Maryland Sign Seven for 2008 Season

I was forwarded this article from Maryland Sports Information staff member Dan Reisig. He is always a big help with getting information on the Terps.

Maryland baseball head coach Terry Rupp announced today seven future Terrapins who joined the team by signing National Letters of Intent this fall. The seven players, four of whom have chosen to play collegiate ball in their home state, are valuable assets who will have the opportunity to contribute when they join the Terps for the 2007-08 school year.

The seven signees are: Kyle Blackwell ( Rockville , Md. /Sherwood HS), Reid Chenworth ( Baltimore , Md. /Calvert Hall HS), Brett Harman ( Baltimore , Md. / Westminster HS), Adam Kolarek ( Catonsville , Md /Catonsville HS), Curtis Lazar ( Stafford , Va. / Mountain View HS), Matthew Quinn (North Penn, Penn./Landsdale HS), and Bill Rice (Sewell, N.J./Washington Township HS),

“With our 2007 recruiting class, we have addressed a lot of our needs to help us down the road as we try to get better in this league,” Rupp said. “With the addition of these seven recruits, we have definitely helped our club immensely. We have addressed two key areas – left handed hitting and front-line pitching and added some size and some athleticism to our program. Overall, we are very excited to get these guys on campus.”

Blackwell is a slender 6-2, 165 pound right-hander whose live arm gives him tremendous upside as well. According to assistant coach Jim Farr: “We hope to develop his secondary pitches so that he can come into the mix as a freshman.”

Chenworth is a big 6-5, 210 pound athletic left-handed hitter who will see time in the outfield. A member of his high school volleyball team, he has good speed and power and projects to play left field, according to Farr.

Harman is a 6-5, 200 pound pitcher who can contribute in various ways. Said Farr: “He is an outstanding, in-state right-handed pitcher. He has exceptional movement to his fastball, and projects to be able to pitch up front in our rotation.”

Kolarek is a player who will contribute both from the mound and in the field. The 6-3, 190 pound left-hander will compete for playing time in the outfield as well as out of the bullpen. His fastball is in the upper 80s and the Terps coaching staff will be working on developing his secondary pitches as well.

Lazar is a big, 6-4, 190 pound left-handed first baseman/outfielder who, according to Farr, “is an athletic kid who can run. He can hit with power and is good around the bag.”

Quinn is a 6-5, 205 pound right-handed pitcher who, according to coach Farr, has a large upside. “Matt is just starting to come into his own,” he said. He throws in the 86-88 mph range with three pitches. He has the ability to pitch at either the front end or the back end of a game.”

Rice, a 6-0, 180 pound left-handed hitter will see time at all three positions in the outfield. Said Farr: “He’s a good enough runner to play center, and he has the arm strength to play right field. He projects to hit some doubles for us with occasional power.”

Among the seven recruits, four hail from the Free State , adding to the 18 Maryland natives on this season’s roster. Overall, the Terrapin coaching staff feels that it has assembled a group of recruits who will be valuable members of both the baseball team as well as the campus community.

“We have some quality kids, both athletically and academically,” Rupp said. “We feel that all seven players are men of great character.”

2007 Maryland Baseball Signees

Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (High School)
Kyle Blackwell RHP 6-2 165 Rockville , Md./Sherwood HS
Reid Chenworth OF 6-5 210 Baltimore , Md. /Calvert Hall HS
Brett Harman RHP 6-5 200 Baltimore , Md./Westminster HS
Adam Kolarek LHP/OF 6-3 190 Catonsville , Md./Catonsville HS
Curtis Lazar 1B 6-4 190 Stafford, Va. / Mountain View HS
Matthew Quinn RHP 6-5 205 North Penn, Penn. /Landsdale HS
Bill Rice OF 6-0 180 Sewell, N.J./Washington Township HS

More Schedules Released

I am trying to keep this site updated with the most current releases of schedules for the 2007 season. The schools below have released their schedules in the last week.

