College Baseball 360 » Dan Grovatt

Saturday Super Regional Notebook

Sean Stires — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 10:01:07 +0000

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Day Two Super Regional Notes And Thoughts

By Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires

Redemption: After being swept on it home field by Southern Mississippi in last year’s Super Regionals, Florida punched the first ticket to Omaha this year by sweeping Miami. The Gators capped the sweep with Saturday’s 4-3 win

Florida head coach Kevin O'Sullivan

Miami hasn’t won a postseason game in Gainesville since 2002.

The Big “E”s: Miami committed seven, that’s right seven errors in Saturday’s loss to Florida. Only one of the four runs scored by the Gators was earned. In fact, just two of Florida’s 11 runs in the two games was earned thanks to nine Hurricane miscues. Miami hasn’t won a postseason game in Gainesville since 2002.

Mighty Mo: It didn’t take long for Texas to take back the momentum in it’s series with TCU. After losing 3-1 in Friday’s opener the Longhorns drubbed the Horned Frogs 14-1 on Saturday to send the game to a deciding third game. The rout was due in part to the dominant pitching of Taylor Jungmann, who struck out 9 in 8 1/3 IP, but also largely to three Horned Frog errors that led to six unearned runs scored by the Longhorns. All five runs allowed in 3 2/3 IP by TCU starter Steven Maxwell (11-2) were unearned.

Crowded House: The first two games of the Texas-TCU Super Regional have drawn more than 7,300 fans each to Disch-Falk Field. That makes 21 games this season in which the Longhorns have played in front of a crowd of more than 7,000.

Livin’ On The Edge: Vanderbilt downed Florida State 6-2 Saturday to force Sunday’s winner take all game. The win makes the Commodores 4-0 in NCAA elimination games this year. Saturday’s win halted Florida State’s seven game winning streak.

Not So Super: This is Florida State’s 10th Super Regional since 1999, but the Seminoles have won just one of their last seven Super Regional series since advancing to Omaha in the first two years of the format in 1999 and 2000. Three of those Super Regional losses came on their home field. Including their 1-1 mark this year, the Seminoles are 9-14 all-time in Super Regional games.

Great Garvin: Commodore reliever Grayson Garvin tossed three shutout innings to finish Saturday’s win. Garvin has now given-up just two runs with 12 strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings in three postseason appearances this year.

Son Of A Yaz: Vanderbilt freshman Mike Yastrzemski is the grandson of Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl

Vanderbilt freshman Mike Yastrzemski

Yastrzemski, but he has a Seminole connection as well. Mike’s dad, Michael, played at Florida State from 1980-’83. Mike is 4-for-7 in the Super Regional with a double, a home run and two RBIs.

Is That A Girl, What’s She Know About College Baseball? Those were my wife’s words, not mine, when she heard Pam Ward doing the play-by-play of Virginia’s 3-2 win over Oklahoma in game one of their series. I’ll admit I was skeptical of Ward doing the game, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone. I have to say though that Ward did a solid job. She’s got a lot of experience doing softball games, and she even used that to provide some baseball insight. Ward talked about the current moratorium on composite bats in college baseball and how college softball may consider the same thing with all of the home runs hit at this year’s Women’s College World Series.

Hoos Boom: Virginia scored all three of its runs in that game on home runs. Phil Gosselin led-off the bottom of the 1st inning with his 10th HR of the year and then Dan Grovatt hit the deciding two-run blast in the 6th.

Nice Lid: Did you see the hat UCLA pitcher Trevor Bauer wore during the Fullerton game at Jackie Robinson Stadium? It’s so faded and worn looking that it looks like Jackie Robinson could have worn it during his playing days with the Bruins.

That’s A Bold Statement: “Of all the guys I’ve seen hit Harold Martinez is my favorite hitter. Manny Ramirez is my guy in Major League baseball. When I walk into a room and a Manny Ramirez at-bat is on I’m not walking out. That’s how I felt about Harold Martinez.” That’s what Eric Byrnes said about injured Miami third baseman Harold Martinez, who was hospitalized in Gainesville with an infected shin. Byrnes got to see first hand last week just how explosive Martinez’s bat is when the sophomore had 9 RBIs and two HR in the Coral Cables Regional.

