USC finishes Fall Ball

The USC Trojans baseball squad has put the finishing touches on Fall Workouts with a three game intrasquad scrimmage. The Gold squad defeated the Cardinal squad two games to one. Game 1 was won by the Cardinal team by a score of 5-2 with the Gold team winning the final two games by scores of 17-6 and 6-2. The star for the Gold team was Nick Buss who went 6-12 with four stolen bases. Buss was named the MVP of the historic Alaska Baseball League this summer. The Cardinal team struggled at the plate with NC State transfer Mike Roskopf leading them by going 3-12. The full recap of the scrimmages is available here.

USC Releases 2008 Schedule

The USC baseball program announced its 2008 schedule with the Trojans set to open with their first-ever appearance at Florida International (Feb. 22-24) in Miami, Fla. This will be the first year that the "uniform starting date" set by the NCAA will be in effect, which accounts for the later starting date for USC.

USC will host Arizona, California, Washington and Oregon State in Pac-10 Conference play with road trips to Arizona State, UCLA, Stanford and Washington State in the final season with nine teams before Oregon rejoins the conference in 2009.

The Trojans will also make their first-ever appearance at Winthrop in Rock Hill, S.C., in a three-game series, March 7-9.

A total of 25 games are on tap at Dedeaux Field. Other home games for USC this season include Southern (Feb. 29), Bethune-Cookman (March 2), Pepperdine (March 5), Long Beach State (March 15), Loyola Marymount (March 25), UC Riverside (April 1), Cal State Fullerton (April 8), UC Santa Barbara (April 19), Cal Poly (May 6) and Cal State Northridge (May 10-11).

On Saturday (March 1), USC and UCLA will play one nonconference game at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif.

This season, USC will also play UC Irvine twice (Feb. 27 at Irvine and March 12 at Dedeaux Field). Both games will draw more intrigue this season after Mike Gillespie, former USC head coach and father-in-law of current USC head coach Chad Kreuter, was hired at UC Irvine to lead its program earlier this month.

For the 2008 season, the Trojans return freshman All-America shortstop Grant Green and freshman All-America pitcher Brad Boxberger. All but two pitchers from last year's staff return under the supervision of first-year assistant coach Tom House, including junior left-hander Tommy Milone, who was named Cape Cod Baseball League Pitcher of the Year this summer.

Catcher/pitcher Robert Stock, outfielder Nick Buss and third baseman Roberto Lopez anchor the group of returning position players with the addition of senior first baseman Mike Roskopf, who transferred from North Carolina State after hitting 13 home runs last season for the Wolf Pack.

All 56 games will be broadcast live on usctrojans.com, with live video webcasts courtesy of TrojanTV All-Access for all home games. This season, TrojanTV All-Access will bring an improved broadcast with the usage of four remote-control cameras at Dedeaux Field.

USC Press Release.

For the full schedule

Why is NC State losing top players?

I have noticed a recent trend with the NC State baseball program with top players transferring to other schools across the country. After the 2006 season, Matt Mangini transferred for his junior season to Oklahoma State where he ended up getting picked up by the Seattle Mariners with the 52nd overall pick. This past summer Mike Roskopf transferred out of NC State to the University of Southern California for his senior season. Roskopf showed me some major power this past season when the Wolfpack visited Boston College. What is Elliot Avent doing to these kids? Is it just a random occurence that these players have transferred out the last two seasons? I hope someone has some insight into the reasoning these players have left.

Gillespie to UCI

Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com has confirmed what the College Baseball Blog passed along yesterday, that former Southern Cal coach Mike Gillespie has been hired to take on the UC-Irvine job.

The report breaks the news that Cal State Los Angeles coach Pat Shine will serve as an assistant to Gillespie and run the program. You can read Kendall Roger's article here.

Mike Gillespie New Coach at UC-Irvine??

According to sources Coach Gillespie has decided to get back into coaching after 15 months lay off. It has not been made official yet but UC-Irvine will announce the new coach of the Anteaters as Mike Gillespie real soon. Coach Gillespie comes to UC-Irvine after spending 20 years at USC and winning a National Championship back in 1998. This sets up a family rivalry with USC as his son-in-law Chad Kreuter took over the Trojans job in 2007.

More Details to come soon.

Texas adds two more Transfers

The University of Texas Baseball squad had two transfers from the West Coast enroll in classes for the fall semester. The pair, both infielders, includes David Hernandez from Fresno State University and Michael Torres from the University of Southern California.