Harvard
McNeese State
Stephen F. Austin

Micheal Fisher and his fellow Student-Athletes

The Georgia Tech Media Relations department recently released a very good article on Micheal Fisher and other Georgia Tech athletes on their efforts to raise money for the Hillside Foster Home in Georgia. They raised over $900 in Gift Cards to Target in addition to 75 gifts and toys they had donated through the three toy drives which occurred during the fall semester. It is nice to see Mr. Fisher and his fellow athletes doing a great thing for people that are in a tough situation.

The full release is available here.

Recruiting update for 2007-2008 season

There have been some recent releases on some more recruits for the 2007-2008 school year.
Virginia
UC Davis
Georgetown
Louisville
UTPA
Cal Berkeley
Wisconsin Milwaukee

SeBaseball previews Boston College

SeBaseball.com has posted a recent article on the Boston College Baseball program. They expect BC to compete for a spot in the ACC Tournament this upcoming season and possibly get a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The full article available here.

Warchant checks in with Micheal Hyde

Warchant checks in with a Q & A with Seminole pitcher Micheal Hyde. He discusses the upcoming season and the challenges in which the Seminoles will face this year with other information so you can get to know him better. The Q & A is available here.

Notre Dame releases 2007 Schedule

New Notre Dame Head Coach Dave Schrage has released the 2007 baseball schedule. They will continue their tradition of opening the season in San Antonio with one game against Prairie View A & M and two games with Texas State. They were scheduled to play Northwestern in a 3 game set but Northwestern had to back out at the last minute. The Irish will also participate in the Baseball at the Beach Tournament at Coastal Carolina with UNC-Wilmington and TCU joining them. They also head down to Stetson to participate in that tournament with perennial power Nebraska joining Stetson and Iowa in the tourney. There is no major surprises in their schedule with no trip to Uconn this year the College Baseball Blog Staff will not see the Irish. I hope Head Coach Dave Schrage good luck on the season and hope they make it back to Omaha and continue the tradition of Paul Mainieri.

Full Schedule available in PDF format and HTML.

Notre Dame released the signings for the 2007-2008 season recently and that article can be found here.

Fullerton Season Preview

George Horton checks in with his comments on the team for the 2007 season after fall practice. He lost a ton of talent from last years team and has to replace them with inexperienced players if he wants to make it back to Omaha. The full season preview is available here.

Duke releases Schedule

The Duke Blue Devils have released their 2007 schedule. They will compete in the East Carolina Invitational this year on February 23rd-25th. The ACC portion of the schedule has two highlights on the season with Florida State and Georgia Tech visiting Durham. In addition to FSU and GT, Boston College, Maryland, and Virginia Tech come in for ACC teams. The schedule is extremely challenging for second-year Head Coach Sean McNally but they are headed in the right direction. They have to replace Dan Otero who served as the Number 1 pitcher for the Blue Devils because he transferred to South Florida to join Lelo Prado in building a power.

Full Schedule available here.

Rivals

Rivals has posted a new Mailbag which talks about issues with Florida State, Ohio State, Georgia, and East Carolina. Kendall Rogers does an excellent job covering college baseball and check out his mailbag here.

Staehely named to Clemens List

Christian Staehely of Princeton has been named to the 2007 Roger Clemens Award Watch list for the upcoming season. He posted a strong season in 2006 including leading the Princeton Tigers to their sixth NCAA appearance in the last 11 years. He posted a 5-2 record with a 2.57 ERA during the regular season. He also carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning against Arkansas but ended up losing the game after having the no-hitter broken up. This summer he was a member of the Cotuit Kettleers where he went 5-1 with a 2.09 ERA against the best college baseball players in the country. He is one person to keep your eye on this season and the College Baseball Blog will be attending his start at Harvard this year.

Full press release available here.

Juco's getting shafted by new Draft Rules??

The Courier News checks in with an article on the new draft rules and how they will impact the baseball program at Elgin Community College. They are one of the top Juco teams in the country and they consistently send players to Division 1 colleges or the MLB draft. The article believes that there will be very little effect on the baseball team at Elgin.
You can read the full article here.

