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Talent Heavy Field Ready To Play On Big Stage …

It’s college baseball’s top event, so it stands to reason that some of the top players in the country should be on display when the 2011 College World Series starts this Saturday in Omaha. However, the wealth of talent seems like it’s bursting at the seams for the first CWS at TD Ameritrade Park.

How much talent? Consider this – the SEC, ACC, Big 12, and Pac-10 are the only conferences represented at the CWS this year. Each of those conferences present a Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the Year award every year. Of the possible 12 such honorees from the conferences, nine will be playing in Omaha this weekend.

Add to that the fact that 13 CWS players received NCBWA All-America recognition this week, two players were first-round picks in the 2011 MLB Draft.

Danny Hultzen

Virginia pitcher Danny Hultzen is more than just your everyday pitcher. He’s also been one of the top two-way players in the country in his three years. This is his second go-round at the CWS, after helping the Cavs advance to Omaha as a freshman. Hulzten is an All-American and the ACC Pitcher of the Year in 2011. The Seattle Mariners made Hultzen (12-3, 1.49 ERA, .320 BA) the second overall pick in last week’s draft. His 151 strikeouts rank second in the nation. He’ll be on the mound when Virginia faces Cal in Sunday’s 2 p.m. ET game.

Hultzen’s teammate, Will Roberts, has emerged as a top pitcher in his own right. Roberts (11-1, 1.58 ERA) started the season pitching in midweek games, but he moved into the weekend rotation not long after firing a perfect game against George Washington on March 29. It’s just the eighth Division I  nine-inning perfect game since 1957. CLICK HERE to listen to a podcast interview CB360 recorded right after that start. Roberts also was named an NCBWA second team All-American this week.

Taylor Jungmann

Like Hultzen, Texas pitcher Taylor Jungmann was pitching on the big stage in Omaha two years ago. Also like Hultzen, Jungmann (13-2, 1.38 ERA) was a high first-round draft pick last week when the Milwaukee Brewers nabbed him with the 12th overall selection. Jungmann made his mark at the CWS in 2009, going 3-0 with a complete game and 15 strikeouts in 15.1 innings to help the Longhorns reach the title series. The 2011 Big 12 Pitcher of the Year will be on the hill Saturday night looking to snap his personal two-game NCAA Tournament losing streak when Texas faces Florida. The three-time All-American lost in this year’s Austin Regional to Kent State and he fell to Arizona State in the Super Regional – for his only setbacks of the year.

While Jungmann and Texas are no strangers to Omaha, two significant Longhorns will make their Omaha debuts this weekend. Big 12 Freshman of the Year Erich Weiss and NCBWA First Team All-American Corey Knebel have figured prominently into their team’s success this season. Weiss leads the Longhorns in batting average (.358), RBIs (44), slugging percentage (.532), and on-base percentage (.495). The lanky 6-foot-3 third baseman is one of three Longhorns to start all 66 games this season. While Weiss is the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, Knebel is the NCBWA’s National Freshman of the Year. The closer has 19 saves with a sparkling 1.15 ERA in 37 appearances. He earned his most-recent pair of saves with a total of 3.0 shutout innings in the Super Regional wins over the Sun Devils.

Tyler Naquin

Texas A&M Big 12 Player of the Year Tyler Naquin gives the conference three top award winners at this year’s CWS. His .390 average and .460 OBP fit the bill for a leadoff batter, and the third team NCBWA All-American also leads the Aggies with his .556 slugging percentage, which is helped by 23 doubles and a whopping seven triples. While the big-armed right fielder has only six stolen bases, centerfielder Krey Bratsen has totaled 31 swipes along with a .335 avg. to help him earn Freshman All-America honors. Aggie pitchers Michael Wacha (8-3, 2.10 ERA) and Ross Stripling (14-2, 2.29 ERA, 4 CG, 4 SVs) are the real deal too.

Finding just one or two Vanderbilt players to highlight is hard to do, because the Commodore roster is brimming with top talent. Consider the fact that while Sonny Gray (12-3, 1.97 ERA) was tabbed by the Oakland A’s with the 18th overall pick in the MLB Draft, fellow junior Grayson Garvin (13-1, 2.36 ERA)  was named the SEC Pitcher of the Year and is a second team All-American – not to mention being the 59th overall pick by Tampa Bay. The starting duo has the luxury of turning things over to NCBWA third team All-America closer Navery Moore (1.21 ERA, 11 SVs). Vandy also boasts SEC Freshman of the Year Tony Kemp (.325 BA, 16 SB, 56 Runs). The Commodores set an SEC record with 12 players selected in the 2011 draft. In addition to Gray, Garvin and Moore, Jason Esposito, Jack Armstrong, Aaron Westlake, Corey Williams, Taylor Hill, Mark Lamm, Curt Casali, Will Clinard, and Joe Loftus all had their names called during the three-day draft.

Colin Moran

North Carolina has a top duo that combines youth and veteran presence. ACC Freshman of the Year Colin Moran leads the Tar Heels in nearly every offensive category, including batting average (.335), RBIs (69), HR (9), slg.% (.551), and OBP (.443). His RBIs rank 14th in the nation and are the most of any player at the 2011 CWS. Moran’s older brother Brian was an All-American at UNC. Their uncle, B.J. Surhoff, played for 19 years in the Major Leagues after a great career at North Carolina. Like Moran, junior Levi Michael (.300, 5 HR, 48 RBIs) jumped into the middle of the Tar Heel order as a freshman. Michael was selected with the 30th overall pick to the Minnesota Twins last week.

Jackie Bradley, Jr.

South Carolina is back to defend its national championship, but its reigning CWS Most Outstanding Player, Jackie Bradley, Jr., has been out of action since injuring his wrist back on April 23. Despite the injury, Bradley still was tabbed with the 40th overall pick last week by the Boston Red Sox. He said this week that he hopes to contribute in some way for his team in Omaha. Michael Roth made only two 2010 starts for the Gamecocks, but they both were in Omaha. The first was a complete-game win over archrival Clemson to help SC reach the CWS Finals, and the second came four days later against UCLA in the Finals. Roth (13-2, 1.02 ERA) has been South Carolina’s ace this year. He and veteran closer Matt Price (5-3, 2.16 ERA, 18 SVs) recently were named NCBWA second team All-Americans. The Gamecocks return several other everyday players from the 2010 championship team, including team triple-crown leader Christian Walker (.359 BA, 10 HR, 60 RBIs), who is only a sophomore.

Catcher Mike Zunino on a play at the 2010 CWS.