Jake Smith hit a home run and earned a save in Alabama's win.

Tide Rolling: Alabama beat Clemson 5-4 in Saturday’s series opener. The Crimson Tide, which barely made the SEC Tournament field, has won 13 of its last 15 games to move to within one win from Omaha. One more win would make Mitch Gaspard just the second rookie coach in the last 30 years to take a team to the College World Series. Dan McDonnell did it at Louisville in 2007.

The Two Jakes: How about Alabama’s Jake Smith? The senior started at third base and hit his 14th home run of the season to help the Tide win Saturday’s game. He then gave-up just a hit over the final two scoreless innings of the game to earn his sixth save.

It’s On Where? With all eight Super Regionals in action on Saturday it was a little hard to actually find where some of them were (or weren’t) being televised. I was never actually able to watch the Alabama-Clemson game on TV. I did watch parts of it on ESPN3.com. That’s where I found most of the UCLA-Fullerton game, and then the video froze. Turned out they moved it to ESPN2 after the Florida-Miami game was over. It’s just a shame that unless you were on the west coast most of the UCLA-Fullerton series was either on TV after 11pm ET Friday night (it ended after 2am) or was not on TV at all.

Bopping Bruins: UCLA hit four home runs in Saturday’s 11-7 10-inning win over the Titans. Tyler Rahmatulla had the biggest of the blasts. With UCLA down to its last two strikes of the season the sophomore’s 2-run shot gave the Bruins a 7-6 lead in the top of the 9th. Fullerton tied the score 7-7 in the bottom of the inning, and then UCLA plated four in the 10th for the win.

Golden Gallego: Bruin shortstop Niko Gallego made two great plays in the bottom of the 10th to help force Sunday’s deciding game. Niko is the son of 13-year MLB vetern Mike Gallego.

White Between The Eyes: When Arizona State reliever Mitchell Lambson went to the mound in the top of the 8th inning umpires apparently told him he had too much rosin on his hat. The reasoning would be that the white from the rosin could be deceptive to Arkansas batters. Sounds fairly reasonable, and the rationale would be in line with the fact that pitchers cannot have white on their gloves. What I’ve never understood is how a few white stitches on a pitcher’s glove (or in this case rosin on a hat that’s also covered in white salt stains) aids in hiding the ball than a full home white uniform (like ASU was wearing Saturday night)…or even white lettering on a dark uniform (like Arkansas had).

Lights Out Lambson: Rosin or no rosin, Lambson had 2 Ks in a 1-2-3 inning, and he wasn’t done there. In a game ASU eventually won 7-6 in 12 innings, Lambson (8-2) fired five shutout innings of relief with six strikeouts to earn the win.

Uggghh: I really want to watch the Arkansas-Arizona State series, just not with Justin “I continually second guess head coaches who have been to the College World Series four times” Kutcher calling the action. Ok, so Dave Van Horn didn’t bring in Brett Eibner to pitch leading 6-5 in the 9th inning…we get it. Now go back to criticizing umpires.

Tough Night: Eibner was called out not once, but twice for batter’s interference. The second one ended the top of the 12th inning. The two-way star (21 HR, 69 RBIs) then gave-up the game-winning hit to Deven Marrero in the bottom of the 12th.

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UVa’s Grovatt, KU’s Bochy Lead Primetime Performers #4

Pete LaFleur — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:08:42 +0000

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Players Keeping Pace as Midseason Pressure Approaches …

CollegeBaseball360.com has announced its fourth group of Primetime Performers, for action during the second week of March. Virginia junior rightfielder Dan Grovatt (Tabernacle, Fla.) has been named the CB360 Primetime Player of the Week while Kansas senior righthanded closer Brett Bochy (Poway, Calif.) is the CB360 Primetime Pitcher of the Week.

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LISTEN!

Grovatt (pictured at left) and Bochy (right)lead the way for a Primetime Performer Honor Roll that includes 19 other players who delivered timely performances in pressure-packed situations during the past week. (front-page photo courtesy of Virginia)

Grovatt (pictured above; UVa photo) – batting .424 for the season – played a central role in college baseball’s biggest series of the season thus far, as the Cavaliers (#2 in the CB360 Composite National Rankings) took 2-of-3 at #4 Florida State (5-0/9-8/8-9). Living up to his responsibility as the Cavs’ 3-hole hitter, Grovatt hit 8-for-14 (.571) during the FSU series and smacked three home runs while directly factoring into seven of the team’s runs spanning the three games (5 RBI, 5R). He helped deliver the first series win vs. Florida State in the history of Virginia baseball. Grovatt’s four hits and first career multi-HR game helped carry the Cavs to victory in the opener.