Citadel Baseball Preview

SEBaseball has posted a preview on the Citadel Baseball team for the 2007 season. The team should compete for an NCAA bid in the very strong and underrated Southern Conference.

You can read the full preview here.

Cecil named to Clemens Watch List

Maryland's Junior left-hander Brett Cecil (#6 rated player in CCBL this summer by Perfect Game) was named to the preseason watch list for the 2007 Roger Clemens Award, given to the nation’s top college baseball pitcher. Cecil is one of 62 players named to the list, including nine others from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The Dunkirk, Md. native made his mark on the Terps record books this past season, shattering the single season mark for saves with 13, a figure that nearly doubled the existing record of seven. That mark ranked third in the ACC and tied for 12th in the nation. In addition, Cecil recorded 54 strikeouts in 58.1 innings of work while compiling an ERA of 4.78. His 26 appearances tied for fourth in the all-time single season.

Overall, for his career, Cecil has compiled a 5-6 record and 4.35 ERA in 44 appearances. He has pitched 101.1 innings, with six career starts. During the 2006 campaign, he notched career highs in innings pitched (7.1) against North Carolina State and twice struck out six batters, most recently at North Carolina on March 19.

Thanks to Maryland Sports Information and Dan Reisig for forwarding me the press release.

The full list of players are available here.

Changing Positions?

Buster Posey was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American team in the 2006 season but will be making a position change during the upcoming season when he will be making a move to catcher. The College Baseball Blog Staff thought that Posey was the second best shortstop in the ACC after Stan Widmann of Clemson. This is the latest example of having your best athletes up the middle on the baseball field. Current Oregon State Associate Head Coach Dan Spencer checks in with an article on the topic.

Click here for Full article

Interesting Articles

Since there is very little news coming out of the College Baseball World, I thought I would drop some links for your guys to enjoy from PGCrossChecker.com. They have posted a very nice article about the 2007 Recruiting Classes. I also have found a link to an article from them about the top 100 prospects from the CCBL from this past summer. I think the ratings are little off since I did not see the CCBL Co-Pitcher of the Year in the Top 100 in Terry Doyle (maybe I missed his name). I have also linked the Baseball America Top 30 from the CCBL also.

Top Recruiting Classes
CCBL Prospects for 2007 Draft from Perfect Game
2007 Draft Candidates from Baseball America

I am currently working on a season preview that should be ready in January so look forward to that.

Season Preview?

Would there be any interest if I made a Season Preview for the upcoming 2007 season? I would sell it for about 5 dollars and send it out to all my loyal readers by the middle of January. So is anyone interested?

Recruits for 2007-2008 School year

This is some more added to list of recruits for the 2007-2008 season.

Texas Tech
Fresno State
UIC Flames
Marshall
Lafayette
St. Mary's of CA
ASU Sun Devils
UCLA Bruins
Tulane

2007 Wallace Watch List

The 2007 Wallace Watch List has been released by the College Baseball Foundation. The list is full of 120 athletes but the ACC is represented with 12 players including Boston College's Jared McGuire and Georgia Tech players Matt Wieters and Danny Payne. The award was won in 2006 by Brad Lincoln of Houston.

The full list of 120 players can be read here in a PDF format.

Battery charges for KU Baseball Players

The University Daily Kansan is reporting that two Kansas Baseball players have been cited on battery charges after a fight this weekend at an establishment in Lawrence. The players were Sophomore pitcher Andy Marks and former Jayhawk Sean Land. The Associate athletics director Jim Marchiony knew nothing about the incident when questioned by the Kansan reporter and the baseball coach was not available for comment either. The College Baseball Blog will keep you informed if any suspension is handed out to Mr. Marks.

Full article available here.

Northeastern annouces 2007 schedule

The Northeastern Huskies have announced their 2007 baseball schedule. There is a weird series with Winthrop on April 13-15th but the rest of the schedule is expected. They open the season up with a exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox and stay in Florida to play some games at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. NU had a very solid season in their inaugural season in the CAA and should be in the middle of the pack this season because they have lost their number 1 pitcher in Adam Ottavino.