SEC Player of the Year Mike Zunino (.376, 18 HR, 66 RBIs) leads Florida back to Omaha for a second straight year. The iron-man catcher boasts a gaudy .686 slugging percentage that ranks 15th in the nation and is the best of any player in the College World Series field. Zunino is an NCBWS second team All-American who is one of only two Gators (Preston Tucker-.314 BA, 14 HR, 68 RBIs) to play in all 67 of his team’s games in 2011. Sophomore Brian Johnson (.312 BA, 5 HR, 27 RBIs – 8-3, 3.66 ERA) joins Virginia’s Hultzen as another top two-way player – but Johnson has yet to play since May 28, when he was injured at the SEC Tournament after a fluke play saw him hit by a throw from home plate to second base. Freshman pitcher Karsten Whitsen (8-0, 2.45 ERA)  joins the likes of 2010 CWS pitcher Gerrit Cole of UCLA and TCU’s Matt Purke to turn down first-round MLB Draft money in order to play college baseball. Whitsen was the ninth overall pick by San Diego in the 2010 draft. The decision to go to college worked out for Cole, who later became the number-one overall pick in the 2011 draft.

Justin Jones

California doesn’t have one or two players with eye-popping numbers to watch like the rest of the teams in the field. With six straight NCAA Tourney wins, the Golden Bears are the only non No. 1 regional seed that advanced to Omaha this year. What they do have though is “mojo” and a group of players who have refused to see their season, let alone program, end. Tony Renda (.335, 3 HR, 42 RBIs) is the Pac-10 Player of the Year. He is one of four Cal players to start all 58 games this season. Roommate Chadd Krist (.304, 2 HR, 43 RBIs) joins Renda with the superstition of eating an apple before every game. Sophomore pitcher Justin Jones (9-6, 2.93 ERA) could be the Cal player to watch for a multitude of reasons. First, the lefty has a head of shaggy hair that would make Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl jealous. Second, he wore a sling in the dugout in the Super Regional clincher after holding his arm midway through his game-one start. And finally (and probably most importantly), the fact that Jones is even still at Cal is a story in itself. The 2010 Freshman All-American thought about transferring when Cal announced it was eliminating the baseball program on Sept. 28, 2010. However, his decision to stay, along with the performances of fellow starter Erik Johnson (7-4, 2.91 ERA, 100 Ks) and the rest of his teammates, have helped propel the Golden Bears to a place they haven’t been in nearly 20 years (in Omaha for the CWS).

These are just some of the top players we’ll see over the next couple of weeks. One of the best things about the College World Series is the players who will burst out of the shadows to become stars with the flick of a bat, the twirl of a seam and the blink of an eye. Don’t believe me? Just ask Michael Roth!

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A Rundown Of The Day’s Highlights…

Ross Heffley

Why did that game end so late? Because of the 20-inning game between Western Carolina and Elon that proceeded it. The eighth seeded Catamounts won that game 10-7 over the top-seeded Phoenix.

College Baseball 360’s Pete LaFleur was up working the Twitter feed most of the night (and into the morning). Here are some highlights, courtesy of him and team and conference SIDs from around the country.

• Following the nearly 400-minute game between WCU and Elon, Georgia Southern vs. College of Charleston started 12:30 a.m. (end 3:01 a.m.).
• Ross Heffley’s two-run home run in the top of the 20th inning provided the winning margin. Heffley’s home run came on his 10th at-bat of the game.
• Western Carolina starter Matt Benedict logged 8.0 innings, less than half of the 20-inning game vs. Elon (5R/3ER-6H-5BB-3K).
• Official game time of the WCU-Elon eternity was six hours and 33 minutes … Elon used 23 players (15 in the field, 8 pitchers), WCU 19.
• WCU most ABs without a out hit: Macon Smith 0-for-8 … Elon’s Garrett Koster 0-for-8; 3- & 4-hole hitters Sebastian Gomez & Ryan Kinsella both 0-for-7.
• WCU 1B/6-hole Tyler White lined-out to right field in 2nd inn. vs. Elon … but then he reached 9 straight times! (6-for-7, 2BB-HBP; 1 RBI). White’s six hits are a new SoCon Tournament record.
• Elon used eight pitchers who threw 307 total pitches. WCU used five pitchers who threw 332 total pitches. Benedict (131) and Johnson (113) both over 100. 639 total pitches combined were thrown in the marathon.
• The two teams combined for 34 strikeouts. Elon batters fanned 20 times. WCU pitcher Brandon Johnson notched a career-best 10 Ks.
• WCU left 20 runners on base, Elon stranded 13.
• The game is the longest in SoCon Tournament history. The previous record was 18 innings, originally set in 1996 and tied in 2009 by Elon and Wofford.
• Here’s the Box Score from the epic game.

Anthony Meo

Earlier in the day, Coastal Carolina pitcher Anthony Meo made history of his own. Meo fired the first no-hitter in Big South Tournament history to lead the top-seeded Chanticleers to a 5-0 win over Radford. Meo retired the first 16 batters he faced until Blake Sipe reached base on an error in the top of the sixth inning. The junior walked just one batter and fired 103 pitches to up his record to 9-3. Here’s the final box score.

The aforementioned Creighton was one of a handful of top seeds to lose a conference tournament game on Tuesday. After winning that 9 a.m. game against Bradley, the Blue Jays were back in action at 9:40 p.m. against Missouri State. The fourth-seeded Bears knocked-off Creighton 10-3 in the Blue Jays’ newly minted home park. The game finished after midnight in Omaha, and Creighton now comes back at 12:30 p.m. for an elimination game against Southern Illinois.

Matt Purke

TCU’s Matt Purke made his first start in more than a month in the Horned Frogs’ Mountain West opener vs. New Mexico. The sophomore has been out since mid April with shoulder issues. He looked anything but his old self in the sixth seeded Lobos’ 4-3 upset win over top-seeded TCU. Purke pitched just 4.0 innings and gave-up a run on four hits with two walks and two strikeouts in the no-decision. TCU will now have fans of bubble teams around the country the rest of the week.

Vanderbilt pounded Georgia 10-0 in the first round of the SEC Tournament to drop the Bulldogs to 28-29 overall and put a big hit in their NCAA hopes. In order to meet the NCAA requirement of finishing with a record above .500 to receive an at-large bid Georgia now needs to win three straight games.

No. 1 seed Texas and No. 3 seed Oklahoma both lost on the first day of the Big 12 Tournament. The Longhorns fell 6-4 to surging Missouri, while the Sooners lost 5-4 to Kansas State. In the past an opening-round loss wouldn’t have been a big deal in a tournament that featured a round-robin format, but the Big 12 switched to double-elimination this year. At 25-30, Mizzou has to win the tournament to receive an NCAA bid, but they are the team nobody wants to play this week in Oklahoma City. Texas now has work to do (starting with today’s elimination game vs. Baylor) to assure itself a top eight national seed. The Longhorns came into the week with an RPI of 12.

Eight seed Nicholls State upset #1 Texas State 6-0 in the first round of the Southland Tournament. No. 2 seed was the lone higher seed to win a first round game at that tournament.

Other notable Wednesday conference tournament upset victims: Florida State (7-0 to NC State), Rice (9-8 to UAB), Arkansas (7-4 to Alabama), East Carolina (8-5 to Houston), Troy (4-2 to Arkansas-Little Rock), and Stetson (15-3 to Belmont), Belmont has now beaten the A-Sun’s top seed three straight times in the last six days. The Hatters are likely to be a bubble team favorite as well.