One day later, in the series clincher, Grovatt was the relief pitcher of record (1IP-R-H-K) while also playing a role (H-R) in UVa’s stunning six-run rally in the top of the 9th. He added a home run in the tight series finale – and earlier in the week helped beat a William & Mary team that was fresh off an upset vs. North Carolina.

Bochy (pictured below) – who has a year of eligibility remaining after this season – saved both of KU’s wins at top-ranked LSU (11-9, 8-4), in front of a raucous and expansive crowd at Alex Box Stadium. The son of San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy logged a total of 3.2 shutout innings and retired 11-of-13 batters he faced, with five strikeouts and no hits allowed (2 BB). His season numbers include a 0.87 ERA in 10.1 innings, with 19 Ks, four walks and only two hits allowed.

Similar to the weekly awards presented on sister site CollegeSoccer360.com, the CB360 Primetime Performer honors various players based on any/all of the following “primetime” criteria…not solely based on raw stats.

Primetime Performer Award Criteria
• Must have been playing for or against a CB360 top-50 team (in the Composite National Rankings) or performed a high level in a game that could be key to a team’s conference/NCAA postseason qualification.
• Involved in clutch performances, such as late game-winning hits, noteworthy comebacks, game-changing plays, team leadership, etc. • Performing at a top level against a team rated highly nationally (or within its conference), with bonus consideration given for key performances away from home field and vs. traditional rivals.
• Overcoming adversity or extreme circumstances (for the team and/or individual).
• Any accomplishment that is rare, historic, record-setting, etc., on a national level.

(top row, from left) UCLA’s Trevor Bauer, Pepperdine’s Cole Cook, BC’s Pat Dean, Louisville’s Neil Holland, Virginia’s Danny Hultzen, (bottom row, from left) Liberty’s P.J. Jimenez and Cal’s Erik Johnson.

The other 19 members of the CB360 Primetime Performer Weekly Honor Roll include UCLA so. righthander Trevor Bauer (Valencia, Calif.), Pepperdine jr. RHP Cole Cook (Los Aneles, Calif.), Boston College jr. LHP Pat Dean (Naugatuck, Conn.), Louisvile jr. RHP Neil Holland (Owensboro, Ky.), UVa so. LHP Danny Hultzen (Bethesda, Md.), Liberty sr. 2B P.J. Jimenez (Yucaipa, Calif.), Cal so. RHP Eric Johnson (Los Altos, Calif.), Duke jr. SS Jake Lemmerman (Newport Beach, Calif.), Kansas jr. RF Casey Lytle (Phoenix, Ariz.), Florida State sr. LF/RHP Mike McGee (Port St. Lucie, Fla.), Illinois jr. DH Casey McMurray (Willow Springs, Ill.), Northridge jr. CF Drew Muren (Ramona, Calif.), South Dakota St. jr. RHP Alex Oberle (San Jose, Calif.), Cal fr. 3B Tony Renda (Hillsborough, Calif.), Evansville fr. SS Eric Stamets (Dublin, Ohio), Long Beach so. 3B Joey Terdoslavich (Sarasota, Fla.), Charleston Southern RHP/RF Tyler Thornburg (Atlanta, Ga.), The Citadel jr. RHP Asher Wojciechowski (Sturgis, Mich.) and BYU so. 1B Alex Wolff (Orem, Utah).

(from left) Duke’s Jake Lemmerman, KU’s Casey Lytle, Florida State’s Mike McGee, Illinois’ Casey McMurray, Northridge’s Drew Muren and South Dakota State’s Alex Oberle.