Full schedule available here.

2007 Boston College Schedule

The Boston College Baseball team and Head Coach Mikio Aoki have released their 2007 baseball schedule. There is really no surprises on the schedule besides a little trip down to Vanderbilt to play Lipscomb, Belmont, and the host school in Vandy. I would expect David Price to pitch against Boston College in this tourney so it should be pretty interesting to see how the Eagles do down there.

You can read the full schedule here.

FSU Dismisses Diaz

The Florida State Baseball program has dismissed Danny Diaz from the baseball program. Mike Martin Sr. stated that Diaz broke a team rule which resulted in his immediate dismissal from the Florida State program. This lives the Seminoles without an experienced catcher for the 2007 season. They will enter the season without Kyle Maxie also who is transferring to Pearl River Community College. The Seminoles have moved Buster Posey to the catching position from his shortstop role last season. This is a strange move by the Seminoles to enter the season without an experienced catcher and especially without Posey having any collegiate experience behind the plate.

Tallahassee Democrat article is available here.

Fullerton releases 2007 Schedule

The Cal-State Fullerton Titans and George Horton (one of my favorite managers) have released the 2007 Schedule. They will host Stanford, Arizona, and Rice each for three games series in the beginning of the season with a trip to UNLV thrown in just for fun (We know what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas). They will also play UCLA for three games (two at UCLA and one in Fullerton) and play a home and home with local rival USC. They also make two interesting road trips this season when they travel to East Carolina and Wichita State each for a weekend series. The Titans should continue to be at the top of the Big West conference and the national rankings.

Full Schedule available here.

NCBWA Preseason All-America Team Released

The 2007 NCBWA All-American Team has been released by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. We have the usual group of athletes on the team with Andy D'Alessio from Clemson coming back for his senior year. My favorite player in this group is Kellen Kulbacki who I had the chance to see play down the cape this summer and he impressed me with his talent in the field and also with the bat. Milan Dinga of Army has a very powerful arm and should be drafted this upcoming year but with his military service issues we should see if it hinders his prospects.

This is the first of the All-America teams of the year and I am starting to get ready to watch some good old fashion college baseball but it only happens for about a month and a half up here in the great white north of New England.

2007 NCBWA PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAM



FIRST TEAM

C Kevin Coughlin, Kentucky, Sr.

1B Andy D'Alessio, Clemson, Sr.

2B Eric Sogard, Arizona State, Sr.

3B Pedro Alvarez, Vanderbilt, So.

SS Zack Cozart, Mississippi, Sr.

UTIL Sean Doolittle, Virginia, Jr.

DH Robert Rodebaugh, Elon, Sr.

OF Emeel Salem, Alabama, Jr.

OF Steven Strasbaugh, Western Car., Jr.

OF Kellen Kulbacki, James Madison, Jr.

SP Wes Roemer, CS Fullerton, Jr.

SP Cole St. Clair, Rice, Jr

SP Jake Arrieta, TCU, Jr.

SP Tony Watson, Nebraska, Jr.

SP Nick Schmidt, Arkansas, Jr.

RP Joshua Fields, Georgia, Jr.

RP Blair Erickson, UC Irvine, Sr.

RP Milan Dinga, Army, Jr.



SECOND TEAM

C Matt Wieters, Georgia Tech, Jr.

1B Chad Flack, North Carolina, Jr.

2B Ramon Corona, N.C. State, Jr.

3B Jonathan Greene, Western Carolina, Sr.

SS Josh Horton, North Carolina, Jr.

UTIL Joe Savery, Rice, Jr.

UTIL Damon Sublett, Wichita State, Jr.

DH Brendan Murphy, Marshall, Sr.

OF Jared Prince, Washington State, So.

OF Danny Payne, Georgia Tech, Jr.

OF Tommy Lentz, Winthrop, Sr.

SP Barry Enright, Pepperdine, Jr.