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Conference Races, Upsets & A Hit Streak Highlights…

The latest weekend of college baseball was, overall, light on upsets in the College Baseball 360 Top 50 Rankings. In fact, higher-ranked teams won 76% (29-9) of Sunday’s games involving the CB360 top-50. There were 40 series over the past few days involving CB360 top-50 teams, with 14 resulting in sweeps by the higher-ranked teams while 19 other favorites won their series 2-1.

The weekend saw a total of just six Top 50 series upsets, with Ole Miss pulling off the biggest series shocker-taking two of three games from #3 South Carolina.#21 Arkansas had the other big SEC upset by taking two of three from #4 Florida. (SEC Standings & potential Tournament seeding listed below.)

The rest of the series upsets came from the lower half of the Top 50. Wichita State took two of three from #36 Creighton, Missouri won its series at #44 Kansas State, and UNC Greensboro & Western Kentucky took series from #49 College of Charleston and #50 Florida Atlantic, respectively. #14 Fresno State didn’t lose its series, but did tie Louisiana Tech with two wins each.

Missouri started 2-9 in the Big-12, but has now won three straight series against Top 50 conference opponents Baylor, Texas A&M and K-State to move to 8-12 and seventh place in the Big 12.

Big 12 Standings

1. Texas A&M 15-6 2. Texas 17-7 3. Oklahoma St. 12-8 4. Oklahoma 13-9 5. Texas Tech & Baylor 9-12 7. Missouri 8-12 8. Kansas St. 9-14 9. Kansas 9-15 10. Nebraska 7-13

Chad Holbrook

This Tweet from South Carolina Associate Head Coach Chad Holbrook probably sums-up college baseball Sundays the best “Why do we talk about Sundays?? Its simple really-Teams that win on Sundays host regionals and play in Omaha. That’s what we are trying to do.”

Dallas Baptist dropped two out of three games in its series at #11 Texas A&M, but in winning the second game of the set the Patriots added to their quality win resume. DBU (32-15) has wins this season over Oklahoma State, TCU (2), Oklahoma, Rice, Texas Tech, and Texas A&M as the DI independent shoots for an at-large NCAA bid.

Speaking of TCU, the #15 Horned Frogs picked-up a Super Regional quality series win at#20 Oklahoma State. What’s probably most impressive about Jim Schlossnagle’s squad taking two of three in Stillwater is the fact that they did it without pitchers Matt Purke and Steven Maxwell. Purke (4-1, 1.55 ERA) is out with a shoulder injury, while Maxwell (5-0, 2.90 ERA) was sidelined due to a sore biceps. Purke threw on flat ground from 120 feet on Sunday. TCU hopes he will be available for the Mountain West Conference Tournament, which starts on May 24.

Princeton locked-up an NCAA bid by winning the Ivy League title Sunday.

Princeton locked-up an automatic NCAA bid by winning the Ivy League Championship Series over the weekend. The Tigers downed defending Ivy champion Dartmouth 8-5 on Sunday in the deciding game three of the series. The win gives Princeton (23-22) its 17th conference crown and first since 2006. While the Tigers are just a game over .500 this season, they handed LSU its first loss of the year back on March 6 in Baton Rouge.

The quarterfinalists for the National Pitcher of the Year Award were announced heading into the weekend, and it would be hard to make an argument against UCLA‘s Trevor Bauer as the current front runner for the honor. The junior fired his fifth straight complete game (and sixth this year) in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Oregon to help the Bruins to a three-game sweep in Eugene. Bauer (9-2) struckout 12 and leads the nation with 154 Ks. His 411 strikeouts make him the first Bruin with more than 400 in a career. He needs just 10 more Ks to set his own single season record from a year ago. Bauer’s efforts helped UCLA to its first road sweep of the season. The Bruin pitching staff has given-up just six runs over the last six games.

Oregon State's Tony Bryant

#7 Oregon State kept its steam train rolling by taking two of three games from #24 Cal. The Beavers (34-11, 14-4) have won each of their six Pac-10 Conferences series this season, while Cal (28-16, 12-9) has dropped two of its last three conference sets. OSU closer Tony Bryant earned his ninth save in as many chances this season in Sunday’s series clincher.

Pac-10 Standings

1. Oregon St 14-4 2. Arizona St 13-5 3. UCLA 14-7 4. Cal 12-8 5. Arizona 9-9 6. USC 8-10 7. Stanford 8-9 8. Oregon 5-12 9. Washington St. 4-13 and Washington 4-13

Ray Graham reached a career milestone over the weekend. The Rice head coach got carer win number 900 in Friday’s 8-2 win over cross-town rival Houston en-route to a series sweep. Graham and the Owls sit in second place behind Southern Mississippi in the Conference USA standings. The two teams meet in Hattiesburg, Miss to close the regular season.

Conference USA Standings

1. Southern Mississippi 14-4 2. Rice 12-6 3. East Carolina 11-10 4. Memphis & Houston 9-9 6. Tulane 8-10 7. UAB 9-12 8. UCF 7-11 9. Marshall 5-13

There were just two league series played in the ACC, with North Carolina and Wake Forest sweeping Maryland and Boston College, respectively. The rest of the teams in the league were either playing non-conference series or on break for final exams.

ACC Atlantic Standings

1. Florida State 16-8  2. Clemson 13-11  3. North Carolina State 11-13  4. Wake Forest 10-14  5. Boston College 7-19  6. Maryland 5-22 …

ACC Coastal Standings

1. Virginia 20-4  2. Georgia Tech 18-6  3. Miami 16-7  4. North Carolina 16-8  5. Virginia Tech 9-15  6. Duke 5-19

The West Coast Conference race got tighter when San Francisco dropped two of three at San Diego and Gonzaga swept Santa Clara. The Bulldogs now lead the WCC standings by percentage points over the Dons. Gonzaga (25-13-1, 9-3) has three conference series to play, while USF (25-22, 11-4) has just two left. The two teams meet in the regular season finale May 27-29 in Spokane. With no conference tournament, the WCC’s automatic NCAA bid is likely to be determined that weekend.

WCC Standings

1. Gonzaga 9-3 (.750)  2. San Francisco 11-4 (.733) 3. San Diego 8-7 4. Portland 6-6 5. Pepperdine 5-7 &  Loyola Marymount 5-7 7. St. Mary’s 6-9 8. Santa Clara 4-11

Cal State Fullerton has won five of its last seven games since dropping two of three Big West Conference games to Cal Poly two weeks ago. The Titans (33-13, 14-4) swept three at Riverside over the weekend to inch closer to another conference crown. UC Irvine (31-13, 10-5) took two of three from Cal Poly (21-21, 10-8) and sits in good shape to get at least an at-large NCAA bid. Poly likely needs to win at least nine of its final 12 games to have a chance at the program’s second bid in the last three years (and in program history). They close the season with three games at Pacific, a game at Stanford and three at Cal State Bakersfield.