Hernandez will be a sophomore in 2008. He played in 35 games for Fresno State as a freshman, including 21 starts. Hernandez hit .251 (18-of-72) with two doubles and six RBI. The smooth fielder committed just two errors in a 107 chances at shortstop for a .981 fielding percentage.

Torres will be a junior in 2008. He played in 46 games over two seasons at USC, including 27 starts. In 2007, Torres, a left-handed batter, hit .253 (20-of-79) with four doubles, one triple, one home run and 10 RBI as a second baseman and third baseman. He batted .231 (6-of-26) with three runs scored and four RBI in 15 games in 2005.

Both players are California natives. Hailing from Danville, Calif., Hernandez was a three-year letterwinner at Monte Vista HS, playing shortstop and third base. A product of Santa Ana, Calif., Torres was named the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register Player of the Year as a senior at Mater Dei High School, batting .459 with 23 RBI and 19 stolen bases.

TexasSports.com

These two kids are a great addition to the roster for the '08 season. They will come in and immediately compete for starting time. Look for Hernandez to be the Starting short Stop and Torres the 2nd baseman on opening day. This will allow Travis Tucker to slide over to 3rd base. This will shore up the infield. This will also allow Texas to really put the pressure on opposing team defense as these two guys will put the ball down and Run.

Mike Moustakas signs

Baseball America is now reporting that Mike Moustakas has officially signed with the KC Royals. Moustakas was the second overall pick in the 2007 draft out of Chatsworth High School in CA. It looks like the report from the Kansas City Star from earlier this evening saying that Scott Boras had informed the KC Royals that Moustakas would be attending USC in the fall was just a bargaining ploy to make the Royals make a late offer which his client accepted. The deal went through 11 minutes before the signing deadline for 2007 draft picks.

Kansas City Star article about the signing
Baseball America Report

Doyle leads YD to Game 1 victory over Falmouth

FROM CCBL RELEASE
SOUTH YARMOUTH, Mass.- The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox were in control of game one of the Cape Cod Baseball League Championship Series from the first batter all the way to the end. After both teams swept their divisional series, the Red Sox kept their momentum going while taking the wind out of Falmouth’s sails winning 8-2.

Game two of the Championship series will be played at Guv. Fuller Field in Falmouth at 7 PM August 13 as the Red Sox will be looking to win their third title in four years. Tonight’s crowd of 4.335 is expected to matched tomorrow in what could be the last game of the 2007 season.

Falmouth starter Shooter Hunt (Tulane) was chased from the game after pitching just 2 1/3 innings giving up four runs on four hits. Hunt started the game by relinquishing a homer to the first batter he faced, Grant Green (Southern California) who also blasted a solo shot in the fifth inning off of reliever Preston Claiborne (Tulane).

The second year starter for Falmouth, who also allowed Buster Posey (Florida State) to score on a sacrifice fly by Gordon Beckham (Georgia) in the first, left the game in the third after giving up a single to Jason Castro (Stanford) and a walk to leftfielder Aaron Luna (Rice) to start the inning. Preston Claiborne, Hunt’s college teammate, came in and gave up a walk to load the bases, but the Red Sox could not cash in on the opportunity as Claiborne struck out Collin Cowgill (Kentucky) and induced a ground ball out from Joey Railley (University of San Francisco) to end the threat.

The Red Sox scored twice in the second off of Hunt thanks to an RBI double by second baseman Railley that drove in Cowgill and a ground ball by the tall middle infielder turned first baseman Green that plated Railley to go up 4-0. Green moved to first base for the postseason after an elbow injury to Sean Ochinko (LSU) in the last game of the regular season left a hole in the lineup for Y-D.

For Yarmouth-Dennis Terry Doyle (Boston College), the 2006 Co-Outstanding Pitcher of the Year, collected the win giving up just two runs on four hits. He struck out seven Commodores, walking three and racking up four wild pitches in his last Cape League start in 6 1/3 innings of work.

Two of those wild pitches led to a Falmouth run as second baseman David Adams (Virginia) took both third and home on pitches that hit the dirt in front of the plate and got by Buster Posey (Florida State). The 6 foot 2 inch 205 pound power hitter, who led the Commodores with 51 hits on the season, reached second base on a double that just missed leaving the park bouncing off the left field fence in front of the score board at Red Wilson Field.

Adam’s scored the second Falmouth run in the sixth inning after reaching on a single, stealing second base, advancing to third on another Doyle wild pitch and coming home on a sacrifice fly by third baseman Phil Carey (Winthrop).