SP Chris Ashman, Oral Roberts, Sr.

SP Alex Wilson, Winthrop, So.

SP Nick Chigges, Coll. Of Charleston, Sr.

SP Aaron Shafer, Wichita State, So.

RP David Price, Vanderbilt, Jr.

RP Daniel Moskos, Clemson, Jr.

RP Luke Tucker, Florida State, Sr.



THIRD TEAM

C J.P. Arencibia, Tennessee, Jr.

C Matt Smith, Texas Tech, So.

1B Adam Amar, Memphis, Sr.

2B Jemile Weeks, Miami (Fla.), So.

3B Conor Gillaspie, Wichita State, So.

3B Curt Smith, Maine, So.

SS Brian Friday, Rice, Jr.

SS Todd Frazier, Rutgers, Jr.

UTIL Josh Dew, Troy, Jr.

UTIL Ryan Wehrle, Nebraska, Sr.

DH David Doss, South Alabama, Sr.

OF Roger Kieschnick, Texas Tech, So.

OF Marcus Davis, Alcorn State, Jr.

OF Eric Rose, Michigan, Sr.

OF Collin Cowgill, Kentucky, Jr.

SP Mitch Harris, Navy, Jr.

SP Bryan Henry, Florida State, Sr.

SP Ben Norton, Evansville, Sr.

SP Christian Friedrich, Eastern Kentucky, So.

SP Greg Dombrowski, Kentucky, Jr.

SP Tommy Hunter, Alabama, So.

SP Dan DeLucia, Ohio State, Sr.

RP Daniel Latham, Tulane, Sr.

RP Brett Hunter, Pepperdine, So.

Full Press Release available here.

2007 Signings

The 2007 Signing period has started for College Baseball. The Boston College Eagles have signed 13 players including nine student-athletes from Massachusetts or Connecticut. This is a sign that Aoki will be focusing on dominating the recruiting trail with New England kids attending BC. We have a bunch of press releases on the rest of the country.

BC Recruits
FSU Recruits
FAU Recruits
Rice Recruits
Wake Forest Recruits
UNLV Recruits
Southern Miss Recruits Part 1 and Part 2

Help!!

With the baseball season getting around the corner, I would love to change the old career and get a job that would help me attend more College Baseball games. If anyone from the Boston/Providence area reads this blog and needs a college educated Kinesiology major from University of New Hampshire feel free to email me at bpfoley2004@yahoo.com. Even if you can take a look at my resume and see how I can improve it also contact me.

I am currently working on some season previews for the upcoming season and have these are some new schedules which have been released lately.

Holy Cross
Oklahoma State

2007 Naval Academy Schedule

Paul Kostacopoulos and the Naval Academy have released their 2007 baseball schedule. The Navy Midshipmen will be led by Mitch Harris who was rated the number 2 pro prospect in the Cal Ripken Sr. League this past summer. The Midshipmen open the season on the road at Florida A & M. They will also take part in the Service Academy Classic in Millington TN from Feb. 23rd-25th. The teams which they are playing are Air Force and NCAA Tournament participant Missouri. Paul Kostacopoulos will also welcome back one of his old assistant coaches from his Providence College days in Charlie Hickey who leads the Regular Season NEC champs in the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils. Hickey was a key member of the Providence coaching staff during Paul's days there and ended up taking over the Providence program when Kostacopoulos left for Maine. The Midshipmen make a trip to Holy Cross this season so The College Baseball Blog will be there attending the games and giving you their insight on the Midshipmen in Late March/Early April. I believe that Navy will continue to raise the profile of their program with the work of Mr. Kostacopoulos and his great coaching ability but they will not beat the Army Cadets this season in the Patriot League.

The full schedule is available here.