Big West Standings

1. Fullerton 14-4  2. Irvine 10-5  3. Cal Poly 10-8  4. Long Beach & Davis 8-7  5. Riverside & Santa Barbara 6-9  7. Pacific 7-11  8. Northridge 3-12

The longest active Division One hitting streak in the nation is still alive at 33 straight games after Ryan Jones collected at least one hit in each of Michigan State’s (30-14, 13-5) three weekend wins over Purdue. Jones’ efforts helped the Spartans improve to 9-0 in Big Ten home games this season. They went into the weekend tied for first place with the Boilermakers in the conference standings, but now lead Minnesota (which they swept last month) by two games with two series to go. The top six teams advance to the Big Ten Tournament.

Michigan State's Ryan Jones extended his DI leading hitting streak to 33 games.

Big Ten Standings

1. Michigan St. 13-5  2. Minnesota 11-7  3. Purdue, Ohio St. & Illinois 10-8  6. Penn St. & Indiana 8-10  9. Iowa & Northwestern 7-11  11. Michigan 6-12

Big East Standings

1. UConn 17-3  2. St. Johns 13-7  3. West Virginia 13-8  4. Pittsburgh 12-9  5. South Florida 11-9  6. Louisville & Cincinnati 11-10  8. Notre Dame 10-10  9. Seton Hall 10-11

Southern Conference Standings

1. Elon 21-6  2. Greensboro 16-8  3. Charleston 15-9  4. Samford & Georgia  Southern 14-10  6. Appalachian St.  7. 12-11..Furman 10-13  8. Wofford & The Citadel 8-16

Southland Conference Standings

1. Texas St. 20-7  2. Stephen F. Austin 17-10  3. Sam Houston St. 16-11  4. Southeastern Louisiana 15-12  5. Texas A&M Corpus Christi 14-13  6. UT-Arlington & UT-San Antonio 13-14  8. McNeese & Nicholls 12-15

WAC Standings

1. Hawaii 12-4  2. Fresno St. 12-6  3. San Jose St. 9-7  4. New Mexico St. 7-8  5. Louisiana Tech 8-11  6. Nevada 6-9  7. Sacramento St. 3-12

America East Standings

1. Stony Brook 15-2  2.  Binghamton 12-4  3. Maine 12-5  4. Albany 9-7  5. Hartford 1-15  6. UMBC 0-16

Atlantic-10 top-9

1. Charlotte & Rhode Island 15-6  3. LaSalle & Dayton 11-7  5. Xavier & Richmond 10-8  7. Fordham & St. Bonaventure 9-8  9. StLouis 7-11

Atlantic Sun top-8

1. Stetson 20-4  2. Jacksonville 18-9  3. Belmont 14-10  4. Kennesaw St. 13-10  5. East TN 12-10  6. Mercer 12-11  7. Florida Gulf Coast 11-13  8. North Florida 13-14

Big South Standings

1. Coastal Carolina 17-4  2. Liberty 15-6  3. Charelston Southern & Gardner-Webb 12-9  5. Winthrop 11-10  6. Radford 10-11  7. VMI 9-11,  8. UNC-Asheville & High Point 7-14  10. Presbyterian 5-16

Colonial Standings

1. Old Dominion 16-8  2. James Madison & UNC-Wilmington 15-9  4. Towson 14-10  5. Delaware 15-12  6. Georgia State & William and Mary 13-11  8. Northeastern 10-14  9. VCU & Hofstra 9-15  11. George Mason 6-21

Horizon League Standings

1. Wright St. 13-5  2. Valparaiso 13-6  3. Illinois-Chicago 11-7  4. Milwaukee 11-8  5. Youngstown St. 7-11  6. Butler 7-12  7. Cleveland St. 4-17

MAAC Standings

1. Manhattan 16-1  2. Rider 15-6  3. Siena 10-8  4. Marist & Fairfield 9-9  6. Canisius 8-8  7. Iona 7-11  8. St. Peter’s 4-13  9. Niagara 4-17

MAC East Standings

1. Kent St. 17-4  2. Miami 14-7  3.  Bowling Green 10-11  4. Ohio 7-14  5. Akron 5-16  6. Buffalo 2-18

MAC West Standings

1. Central Michigan 14-7  2. Eastern Michigan & Toledo 13-8  4. Northern Illinois 12-9  5. Western Michigan 10-11  6. Ball St. 8-12

MEAC Standings

1. Bethune-Cookman 18-0  2. Delaware St 11-7  3. Norfolk St. & North Carolina A&T 9-8  5. Maryland-Eastern Shore 7-11  6. Florida A&M 6-12  7. Coppin St. 2-16

Missouri Valley Standings

1. Creighton 10-5  2. Wichita St. 9-6  3. Missouri St 8-6  4. Illinois St. & Southern Illinois 8-7  6. Evansville 6-8  7. Indiana St. 6-9  8. Bradley 4-11

Mountain West Standings

1. TCU 15-2  2. Utah 15-5  3. New Mexico 10-11  4. BYU 7-9  5. UNLV 7-10  6. San Diego State 7-11  7. Air Force 2-15

Northeast Conference Standings top-7

1. Monmouth 22-6  2. Sacred Heart 19-9  3. Long Island 18-9  4. Bryant 15-12  5. Central Connecticut St. 15-13  6. Wagner 12-16  7. Quinnipiac 11-21

OVC Standings top-7

Austin Peay 13-4…SE Missouri 10-6…Jacksonville (AL) St..TN Martin 9-8…E. Ill. 9-9…E. Kentucky 10-11..TN Tech 8-10

Summit League Standings

1. South Dakota St. 16-4  2. Oral Roberts 14-6  3. North Dakota St. 11-8  4. Western Illinois 10-10  5. Southern Utah & IPFW 8-12  6. Centenary 6-13

Sun Belt Standings top-8

1. Troy 16-7  2. Florida International 15-8  3. Florida Atlantic & Louisiana-Lafayette 14-9  5. Western Kentucky 13-10  6. South Alabama 11-12  7. Arkansas St. 10-13  8. Arkansas-Little Rock 8-15

SEC West Standings

1. Alabama & Arkansas 12-12  3. Auburn, Mississippi & Mississippi St. 11-13  6. LSU 8-16

SEC East Standings

1. Vanderbilt 19-5  2. South Carolina & Florida 18-6  4. Georgia 14-10  5. Kentucky & Tennessee 5-19

SEC TOURNAMENT SEEDINGS AS OF 5/9/11

1. VANDERBILT
2. ALABAMA (Won 2 of 3 vs. Arkansas)
3. SOUTH CAROLINA (Won 2 of 3 vs. UF)
4. FLORIDA (Lost 2 of 3 vs. SC)
5. GEORGIA
6. ARKANSAS (Lost 2 of 3 vs. Alabama)
7/8/9. AUBURN (2-1 vs. UM; 0-3 vs. MSU)
7/8/9. OLE MISS (1-2 vs. AU; TBD vs. MSU) 7/8/9. MISS. STATE (3-0 vs. AU; TBD vs. UM)
————————————————————————
10. LSU
11. TENNESSEE
12. KENTUCKY

Tournament Seeding Information

The eight teams that make up the 2011 Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament are determined by the best winning percentage in conference competition.