The 21 honorees include eight pitchers (seven RHPs), three two-way players (RF/LHP, LF/RHP, RHP/RF), two shortstops, two third basemen, a first baseman, a second baseman, one player from each outfield spot, and a DH. The selections feature 11 juniors, five sophomores, three seniors and the freshmen Renda and Stamets. Roughly 40% of the honorees (9) hail from California – five of them playing at in-state schools (UCLA, Pepperdine, Cal 2 and Northridge), but others coming from throughout the country (Kansas, Liberty, Duke and South Dakota State). The other players include two from Florida and one each from Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and Utah.’

(from left) Cal’s Tony Renda, Evansville’s Eric Stamets, Long Beach’s Joey Terdoslavich, Charleston Southern’s Tyler Thornburg, The Citadel’s Asher Wojciechowski and BYU’a Alex Wolff.

Primetime Performer Weekly Honor Roll #4 (March 8-14)

(presented by CollegeBaseball360.com)
“It’s not so much what you do, as it is when you do it.”

Player (Pos.) … School … Yr. … Hometown … Stats & Notes
Trevor Bauer (RHP) … UCLA … So. . … Valencia, CA
Took shutout into 9th and racked up 18 Ks, as Bruins beat #44 Mississippi in Corpus Christi (8+IP-3H-2BB)

*Brettt Bochy (RHP) … Kansas … Sr. … Poway, CA
Saved both of KU’s victories while retiring 11-of-13 batters faced, in series at #1 LSU (3.2IP-2BB-5K)

Cole Cook (RHP) … Pepperdine … Jr. … Los Angeles, CA
Set series tone with complete-game 9-3 win vs. #12 East Carolina (2 earned runs, 8H-3BB-8K)

Pat Dean (LHP) … Boston College … Jr. … Naugatuck, CT
Struck out nine in big win at #21 Miami (8IP-6H-BB)

*Dan Grovatt (RF/LHPF) … Virginia … Jr. … Tabernacle, NJ
3-hole hitter who paced Virginia offense in series win (5-0/9-8/8-9) at #4 Florida St. (3HR-5 RBI-5 R)

Neil Holland (RHP) … Louisville … Jr. … Owensboro, KY
Picked up a win and 2 saves (4IP-R-H-BB-6K) spanning midweek game with Indian (9-7) and series at #18 Ol’Miss (6-1/12; 10-8)

Danny Hultzen (LHP) … Virginia … So. … Bethesda, MD
Made game-1 statement with 6.0 shuttout inning at #4 Florida State (2H-6K; UVa won 5-0)

P.J. Jimenez (2B) … Liberty … Sr. … Yucaipa, CA
2-hole hitter went 5-for-10 to spark pair of wins (9-1/14-9) over #34 St. John’s ( RBI, 6R, HR, BB)

Erik Johnson (RHP) … California … So. … Los Altos, CA
Won 8-6 opener at #23 Rice (6IP-2H-BB-6K), leading Bears to split of 4-game series

Jake Lemmerman (SS) … Duke … Jr. … Newport Beach, CA
Leadoff batter who hit 4-for-9 in pair of wins (15-11/5-3) at #11 UNC (4RBI-4R-HR-2B-BB-SB)

Casey Lytle (RF) … Kansas … Jr. … Phoenix, AZ
Smacked 4 doubles while leading offense in series win at #1 LSU (5-for-9, 4 RBI, 5R, 2 BB; 11-9 & 8-4 wins)

Mike McGee (LF/RHP) … Florida State … Sr. … Port St. Lucie, FL
Two-way talent who paced team’s midweek 1-hitter vs. Jacksonville (6IP-4BB-9K; FSU won 2-0), then had strong series vs. #2 Virginia (4-RBI-3R-HR-2 2B), including key role in 9-8 win (2-5/3RBI-HR-2B; 1.2IP-2K)

Casey McMurray (DH) … Illinois … Jr. … Willow Springs, IL
Drove in 5 runs to lead upset win at #5 Coastal Carolina (HR-2B;also homered in loss vs. CC)

Drew Muren (CF) … CS Northridge … Jr. … Ramona, CA
His grand slam sparked 5-3 win over #12 East Carolina (also 6-16 in series win over LMU, 6RBI-5R-HR-2B-2BB-2SB)

Alex Oberle (RHP) … South Dakota State … Jr. … San Jose, CA
Posted impressive win at #16 Arkansas (6.2IP-R-3H-3BB-3K)