The Citadel Baseball News

The Citadel Baseball team has released its 2007 schedule with many interesting match-ups. They open the season with a 3 game set with East Tennessee State. The following two weekends they will host two tournaments. One of the tournaments will be hosted by The Citadel with Liberty, Richmond, and South Carolina participating. The other tournament will have old BC head coach Peter Hughes and VA Tech visiting, Minnesota, and UNC Asheville. In their last tournament, the Bulldogs travel to the Great White North by visiting the Diary Queen Classic which is hosted by Minnesota with Ole Miss and Arkansas filling out the field. The Bulldogs host the following Southern Conference schools this year for key 4 game sets: Elon, Wofford, College of Charleston and Georgia Southern. They will also visit Western Carolina, Appalachian State, Davidson, UNC Greensboro and Furman.

Full schedule available here.

Rivals.com also had a very good article about The Citadel Bulldogs trying to reclaim their spot in the top of the Southern Conference. Click here for the full article.

Miami Hurricanes baseball news

The Miami University of Florida has released their 2007 baseball schedule in addition they have started up fall ball within the last week. They will be playing the entire ACC besides my Boston College Eagles and they will play OOC series against 2005 NCAA Finalist Florida Gators in Gainesville and Pac 10 member UCLA Bruins will be visiting Coral Gables. The Hurricanes will not leave the state of Florida until March 9th when they visit the North Carolina Tar Heels. On March 23rd, the Canes will visit the UVA Cavaliers in a key ACC match-up and the next weekend going to Clemson SC for another big weekend. These two weekends will decide how close Miami will get to winning the conference this year behind Jemile Weeks and Scott Maine.

Full Schedule available here
Interview with coach Jim Morris

Tigers release 2007 schedule

The Memphis Tigers have announced their 2007 schedule. They face some strong competition this upcoming season by taking part in the Service Academies Spring Classic in Millington, Tenn in the second week of the season. They will then host their first ever tournament at Autozone Park in Memphis with Northern Iowa, Eastern Illinois, and Indiana. They will also visit Mississippi State and Clemson in their OOC schedule. They will have to travel to National power Tulane during the Conference USA season in addition to Rice. They will likely finish fourth in the conference behind Rice, Tulane and Southern Miss. The full schedule is available here.

What happened to you?

There is a very good article from Boyd's World on the programs that have been cut over the years including my old Favorite team in Providence College. He talks about how back in the 50's it was not that difficult to make it to Omaha as each region had their own qualification standards back in those days thus the reason why Boston College and Holy Cross both made appearances in the CWS. Hopefully a Northeast team can make it back there sooner rather then later.

The article is available here.

The APR Battle

Kevin Cooney, the head coach at Florida Atlantic University, checks in with an article about the battles of the APR. The APR is a rating system for the athletic programs in the university which is based on the graduation rate and the eligibility of the student-athletes. Kevin's article discusses the pros and cons of the new system. In the article, he shows many examples of situations that arose last season.

Article can be found here.

There is also an article from the Austin-American Statesman about the Texas Baseball program getting a scholarship back after having it stripped from them over a substandard score on the APR. I think if we want to follow the rules of the APR then Texas should have lost this scholarship. What has changed since they lost the scholarship?

The full article can be accessed here.

2007 Missouri Schedule Released

The University of Missouri have released the 2007 schedule. They will be participating in two tournaments this year in addition to their strong Big 12 schedule. They will be taking part in the Spring Training Classic with Arizona State, Gonzaga, and NCAA Champion Oregon State in Surprise AZ. They also will be in the Service Academy Classic in Millington TN with participants BYU, Akron, Memphis and the Naval Academy. The Big 12 home schedule is weak with the best opponents coming to Taylor Stadium being the Kansas Jayhawks and the Oklahoma Sooners.

Full Schedule available here.

Changes to the Amateur Draft

There has been a significant change to the Amateur draft in the new Collective Bargaining agreement in MLB. It sets a uniform signing day instead of the former rule of the first day of college classes for the high school draft picks. It also sets up stronger compensation rules for the unsigned draft picks. If a team does not sign there first round pick they will receive that same pick the next year but one pick later in the round. This will affect the signing bonuses of the upcoming draftees. It is very complicated and can be read in further in the Baseball America Article here.