The divisional champion with the highest conference winning percentage is the first seed and the remaining divisional champion is the second seed.  All other teams are seeded 3-8 by conference winning percentage.

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It’s the first weekend in May, and temperatures are climbing around the country-just as conference races and battles for at-large NCAA bids are heating up in college baseball as well. There will be a bit fewer Top 50 teams in action this weekend and next weekend, due to conference byes and teams taking final exams around the country.

Here’s a look at a few things to look for this weekend (all rankings based on the College Baseball 360 Week 12 Composite National Rankings):

1. Thursday is here, and that means college baseball on prime time TV! The SEC Thursday night game of the week on ESPNU has been just fantastic so far. Kyle Peterson has brought his bag of college baseball knowledge on a weekly basis and The U has also done a great job of covering teams from other conferences with its College Baseball Live lead-in show. They have had interviews with coaches each week and had other features as well. It’s worth setting the DVR if you can’t catch it live. This week’s Thursday game has #4 Florida (34-10, 17-4) at #21 Arkansas (29-13, 10-11). ESPNU will also televise Saturday’s series finales at 8 p.m. ET. Bring it on!

2. There are compelling/pivotal conference match-ups every week, especially in the SEC, but the LSU at Alabama series could be as pivotal as it gets in the SEC Western Division. LSU (28-17, 7-14) currently sits in last place in the division, but the Tigers are just 3.0 games behind division co-leaders Arkansas and Alabama (28-19, 10-11). A sweep by LSU could turn the whole division upside down. The Bayou Bengals swung last weekend (and possibly their season) when they scored eight runs in the bottom of the 8th inning in their 9-5 game one win over Kentucky to key their first SEC series sweep of the year. Alabama has dropped six of its last nine conference games, despite taking two of three from Mississippi State last weekend.

3. The aforementioned conference bye weekends have led to some interesting non-conference series this weekend. #15 TCU is at #20 Oklahoma State, #41 Central Florida visits #6 Florida State and #11 Texas A&M playing host to Dallas Baptist. TCU (31-13) has won 11 of its last 14 games, with a pair of losses to Oklahoma and a setback to Dallas Baptist in that stretch. The Horned Frogs’ pitching staff boasts a 2.82 ERA with 354 strikeouts and just 119 walks this year. OSU (30-13) is in third place in the Big 12 behind co-leaders Texas and Texas A&M. Central Florida (28-17) and Dallas Baptist (31-13) both have opportunities to get much needed RPI boosts with NCAA selections looming in just over three weeks.

Jackie Bradley, Jr.

4. If South Carolina and TCU get back to the College World Series this year they will likely have to reach the hallowed soil without two of college baseball’s biggest stars. TCU pitcher Matt Purke reportedly has shoulder bursitis, but could still return to the mound this year. Purke hasn’t pitched since going just 4.0 innings in an April 16 start vs. San Diego State. South Carolina’s Jackie Bradley, Jr. has been out since injuring his left wrist on April 23 against Mississippi State. Bradley said recently via Twitter “something is torn inside there”. His career at South Carolina could likely be over. Both Bradley and Purke are expected to be first round picks in next month’s MLB Draft.

Ryan Jones

5. Michigan State second baseman Ryan Jones is on an historic march in East Lansing. Jones extended his school record hitting streak to 30 games in Wednesday’s 7-1 loss to Western Michigan. Jones is batting .364 for MSU (27-14, 10-5), which hosts a first place Big Ten showdown with Purdue (30-13) this weekend. It’s the second straight weekend the Spartans have hosted a Big Ten co-leader. They swept Penn State last week. Jones has the longest active hitting streak in Division One baseball.

Dugouthats.com has officially licensed 2010 College World Series memorabilia year- round!

From t-shirts and caps to limited edition prints commemorating the last CWS ever played at historic Rosenblatt Stadium, Dugouthats.com also always has the caps of your favorite college teams like LSU, Texas, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UCLA, South Carolina, Miami and more.

Here’s our by the numbers look at the highs and lows from the latest week of college baseball.

Mike Gillespie

900…Career wins for UC Irvine head coach Mike Gillespie. The 23-year Division One veteran notched the milestone with Saturday’s 5-3 home win over Sacramento State. The 2010 ABCA Hall of Fame inductee is 901-526-2 in his career (he picked-up another win in Sunday’s series finale), including a 1998 national championship as head coach at USC.

1…Career loss for TCU ace Matt Purke. The sophomore is now 18-1 in his still young career after suffering his first loss Saturday to Houston Baptist, which was 0-14 going into the match-up in Ft. Worth. Purke, who has missed a start this year due to a finger blister, gave-up four runs (one earned) in just 3 2/3 IP in the 7-4 setback.

31…Career saves for Matty Ott, to set a new LSU program record. Ott recorded his record-setting 30th save in Friday’s 7-6 win over Cal State Fullerton. He notched #31 (and his fourth of the season) in another one run game on Saturday.

10…Errors committed by Fullerton en-route to being swept in their 3-game series at LSU (15-1). The Titans (8-6) had committed just seven errors in their first 11 games prior, but suffer a 3-game sweep for the first time since 2009. They look to snap their skid Tuesday at Texas A&M.

Sam Gaviglio (Courtesy Oregon State).

29…Scoreless innings pitched by Oregon State’s Sam Gaviglio. The junior fired 8.0 shutout innings in Friday’s win over New Mexico State for his third win of 2011. He gave-up two unearned runs in a season-opening win over Gonzaga, but has a 0.00 ERA with 26 strikeouts and just four walks in 29 2/3 innings this season.

2…Players who hit for the cycle last week. Tennessee’s Matt Duffy became just the second Volunteer to ever achieve the feat when he did it in Wednesday’s win over New Orleans. Matt Holland also hit for the cycle in Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s upset of Texas Tech.

11…Combined scoreless innings pitched by Cal relievers Kevin Miller (7.0 IP) and Kyle Porter (4.0 IP) in Saturday night’s 7-6 win in 15-innings over Rice. Golden Bear ace Justin Jones surrendered an uncharacteristic 6 ER in just 4.0 IP, but the duo combined to allow just two hits with 10 strikeouts in the marathon.

5:22…As in 5 hours and 22 minutes, the time of Pacific’s 11-10 win in 13 innings on Tuesday against San Jose State. The game featured 127 plate appearances, 513 pitches by a combined 13 pitchers and just three errors in 219 total fielding chances.