Tony Renda (3B) … California … Fr. … Hillsborough, CA
Led Bear offense during pair of wins (8-6/6-4) at #23 Rice (4-6, 5BI, 3R, HR, 3B, 2 BB)

Eric Stamets (SS) … Evansville … Fr. … Dublin, OH
2-hole hitter who delivered in clutch during 8-4 win at #19 Kentucky (2-5, 2 RBI, 2R, 2 2B, 2 BB, 2 SB)

Joey Terdoslavich (3B) … Long Beach State … So. … Sarasota, FL
Hit 6-for-8 in pair of wins (7-4/7-3) over #33 Wichita St. (4RBI, 2R, 2B)

Tyler Thornburg (RHP/RF) … Charleston Southern … Jr. … Atlanta, GA
Complate-game win at #10 Florida (6-3; 7H-3BB-11K; also sac. fly and 2 other hits in series)

Asher Wojciechowski (RHP) … The Citadel … Jr. … Sturgis, MI
His win in opener (4-0) headlined sweep of #36 Western Carolina (8IP-6H-14 Ks; 138 pitches/92 strikes)

Alex Wolff (1B) … BYU … So. … Orem, UT
3-hole hitter came through in pair of wins (10-4/16-4) vs. # Washington (4-9, 11 RBI, 6R, 3 HR, 2B)

* – Grovatt is the CB360 Primetime Player of the Week and Bochy the Primetime Pitcher of the Week … note that rankings above refer to the CB360 top-50 … class years are based on academic standing (some players may have an extra year of eligibility)

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ACC Baseball 2010 Preseason Poll

Sean Stires — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:31:45 +0000

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League Coaches Pick Virginia To Repeat As Champion

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Defending Atlantic Coast Conference champion Virginia, which made its first ever College World Series appearance last June, has been picked as the 2010 preseason favorite in a vote of the league’s 12 head baseball coaches.

The Cavaliers, who return a strong cast that includes All-America outfielder Jarrett Parker, 2009 ACC Freshman of the Year Danny Hultzen and 2009 ACC Championship MVP Dan Grovatt, were projected as the ACC’s 2010 champion on eight head coaches’ ballots. Three coaches chose Florida State, and North Carolina received one vote.

Eleven of the league’s head coaches picked Virginia as the favorite to win the Coastal Division, with defending division champion North Carolina receiving one vote. Florida State was a favored to claim a fourth straight Atlantic Division championship on 10 ballots, while two coaches favored Clemson.

Georgia Tech placed second in the overall Coastal Division preseason coaches’ voting, followed by North Carolina, Miami, Virginia Tech and Duke.

Clemson was picked to finish second in the Atlantic Division, followed by Boston College, NC State, Wake Forest and Maryland.

Teams were awarded six points for each first-place vote, five points for each second-place vote, etc.

Virginia, which won a school-record 49 games in 2009, was joined in the College World Series by North Carolina, which made its ACC-record fourth straight trip to Omaha. Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Miami also made the 2009 NCAA field, with Clemson and Florida State joining North Carolina and Virginia in the final 16.

ACC teams open their 2010 seasons Feb. 19 and conclude regular-season play May 22. The 2010 ACC Baseball Championship will be held May 26-30 at NewBridge Bank Park in Greensboro, N.C.

Complete results of the 2010 ACC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll are listed below. First-place votes are in parenthesis:

ATLANTIC DIVISION

Team Points 2009 Record

Florida State (10) 70 45-18. 19-9 ACC

Clemson (2) 62 44-22, 19-11 ACC

Boston College 42 34-26, 13-15 ACC

NC State 38 25-31, 10-20 ACC

Wake Forest 21 22-30, 6-24 ACC

Maryland 19 27-27, 10-20 ACC

COASTAL DIVISION

Team Points 2009 Record

Virginia (11) 71 49-15-1, 16-11-1 ACC

Georgia Tech 57 38-19-1. 17-10-1 ACC

North Carolina (1) 44 48-18, 19-10 ACC

Miami 42 38-22, 18-12 ACC

Virginia Tech 20 32-21, 12-17 ACC

Duke 18 35-24, 15-15 ACC

Overall champion: Virginia (8)

Others receiving votes: Florida State (3), North Carolina (1)