Checking in with Paul Mainieri

The Daily Reveille wrote an interesting article recently about the LSU Baseball program and how they are adjusting to Paul Mainieri's coaching style. Paul comes from Notre Dame where he coached for 12 very successful seasons including getting a CWS appearance with a Big East squad which does not happen often today. In the article, Mainieri is asked about Junior pitcher Derik Olvey who transferred before last season to LSU from Notre Dame. Derek has been dismissed from the LSU Baseball program as Paul and him have a history of problems dating back to Derik's days at UND. Olvey has to find a new school for his senior year as he has to sit out the entire season since he has already transferred once.

Full article available here.

Army Baseball releases 2007 schedule

The Army Cadets have released their 2007 schedule. They have a bunch of games down in the South to start the season which is traditional for a northern school. They visit Sam Houston State, Wofford, and UNC Greensboro each for 3 games sets to start the first 3 weekend series. They also have a mid-week out of conference game in Gainesville against the Florida Gators. The rest of their season is made up of Patriot League games and regional games with Cornell, Iona, and Manhattan.

This Army team should be right at the top of the Patriot League this season with All-American candidate pitcher Nick Hill and outfielder/closer Milan Dinga who can hit over 90 MPH. I predict on October 24th, that Nick Hill will pitch the game against the Gators and will give them fits.

Full schedule

Baylor Baseball Rated Number 1

The Baylor Bears recruiting class has been rated number 1 in the nation by Baseball America. The reason for this is that the 2005 CWS run gave the program some national exposure and positive press. The Baylor staff was fighting to get rid of the stigma from the basketball tragedy in 2003. It looks like they have overcame the challenge.

There are also some news and notes in tea article about UNC reloading and Oregon State shuffling up their rotation for next year.

Full article available here.

KU releases 2007 schedule

The Kansas Jayhawks will open the season with a nice trip to Hawaii-Hilo for a five game trip. It must be nice to be in Hawaii in February to play baseball. When they return to campus they open up there home schedule against South Dakota State. I believe that starting that early with home games is a mistake and would be shocked if they get those games in. KU has both Texas and Nebraska coming into Lawrence this season and this should bode well for the Jayhawks as they try to get their second straight trip to the NCAA tournament.

Click here for Full Schedule

Southern Mississippi Baseball News

The Southern Miss Golden Eagles have released their 2007 Baseball Schedule. They are hosting the Coca-Cola Classic with Louisville, Southern Illinois, and Northwestern State competing in Hattiesburg. They do play eight NCAA Tournament teams from last season on the schedule which includes Alabama, Houston, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Rice, South Alabama, Troy and Tulane. They are expected to be a prominent player in the Southeast this year and make the NCAA Tournament. The full schedule is available here.

Southern Miss also has started building a new press box with 12 new luxury boxes for the 2007 season. This should bring their stadium up to the standards in the South. You can read more about the renovation at this link.

ACC Baseball Tourney changing formats

There is some rumors on the internet that there will be a change in the format of the ACC Baseball Tournament for the 2007 season. They will split the field into two divisions and each team will be guaranteed to play 3 games in a round robin format. One division would include the 1, 4, 5, and 8 seeds while the other one will include the 2, 3, 6, and 7 seeds. This will limit the amount of games each team will have to play to get to the Championship games. In the 2006 tournament, Clemson and NC State played in the Championship game and used two pitchers who rarely pitched during the regular season. This format gives the teams a maximum of 4 games to play thus making it easier on the pitchers and coaches.

2007 South Carolina Baseball Schedule

The 2007 Baseball schedule is out for the University of South Carolina. There are no major OOC games scheduled for this season with the basic home and home series with Clemson. They play in the UNC Wilmington and the Citadel Tournaments respectively this year. The Brown Bears make a weekend trip March 9th-11th to visit the Gamecocks. You can read the full schedule in PDF format here.