42…Game hitting streak by Ronnie Freeman in Friday’s loss to Belmont. Freeman had extended his streak to school record status in mid-week losses to Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt.

Danny Hultzen (Photo courtesy Virginia).

14…Strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings (14 of 20 outs) by Virginia’s Danny Hultzen in Friday’s 5-0 win over Clemson. Justin Thompson notched 4 Ks in 2 1/3 IP to close the game to give the Cavs a season-high 18 strikeouts in the game, which also marked the first time Clemson had been shutout since May 22, 2008-a stretch of 148 games. The Tigers had entered the game with an ACC-best .343 batting average. Hultzen (4-0) now had 50 Ks with just 4 BB in 27 1/3 innings this season. He lowered his ERA to 0.66.

17-4…Virginia’s record against Clemson since 2004 after sweeping their ACC-opening series over the weekend at Clemson. Virginia (16-1) has won 10 straight, while Clemson (7-6) has dropped four straight and four of its last five overall. The Tigers dropped two of three games to South Carolina prior to the UVA series.

2…Combined home runs hit by Virginia and Duke through the first month of the season. The two teams have a combined 28-5 record, but each hit its first long ball of 2011 over the weekend. Virginia’s came Sunday, while Duke’s came Saturday. The Blue Devils opened ACC play by taking two of three from NC State.

1-2…UCLA‘s record over each of the last three weekends. The Bruins (8-6) dropped two of three at Nebraska last week after losing two of three to San Jose State to close February. They lost two of three again this past weekend, with a win over St. Mary’s and losses to Georgia and arch rival USC at the Dodgertown Classic. The pitching remains the team’s strength, with a stellar 1.80 and 165 strikeouts in 130 1/3 innings. However, the team is hitting just .245 and averaging 4.1 runs-a-game.

0…Road wins through the first month of the season by New Mexico after dropping three games over the weekend at Oklahoma State (12-3). The Lobos (3-11) started the season with three losses at Arizona State (11-3) and have also lost a game at New Mexico State. After the program’s first NCAA berth in more than 40 years in 2010, New Mexico has struggled this year due to nearly complete roster turnover.

Sean Gilmartin

11…Strikeouts in each of his last two starts registered by Florida State Friday starter Sean Gilmartin. The senior fanned 11 in 8.0 IP in Friday’s 3-1 win over Boston College. In his last two starts against BC and Georgia, Gilmartin (4-0) has allowed just one earned run on three hits with 22 strikeouts and two walks in 15.0 innings. The ‘Noles (15-1) face #1 Florida on Tuesday.

64…Two-out runs scored by Florida State through 16 games this season. The Seminoles scored 11 two-out runs in Saturday’s 15-6 win over Boston College alone. The 64 two-out runs represents 45% of the team’s 138 total runs to date. Meanwhile, FSU’s opponents have crossed the plate just 13 times this season. Jayce Boyd and James Ramsey are Florida State’s top two-out RBI men with 12 and 10, respectively.

1.30…ERA by Long Beach State’s Andrew Gagnon, with four starts against four ranked teams this season. Gagnon (2-2) earned his second win after allowing just a run in 8.0 innings Friday against Rice in San Francisco. He has also faced Cal State Fullerton, Oregon and Arizona this season.

0…Walks issued by the Central Florida pitching staff in a 3-game weekend sweep of Wagner. The Knights (13-3) registered 29 strikeouts in 27.0 IP. The pitching staff has failed to issue a free pass in seven different games this season. Ben Lively turned-in UCF’s first 9-inning complete game in three years in Saturday’s win, while Ray Hanson followed suit the next day. For the season, UCF has 152 strikeouts and just 29 walks in 142.0 innings.

College Baseball 360 contributor Stephen Francis checks-in with his weekly look at some of the top college baseball comings and goings from the state of Texas…

By Stephen Francis

There were three big series going on this weekend involving Texas teams, and one of them (Texas vs. Stanford) was already covered by fellow College Baseball 360 contributor Jack Blanchat so the focus this week is on the Houston College Classic and the TCU-Texas Tech series.

TCU @ Texas Tech

What looked like a competitive series on paper (TCU entered the game at 4-4 in the midst of a three game losing streak and Texas Tech came in at 8-2 with a team batting average of .366) turned out to be the shot in the arm that the Horned Frogs needed.

TCU dominated in 25 of the 27 innings played, as those were the only two where Texas Tech put anything on the scoreboard.  The Frogs also received a huge offensive boost for the weekend from a bat that had remained relatively dormant through the first eight games of the season.

Jason Coats

Left fielder Jason Coats entered the weekend with a meager .125 batting average with just four hits and seven strikeouts in 32 at bats.  That made it no further than the first at bat of the second inning when he drove a single up the middle.  That little hit ignited a spark that reminded Frog fans of 2010 again.  He then added another single, a triple, and then a mammoth home run that’s rumored to still be in the air before finally being retired for the first time of the game in the ninth inning.  On the night, he finished 4-for-5, a double short of the cycle with three runs scored, three runs batted in and two stolen bases.  But Coats’ big night almost over-shadowed the other big story of the game.

Junior right-hander Kyle Winkler continued his run of dominance with another eight shutout innings of four-hit pitching.  Winkler struck out nine Red Raider hitters and walked none, although he did bean two.  Now let’s play a game of “Which stat is more impressive?”

1)  For the season, Winkler has now fired off 22 1/3 innings without surrendering an earned run.  He has a good chance to build on that streak against Houston Baptist this coming weekend.

2)  For the season, Winkler has allowed just eleven hits.  Would anyone like to take a guess as to how many have gone for extra bases? ________________________  *Hint, I gave you the answer.  Look at the blank.*

The Frogs went on to win handily by the score of 7-0.

Coats had a milder game two as TCU won a blowout that turned into a close game, 8-6.  He only hit two for four with a double and an RBI.  All six of those Tech runs came in the fifth.

Matt Purke

Game three saw the return of sophomore left-hander Matt Purke.  That pesky blister was definitely a thing of the past as Purke flat-out dominated Red Raider hitters for six innings of shutout one-hit baseball.  He tallied six strikeouts in his second victory of the season and like Winkler, he also has a 0.00 ERA.

As for Coats, he only had one hit in three at bats.  But, it was another “big ‘un.”  Coats drove a solo home run to left field to lead off the eighth.  He also opened the scoring in the first with a sacrifice fly, giving him two RBI and a run in the final game of the series.

The Red Raiders squeaked a run across in the ninth, but the damage had already been done and the Frogs took the game and the sweep with an 8-1 win.

Coats finished the series going 7-for-12 with a double, a triple, two home runs, six RBIs, four runs and two stolen bases.  That’s why he’s the Lone Star State Player of the Week for week three.  Now to travel south to check out what happened in Houston . . .

Houston College Classic

Game One — Baylor 5, Houston 2

Four Texas teams participated in the round robin-style Houston College Classic this weekend at Minute Maid Park.  Baylor and Houston kicked off the festivities with a fairly entertaining contest.

