to advance to the final four before losing to Oregon State.

Baseball America Article

OSU - back in Beaver Nation

Thousands of Oregon State University baseball fans — a sea of orange — packed Parker Plaza on campus to welcome home the Beavers on Monday and catch a glimpse of the national championship trophy.

“We’ve got the best baseball team in America right here in Corvallis, Oregon,” said coach Pat Casey, who guided the Beavers to back-to-back titles.

OSU defeated North Carolina on Sunday to clinch the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.

Could a three-peat be in the works?

Complete story

NCBWA June 25 Division I Poll – Final 2007 Survey

FROM NCBWA RELEASE

DALLAS - The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association continued its tradition of NCAA Division I polls for the 10th year with its 2007 weekly surveys. Weekly polls were circulated from Feb. 12-June 25 following the NCAA World Series in Omaha, Neb. Oregon State became the first school since LSU in 1996-97 to repeat as Division I champ after sweeping North Carolina last Sunday night at Rosenblatt Stadium.

The poll voters come from 32 college baseball writers and related media persons from throughout the nation. The final poll had representation by a season-most 14 conferences (tied for a weekly high for the fourth time in ‘07) among the 293 baseball-playing schools in the ‘07 NCAA Division I ranks, and 17 circuits had teams in the polls in ‘07. For more information or to join the NCBWA, please go to www.ncbwa.com

NCBWA POLL (FINAL)
Rk.	School	Conference	Overall	Week	Pvs.
1.	Oregon State	Pacific-10	49-18	5-0	10
2.	North Carolina	Atlantic Coast	57-16	4-3	2
3.	Rice	Conference USA	56-14	2-2	1
4.	Arizona State	Pacific-10	49-15	1-2	3
5.	UC Irvine	Big West	47-17-1	2-2	4
6.	Vanderbilt	Southeastern	54-13	-	5
7.	Louisville	Big East	47-24	1-2	12
8.	South Carolina	Southeastern	46-20	-	6
9.	Mississippi State	Southeastern	38-22	0-2	8
10.	Cal State Fullerton	Big West	38-25	0-2	13
11.	Texas A&M	Big 12	48-19	-	7
12.	Texas	Big 12	46-17	-	9
13.	Virginia	Atlantic Coast	45-16	-	11
14.	Florida State	Atlantic Coast	49-13	-	t14
15.	Clemson	Atlantic Coast	41-23	-	t14
16.	Wichita State	Missouri Valley	53-22	-	t14
17.	Mississippi	Southeastern	40-25	-	13
18.	Oklahoma State	Big 12	42-21	-	14
19.	Coastal Carolina	Big South	50-13	-	15
20.	Michigan	Big Ten	42-19	-	17
21.	Arizona	Pacific-10	42-17	-	16
22.	Arkansas	Southeastern	43-21	-	18
23.	San Diego	West Coast	43-18	-	19
24.	Charlotte	Atlantic 10	49-12	-	25
25.	Missouri	Big 12	42-18	-	23
26.	UCLA	Pacific-10	33-28	-	29
27.	Long Beach State	Big West	39-20	-	26
28.	TCU	Mountain West	48-14	-	28
29.	Louisiana-Lafayette	Sun Belt	45-17	-	27
30.	Creighton	Missouri Valley	45-16	-	30
Others receiving votes (listed alphabetically): Austin Peay (40-22), East Carolina (40-23), Kent State (33-26), Minnesota (41-18), Ohio State (38-24), Southern Mississippi (39-23), Rutgers (42-21), St. John's (41-19), UC Riverside (38-21), Western Carolina (42-20).
Dropped out: None.
By conference: Southeastern 5, Atlantic Coast 4, Big 12 4, Pacific-10 4, Big West 3, Missouri Valley 2, Atlantic 10 1, Big East 1, Big South 1, Big Ten 1, Conference USA 1, Mountain West 1, Sun Belt 1, West Coast 1.

Oregon State wins Back to Back Titles

Oregon State defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 9-3 in Game 2 of the CWS Championship Series to clinch their second championship in as many years. The Oregon State offense jumped on Tar Heel starter Luke Putkonen for three runs in the second inning which knocked him out after only 1.2 innings. Mike Fox, head coach of North Carolina replaced him with Andrew Carignan who acts as the team closer. Carignan ended up going 3.2 innings while giving up two runs. The Oregon State offense was led by many players but Darwin Barney went 2-5 with a homer and Jordan Lennerton hit a two run homer. Oregon State pitcher Mike Stutes struggled through 5.1 innings while giving up three runs on seven hits but picked up the win to give himself a 2-0 record in the CWS. The North Carolina offense was led by Dustin Ackley who went 2-4 with a homer and two RBI in the loss.

The Oregon State Beavers overcame many different obstacles this season who were on the bubble to make the NCAA Tournament when the selections were announced. They also had some major distractions this season with Mike Lissman's legal trouble. I would like to congratulate the team that started the entire College Baseball season with a trip to Hawaii-Hilo and ended it as the National Champions for the second straight season which is the first time it has happened in College Baseball since LSU won the championship in 1996-1997.