Brackman Makes a Decision

Andrew Brackman has decided to focus on Baseball during his senior season and give up his basketball career for the time being according to reports from SeBaseball and ESPN. Andy Katz also of ESPN believed that Andrew had some talent to become a serviceable player in the NBA. He was likely going to be a late 1st round pick in the 2007 NBA draft but now will be a top 5 pick in the MLB draft with his 7 foot frame.

Sorry for the lack of updates on the site recently but there really hasn't been too much news to report. Feel free to send questions or comments to me.

Gophers release 2007 schedule

The Minnesota Gophers have released their 2007 baseball schedule. It contains a challenging season in the Big Ten and a great early season tournament in the Dairy Queen Classic. The Classic will contain perennial powers Arkansas and Mississippi with the Citadel rounding out the field. The Gophers also make the long trek to Pepperdine before opening the season against Penn State. It should be an interesting year for the Gophers and good luck to them.

Full schedule available here.

Thanks to Big Ten Hardball for the tip.

Wake releases 2007 schedule

Wake Forest has released their 2007 schedule and it is a typical ACC schedule with very little challenging out of conference games before the heart of the ACC season. Wake missed the NCAA's last year by the skin of their teeth and should be in the hunt for the last spot in the ACC Tourney this year. Wake Forest has visits this season from Virginia, NC State, Clemson, Duke and Miami. Yes, they have a loaded home schedule and they head to Florida State, North Carolina, Maryland, Boston College and Virginia Tech. They have loaded road schedule too but the ACC is always loaded with some great teams.

Full article can be read here.

Cavs release Schedule

The University of Virginia have released their 2007 schedule. There is no major surprises on the schedule with the regular 30 games in the ACC in addition to some OOC games. They will participate in the Coastal Carolina Tournament to start the year with Elon, North Florida and of course Coastal Carolina. They have a big visit from ACC powers Miami and GT this year. They will be visiting Chestnut Hill to end the season and the College Baseball Blog will be taking a few days off from work to make sure he sees the Thursday-Saturday series in May.

Full Schedule

Ryan Hastings

Ryan Hastings of Illinois went 2 for 3 on Monday in an intrasquad scrimmage to take a 2 games to 1 lead on the Orange Team. Hastings started the game off with a bunt single then stole second and scored on another base hit to bring him around. Coach Dan Hartleb had the following to say about Hastings "He brought some great energy to the Blue team today. They did a good job of coming out very focused and jumping on the Orange team early." Hastings will try to lead the Illini in their goal of winning the Big 10 conference in 2007.

Full release on the Intrasquad scrimmage available here.

Kainer recovering

Senior Longhorn Carson Kainer is recovering from a kidney transplant from his father. He had the surgery a few weeks ago and is expected to recover to play in his senior season this spring. Kainer was a 14 round pick of the Cincinnati Reds this past draft and was planning on signing but started to have complications with his kidney which had to be taken care of with the transplant. Kainer has suffered from chronic renal failure since the age of 2. This transplant did not come as a surprise as Kainer's family knew that this day would come sooner then later. The College Baseball Blog staff hopes that Carson and Ron Kainer a quick recovery and hope to see them soon on a baseball field. Full story available here.

Princeton release 2007 Schedule

The defending Ivy League Champs Princeton Tigers have released their 2007 schedule. They will visit the Houston, UNC Greensboro, Elon, Davidson, and Longwood in their OOC series. They will also play a full slate in the Ivy League conference where they will face Yale, Brown, Cornell, and Columbia all in Princeton NJ. The Tigers will visit Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, and Cornell in their home and home series this year. Princeton returns a very good team which almost won both games they played in the NCAA tourney this year and will look to win a few games this year in the tournament.

South Carolina wins Recruiting battle

The University of South Carolina has the highest rated recruiting class by Collegiate Baseball. The Gamecocks brought in 14 players for the upcoming season with 8 high school recruits and 6 Junior College transfers. They picked up Jay Brown from Young Harris College who had an outstanding season for Cotuit on the Cape this summer. I had the opportunity to see this young man pitch and he is a solid pitcher with an incredible upside. Miami came in second in the ratings with many other top teams in the ratings.

The full ratings are available here.