Logan Verrett

Baylor junior RHP Logan Verrett took the mound for the Bears and tossed 6 2/3 innings to earn the win.  He struck out seven Cougar hitters in the outing while they scattered just seven hits off of him.  The win makes Verrett 2-1 on the season with a respectable 4.02 ERA.  Reliever Brooks Pinckard notched his second save of the year to close it out.

Baylor third baseman Jake Miller put together three base hits with a run in the winning effort for the Bears.

Houston left fielder Jake Runte scored both of the Cougars’ runs in the losing effort and ended the day batting 3/4.

Game Three — Rice 8, Kentucky 7

After two relatively low-scoring games, all the opening day of baseball at the Houston College Classic needed was an offensive outburst.  Game three provided that as the second of two “local” teams pounded out a victory to close the day.

Jeremy Rathjen

Neither starting pitcher fared very well but several Rice hitters strung together a few hits for a solid evening at the plate.

First baseman/pitcher J. T. Chargois, designated hitter/first baseman Anthony Rendon and center fielder Jeremy Rathjen each finished with three hits.  Rathjen also drove in two runs while Chargois and Rendon each scored two.

In the end though, the difference in the score came off the bat of second baseman Michael Ratterree; who led off the seventh inning with a solo home run, his second of the season.

To close things out, Chargois took the mound for the final inning and two thirds to notch his second save of the season.

Game Five — Houston 8, Kentucky 5

Caleb Ramsey

The Houston bats came alive to the tune of 12 hits against Kentucky as the Cougars bounced back from their loss in the series opener.  The hometown team broke the game wide open in the seventh inning with six runs on seven hits to erase a 2-1 deficit.  Senior left fielder Caleb Ramsey drove in the third and fourth runs of the breakout frame with a single to the first base side and led all Houston hitters with three hits, including a ninth inning triple.  In addition, he drove in three runs and scored twice.  Sophomore Dakota Dill sealed the win with two innings of scoreless relief to notch his first save of the year.

Game Six — Rice 1, Texas A&M 0

For their second game in a row, Texas A&M found themselves on the short end of another outstanding pitchers’ duel in a match-up where the teams combined to scatter just 12 total hits in the Saturday night finale.

Rice scored the game-winning run in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by catcher Craig Manuel after Chargois led off the frame with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt.

Owls starter Austin Kubitza went the distance, allowing six hits for the complete game shutout and his first collegiate victory.  The freshman baffled the Aggie batsmen all evening with seven strikeouts and no bases on balls to earn College Baseball 360’s Prime Time Pitcher of the Week Award.

Game Seven –

Game Eight — Baylor 12, Rice 8

Max Muncy

Baylor and Rice collided in an offensive explosion to combine for 27 hits as the Bears earned a much-needed second win of the series to leave Houston with an overall winning record at 6-5.

Sophomore Max Muncy turned in what was almost the best single-game offensive performance of the Classic by accounting for half of the Baylor offense.  The first baseman batted 3-for-6 and drove in amazing six runs on the ballgame with the last four coming in dramatic fashion.

In the bottom of the 10th with the score knotted at eight, shortstop Landis Ware led off with a double to left and moved over on a sacrifice bunt to put the winning run at third.  In an interesting decision to set up forces at every base, the Rice coaching staff called for back-to-back intentional walks to Brooks Pinckard and Logan Vick.  Two pitches later, Muncy stroked a game-winning walk-off grand slam to right field for an abrupt but authoritative end to the game.

Rice’s Shane Hoelscher collected two hits, two RBI and a run in the losing effort.  The Owls fell to 8-5 with the defeat.

Game Nine — Texas A&M 11, Houston 4

The finale of the Houston College Classic saw the Aggies come alive and deliver the second half of a “double-whammy” to the city of Houston after Rice’s earlier defeat.  Texas A&M hitters knocked around 15 hits in the outburst, led by sophomore Tyler Naquin.  In a performance equal to that of Muncy in the previous game, Naquin accomplished a rare feat of his own.

He began the game by doubling down the right field line for an RBI in the first and then later scored.  He drove in two more runs in the second inning with a triple to right center for his second hit of the day.  After a ground out to short in the fourth, Naquin cranked a two run home run to right field in the sixth inning for hit number three as well as his fourth and fifth runs batted in.  This left him a single away from the cycle.  He completed the task an inning later with an RBI base hit to plate the 11th and final run of the game for the Aggies.

For the Cougars, John Cannon and Landon Appling each drove in two runs.

Texas A&M senior Nick Fleece earned his second victory of the year with 2 2/3 innings of shutout pitching.  The victory pushed the Aggies to a 9-3 record while Houston fell to 6-5 on the season.

In all, it was three days of great baseball with a solid mix of masterful pitching and powerful hitting.  Of the Texas teams involved, Baylor and Rice finished the Classic 2-1 while Houston and Texas A&M each went 1-2.

The key games to watch in the Lone Star State this week are:

Baylor vs. Louisiana Tech — 4 games, Thursday — Sunday

Texas A&M vs. Florida International — 3 games, Friday — Sunday

Rice vs. Florida International — Wednesday

Rice — AT&T Tournament, San Francisco, CA — 3 games:  Long Beach State Friday, California Saturday, UC-Santa Barbara Sunday

Houston @ Texas St. — 3 games, Friday — Saturday

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The college baseball season continues to gain momentum as well swing into week four. This week’s Notebook combines some of the observations of College Baseball 360 Editor Sean Stires with the observations and insights of CB360 contributor Jack Blanchat.

Bryan Peters had both of Nebraska's game-winning hits over UCLA.

weekend in Lincoln. All three games went to extra innings. How rare is that? Nebraska has been playing baseball since 1889, but prior to Friday and Saturday it had never had extra inning games in back-to-back days go to extra frames. Gerrit Cole lost a perfect game after retiring Nebraska’s first 20 batters Friday, but still helped the Bruins win 1-0 in 11 innings thanks to nine shutout innings.

With Trevor Bauer on the mound, Nebraska’s hopes for a win weren’t looking any better on Saturday. Bauer fanned 17 in 10 innings, but settled for a 129 pitch no-decision in the Cornhusker’s 2-1 win. Bryan Peters had the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 12th for Nebraska, while Dylan Vogt pitched five no-hit innings of relief to earn the win.

The Cornhuskers then plated three runs in the bottom of the 9th inning in Sunday’s series finale and eventually won 5-4 in 11 innings. Peters was the hero again, belting a game-ending home run to give Nebraska back-to-back walk-off wins for the first time in eight years.

Nebraska is 8-4 with a team batting average of .303. UCLA is 7-4, despite a 1.55 team ERA with 126 strikeouts and 42 walks in 104 1/3 IP.