Oregon State Recap
UNC Recap
SeBaseball Recap
Baseball Daily Digest Recap

Oregon State takes Game 1

The Oregon State Beavers took Game 1 of the College World Series Championship Series by a score of 11-4. Jorge Reyes pitched 6.1 innings while allowing only three runs to the North Carolina offense. Joe Patterson relieved Reyes by giving up only 1 run over the final 2.2 innings. North Carolina starter Alex White was lit up for five runs in 5.1 innings of work. Jordan Lennerton did most of the damage to the North Carolina offense by going 2-4 with a homer and two RBI. Mitch Canham also had a strong day as he went 1-2 with two RBI. The Tar Heels offense was led by Reid Fronk who had a two run double in the 5th inning.

Oregon State Recap
UNC Recap
Doug Kroll (CSTV) Recap
Rivals.com Recap

The teams will play Game 2 on Sunday at 7 pm eastern time. If Oregon State wins the game they will be the national champions for the second straight year while North Carolina will try to force a deciding game on Monday. The Beavers will send Mike Stutes (11-4, 4.03 ERA) to the mound while UNC sends Luke Putkonen (8-1, 4.44 ERA) to the mound.

Oregon State looked like a much more polished team on Saturday evening while North Carolina looked a little tired from the long week in Omaha. We will see tomorrow if the Tar Heels can get a big start from Putkonen as their bullpen has been extremely busy this past week.

Oregon State-UNC Game 1

The Gametracker for Game 1 of the College World Series Championship series is available here for anyone not able to watch the game on TV.

CWS Championship Series Preview: UNC vs Oregon State

North Carolina (57-14)

The North Carolina Tar Heels head back to the CWS Championship Series to face Oregon State for the second straight year. UNC has compiled a 4-1 record in Omaha as they fought through the loser's bracket. The Tar Heels are led on the mound by Robert Woodard who has struggled in the College World Series but has a 11-2 overall record with a 3.19 ERA. Rob Wooten has appeared in every single game in the NCAA. He has pitched 15.1 innings in the tournament compiling a 1.17 ERA. The Tar Heel offense woke up in the final elimination game against Rice on Thursday when four different hitters went deep. Josh Horton, who was a second round pick by the Oakland Athletics leads the CWS with a .389 average.

North Carolina is expected to start Alex White (6-6 4.74 ERA) in Game 1.

UNC CWS Game Notes
CBB report on UNC-BC

Oregon State (47-18)

The Oregon State Beavers enter the College World Series Championship Series seeking their second straight national championship. This is also their second straight year facing the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Championship series. The Beavers lost a ton of talent from last year's team but have been able to get hot at the right time of the year as they have compiled a 3-0 record in the CWS. The Beavers are led by catcher Mitch Canham who was the 57th overall pick by the San Diego Padres. Canham is hitting .321 with ten homers on the season. Daniel Turpen is the top starting pitcher for the Beavers. He was drafted in the eighth round by the San Francisco Giants. He has accumulated a 10-1 record with a 3.44 ERA.

Pat Casey will send Jorge Reyes (6-3, 3.00 ERA) to the mound for Game 1.

Oregon State CWS Game Notes

The College Baseball Blog predicts that Oregon State wins the championship in two games as UNC's starting pitching has been suspect all post season. North Carolina has a stronger bullpen so they need to have a solid five-six inning start in every game of the series to have a chance.

CWS Championship Series Previews from the Internet

Salem News (OR paper)
Corvallis (OR) Gazette Times
News and Observer (NC paper)
River Ave. Blues
Arizona Daily Star
Rivals.com
Doug Kroll of CSTV Preview (Great article)

Oregon State knocks off UC-Irvine 7-1

The Oregon State Beavers ended the UC-Irvine Anteaters magical run in the College World Series as the Beavers won 7-1 to advance to the CWS Championship series which starts on Saturday. The Beavers starting pitcher Daniel Turpen went eight innings while only giving up five hits and one run to lead the Beavers. The offensive star for Oregon State was Mitch Canham as he went 3-5 with three RBI in the game. Darwin Barney also went 3-5 but only picked up two RBI. The UC-Irvine pitching finally caught up to them as Christian Bergman gave up four runs in four innings. The Irvine offense was dormant throughout the game as Cody Cipraino went 2-3 with a run scored.

UC-Irvine ends the season with a 47-17-1 record while Oregon State heads to the Championship series which starts on Saturday against either North Carolina or Rice. OSU is looking to repeat as National Champions.

UC-Irvine Recap
OSU Recap

Oregon State defeats Arizona State

The Oregon State Beavers knocked off the Arizona State Sun Devils 12-6 in a winner's bracket showdown on Monday. The Sun Devils have rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh to put them down 12-5 but the Sun Devils were not able to make the great comeback as they lost 12-6. The Beavers got a solid start from Mike Stutes who went six innings while giving up only three hits and five walks as he gave up four runs. The Beavers were led on offense by Mike Lissman who went 3-4 with four RBI. Eric Sogard went 2-5 with two RBI to lead the Sun Devils in the losing effort. ASU will be back in action on Tuesday when they face UC-Irvine while Oregon State will play the ASU/UC Irvine winner on Wednesday.

OSU Recap
ASU Recap
SEBaseball Recap

Why is Lissman playing?

The Oregon State athletic department has been allowing Michael Lissman play in this College World Series as he recently plead guilty to theft. OSU has a conduct policy in place and head coach Pat Casey planned on suspending Lissman but the athletic department convinced Casey to wait for more information to come available. He ended up pleading guilty on May 21st and has not faced any discipline yet from the OSU baseball team as the theft was for over $30,000 from an elderly relative. The full article is available here.