The Red Sox collected three insurance runs in the eighth of off reliever Erik Bird (Nebraska). Green collected his fourth RBI of the night, and Posey and right fielder Matt Long (Santa Clara) each drove in one run putting the final tally at eight for the Red Sox.

DJ Mauldin (Cal Poly State) shut down the Falmouth Commodores to close out the game, pitching 2 2/3 shutout innings to keep Doyle’s seventh win of the season in tact.
For Doyle, there couldn’t be a better way to finish his Cape League career than with back-to-back championships.

“It would be great (to win again), last year was a lot of fun but to be able to go back to back, which nobody’s done in a while, would be great. I mean, everybody likes winning,” said Doyle.

Photo is courtesy of Codball

Best College Program?

I want to be a Sports Agent website checks in with an article about the most successful baseball programs based on MLB players drafted and making it to the Majors. Using their calculations, They have USC in the top spot with 275 players drafted and 94 players making it to the Majors. Texas holds down the second spot followed by Arizona State, Stanford, and UCLA to round out the Top 5. The full article is available here.

CCBL Series Preview: Chatham vs Yarmouth-Dennis

The Cape Cod Baseball League playoffs start on Friday when Chatham visits Yarmouth-Dennis in the Eastern Division playoff series.

The Chatham A's are led by Allan Dykstra (Wake Forest) who hit .308 this summer with five homers and 31 RBI in 40 games. Tom Milone (Southern Cal) leads the team with a 6-1 record on the mound with a 2.92 ERA. Milone is also tied with Terry Doyle of YD for the league lead in wins. Bryan Shaw (Long Beach State) has seven saves which leads the team.

The Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox enter the playoffs with the best regular season record after winning the 2006 title. They went 31-12-1 in 2007 and according to Perfect Game are one of the top Summer League teams in the nation. are led by one of the top prospects in the CCBL in Gordon Beckham (Georgia). He hit .284 on the year with nine homers and 35 RBI in 42 games. Jason Castro (Stanford) finished second in the league in hitting with a .341 average. Terry Doyle (Boston College) is tied for the league lead with six victories and a 2.35 ERA. Eddie Burns (Georgia Tech) has also had a strong summer with a 5-1 mark with a 2.86 ERA. Nick Cassavechia (Baylor) has 11 saves which is top in the league.

Friday: Chatham at Yarmouth Dennis at 3 pm
Saturday: Yarmouth-Dennis at Chatham at 7 pm
Sunday (if necessary): Chatham at Yarmouth-Dennis at 3 pm

The College Baseball Blog predicts that Yarmouth-Dennis wins the series in two games.

The entire playoffs will be webcasted for free through Leaguestream. The games can be accessed by clicking here.

Ryan Davis and Mike Roskopf set to transfer

Ryan Davis of Vanderbilt is set to transfer to San Diego according to a few sources including Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com. Davis had become a role player in the 2007 season, splitting time with Parker Hanks and Matt Meingasner in left and at DH, after nearly capturing a batting crown by hitting .340 in SEC play in 2006. Due to the Senior year return of All-American RF Dom De la Osa, Vandy has four capable bodies competing for time in left field (Hanks, Jonathan White, red-shirt freshman Steven Liddle and highly touted freshman Joey Manning). With the opportunity to prove himself ahead of the 2008 draft, Davis stands to be a potential middle of the order bat for the Torreros and will have the opportunity to help contribute to the Toreros run to Omaha in 2008, while playing closer to his Arizona home. Thanks to NY Dore for providing the information used in this report.

Rivals.com is reporting that NC State first baseman/designated hitter Mike Roskopf is transferring to Southern California to play under Chad Kreuter. Roskopf hit .316 with 13 homers with 42 RBI. He will be an instant addition to the Trojans squad hopefully leading them to the Pac-10 Championship in 2008.

Tom House named Assitant Coach at USC

Tom House has been announced as the new Assistant Coach at the University of Southern California under Chad Kreuter. House brings an outstanding resume to the Trojans bench as he played MLB from 1971-1978. After finishing his MLB career, House became an expert in pitching including being a pitching coach for the Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, and Texas Rangers. This hiring should help out the Trojans pitching staff and help them make a return to the College World Series.

USC Release

Cape Cod Baseball League Awards for Week 6

The Cape Cod Baseball League has released their weekly Player of the Week awards for the week ending on July 20th. Chatham starting pitcher Tom Milone (USC) picked up the Coca-Cola Pitcher of the Week award after pitching 15 innings over two games while only giving up two hits and one earned run. The Coca-Cola Player of the Week was Falmouth's David Adams (UVA) who hit .524 with six RBI last week. The Cape Cod League All-Star game will take place on Saturday and I hope everyone in the New England area make the trip down to Wareham to see some great baseball.

Cape Cod Baseball League Week 6 Report

USC knocks off Marymount

The USC Trojans used a nine hit attack to take a 5-2 victory over Loyola Marymount on Tuesday. The Trojans were led by Tommy Milone who gave six strong innings of work while only giving up two runs (both earned). Paul Koss pitched a perfect ninth inning to pick up his third save this season. Nick Buss had a 3-5 performance and JJ Owen went 2-3 to lead the Trojans offense. Eric Farris of LMU continued his strong hitting with a 2-4 night. USC will be back in action on Friday hosting San Diego. LMU will be making the trip to UC Irvine also on Friday.

USC Recap
LMU Recap

Loyala-Marymount to host USC

The Loyola Marymount Lions will host the Trojans of USC on Tuesday at 2 pm in a battle of the LA area. Eric Farris of LMU was recently named West Coast Conference player of the week after going 8 for 14 in the three game sweep of Sacramento State. Farris was a standout player this past summer in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

USC Game Notes
LMU Game Notes
Farris named POW for the West Coast Conference

Dirtbags take series

The Long Beach State Dirtbags grabbed Game three of their series with USC today by a score of 5-1. Long Beach was led by a good pitching performance from Omar Arif who started the game and went 4 shutout innings while only allowing two hits. Andrew Leibel pitched the final three innings to pick up his first save on the season. Anthony Vazquez started the game fro the Trojans and lasted 6.0 innings while giving up two runs. Long Beach State will be back in action on Tuesday at Pepperdine before hosting Texas while USC will be making the trip to Loyola Marymount before San Diego comes rolling into town.

Long Beach Recap
USC Recap

Long Beach topple Trojans

Manny McElroy pitched a solid game to give the Dirtbags a 5-3 victory over one of their local rivals USC. McElroy pitched 6.1 innings while only allowing 3 runs (2 earned) while striking out three batters and walking only one. Bryan Shaw picked up the save by pitching a perfect 1.1 innings. USC starter Brad Boxberger picked up the loss and gave up 4 runs (none earned) in five innings. Long Beach State was led at the plate by a 2-4 performance from Jason Tweedy while USC was led by Hector Estrella who hit a home run. The teams are back at it tomorrow over at USC to finish the three game set.

USC Recap
LBSU Recap
Press-Telegram Recap

USC takes Game 1

The USC Trojans took game one from Long Beach State by a score of 2-1 in a pitching duel. The teams will face off Saturday at Long Beach State. Vance Worley and Ryan Cook both had good nights on the mound with each pitching 6 innings of baseball but only allowing the opposition one run. Robert Perry was the only Dirtbag to have a multiple hit game with two hits. Nick Buss and Grant Green both had two hits to lead the Trojans offense. The teams will be back in action on Saturday at LBSU for Game 2 of their series.

USC Recap
LBSU Recap
Daily Breeze game recap

USC and Long Beach State series

The USC Trojans and the Dirtbags of Long Beach State will meet in a weird 3 game set. USC will play at home on Friday and Sunday while LBSU will host the game on Saturday. USC is coming off an impressive victory over Cal Poly to get Chad Kreuter's first career victory. The starter's for this weekend series are as followed: Friday-Vance Worley (LBSU) vs Ryan Cook (USC), Saturday-Manny McElroy (LBSU) vs Brandon Buxbaum (USC), Sunday- Omar Arif (LBSU) vs Tommy Milone (USC). All these games should be interesting and fun. I will keep you readers informed about this series among others this weekend.

USC Game Notes
Long Beach State Game Notes
Press Telegram article about LBSU
LA Times article about Kreuter

USC wins opener

The USC Trojans knocked off Cal-Poly tonight 6-4 to give Chad Kreuter his first career victory as the Head Coach of the Trojans. USC knocked around the Mustang starter Steven Fischback who lasted 2 innings while giving up all 6 runs (all earned) to the Trojans. Lucas Duda gave the Trojans a 6-1 lead in the second inning by hitting a three-run homer. The Mustangs were able to chip away at the lead but would not get closer then 6-4. Kyle Smith went 3-5 with two RBI's and Grant Desme also got two hits and drove in two runs to lead the Mustangs.

Robert Stock (USC) in his first career game was held hitless for USC. He has been signed already by the Cotuit Kettlers for the CCBL.

USC Recap
Cal Poly Recap
Daily Trojan Recap (Updated on 1/31)