Gator Bait…

Florida (10-1) suffered its first loss of the season to Florida State in the Florida Four event last week, but the Gators came back strong over the weekend with a three-game sweep of Miami in Gainesville. Florida’s starting rotation of Brian Johnson, Hudson Randall and Karsten Whitson combined to allow just two earned runs in 17.0 innings during the series. It’s just the second time in school history that Florida has swept a three-game set from the Hurricanes.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise…

Cal State Bakersfield's Jonathon Montoya

Don’t look now, but Cal State Bakersfield is on a run. The Roadrunners have won 10 straight with the help of some great pitching. Bakersfield, playing its first games away from home this season, gave up just two runs while going 4-0 at the Coca Cola Classic over the weekend in Surprise, AZ. The biggest of the wins was a 2-1 10-inning victory over Arizona State. Freshman Cael Brockmeyer’s 10th inning home run off ASU All-American Mitchell Lambson was the difference. The Roadrunners also turned-in wins over Kansas (12-0), Air Force (5-0) and Northern Illinois (6-1). Bakersfield starting pitchers Tommy Hoenshell, Mike McCarthy, Jonathon Montoya, and Brandon Van Dam combined to pitch 35 innings, while giving-up just two runs. McCarthy was the only one not to pitch 9.0 innings.

Sycamore No-No…

Indiana State’s Jason Van Skike tossed a no-hitter in Saturday’s 8-0 win over Central Arkansas. It’s the school’s 10th all-time no-hitter, but the first nine inning no-no for a Sycamore since 1943. Van Skike needed 143 pitches to complete the gem, which still had its share of base runners. Van Skike struckout five, but he walked eight batters and hit one more.

TCU’s Aces…

When talking about TCU pitchers, 2010 freshman phenom Matt Purke is typically the first name to come to mind. However, Kyle Winkler has been lights out so far this year for the Horned Frogs. Winkler (3-0) has allowed just two unearned runs in 22 1/3 IP so far this season. The senior has 19 strikeouts and just one walk with a .149 opponent batting average. He moved to the Friday spot in the rotation the last two weeks while Purke battled a blister on his pitching hand.

Purke has pitched 10.0 shutout innings himself this season (he pitched against Kansas on opening weekend and pitched Sunday against Texas Tech) to improve to 2-0 this year and 18-0 in his career. Meanwhile, freshman Andrew Mitchell has surrendered just a run in his first 15 2/3 IP, including a Sunday start against Cal State Fullerton last week when Purke missed his start.

The Horned Frogs’ bullpen is still a work in progress though. TCU’s opponents have scored winning runs in the 8th inning or later in all four of the team’s losses this year.

Kyle Robinson

Razorback Off & Running…

Arkansas senior Kyle Robinson played sparingly in his first year at Arkansas last year after transferring from Indian River CC. Injuries played a part in his limited time, but Robinson is making-up for it this year. He hit .474 (9-for-19) with three home runs and 13 RBIs last week. The outfielder’s .465 batting average is the third best in the SEC through the first three weeks of 2011. He also ranks in the top five in the conference in slugging percentage (#3 – .791), runs (#5 – 14), hits (T-#1 – 20), and RBI (#1 – 21).

Quality Pitching…

Notre Dame is just 4-6 through Mik Aoki’s first ten games at the helm, but it’s not for a lack of pitching. Starting pitchers Brian Dupra, Cole Johnson and Todd Miller combined to give the Irish nine straight quality starts (at least 6.0 IP and 3 ER or less) to open the season. The last time a Notre Dame staff had just six straight quality starts was 2001, when 2000 and 2001 first round draft pick Aaron Heilman helped the program achieve its first ever #1 national ranking. Dupra, Johnson and Miller combined for 22 2/3 IP with 21 strikeouts and no walks in their three starts last weekend, but went 0-2 with a no-decision (the Irish beat Manhattan in extra innings in Miller’s start).

Duke-ing It Out…

James Madison is off to a record-setting start in 2011. The Duke’s 11-1 start is the best in program history. JMU leads the nation with 30 home runs and 13.3 runs-a-game through the season’s first three weeks.

Stanford @ Texas…

Now we’ll turn things over to Jack Blanchat, who was at the Stanford vs. Texas series in Austin. The Longhorns took two out of three games in the series. Blanchat’s insights start with thoughts on Texas ace Taylor Jungman, who saw his run of 22.0 scoreless innings to open the season come to a close in Friday’s 4-3 Texas win.

Taylor Jungmann

Taylor Jungmann is the real deal – it doesn’t get much simpler than that. He’s confident, aggressive, and he mixes up his pitches and gets outs in every way. His odd delivery makes it hard to pick up the baseball coming out of his hand, and he gets results. It shows something that Friday night was his worst outing of the season so far, considering he pitched eight and two-thirds innings and only gave up three runs on six hits. Even more impressive about those six hits was that nobody got multiple hits off Jungmann – and nothing was hit particularly hard other than a triple from Brian Ragira that broke up Jungmann’s perfect game in the fifth inning.

The environment at Disch-Falk Field was like an NCAA super regional – absolutely crazy, and jam-packed. It’s one of the biggest stadiums in college baseball in terms of capacity and playing dimensions. The stadium also has field turf instead of a natural grass playing surface, so that made conditions a little harder because the baseball would occasionally act very strangely after it bounced off the turf. The playing conditions, which included wind coming in from left field most of the time, resulted in no home runs for a Stanford team that had six dingers in eight games coming into this series, but it also contributed to the three triples in the series as well.

Texas trotted out a few new faces in their lineup, and they all had a few bright spots, but they still looked very much like freshmen. Jacob Felts did a nice job behind the plate, catching Jungmann’s Friday win(although, the way Jungmann is pitching, it’s hard not to do a good job behind the plate), and he went 2-for-7 and scored a run offensively – altogether not a bad weekend for a freshman catcher. Freshman rightfielder Mark Payton went just 1-for-10 at the plate, but he still scored a run and had two RBI in the series thanks to some erratic Stanford pitching. Finally, freshman third baseman Erich Weiss was solid on offense – he had a hit in every game – but he struggled defensively in Saturday’s contest. He had two errors at the hot corner, and could have been docked for one more if the scorekeeper had been less friendly.

Dean McArdle

Stanford’s pitching rotation is shaping up pretty well – now the offense just has to go out and get Mark Appel a win on Friday night. The sophomore has had tremendous stuff in all three of his starts this season, but by virtue of going up against Sonny Gray and Taylor Jungmann, Appel’s record sits at 0-2 so far. It’s easy to believe that Appel will get back in the win column as the season goes along, but he has shown he can be a primetime player on Friday nights – something the Cardinal will need if they want to overtake UCLA and Gerrit Cole in the Pac-10 down the road.

Dean McArdle pitched very well Saturday (in a 9-2 win) – he’s a bulldog pitcher who had his control working and now has a 7-0 career record at Stanford. He and Jordan Pries are surprisingly similar pitchers, both
righthanders with great control and a nice array of pitches, even though they don’t have overpowering stuff.

I think at this point in the season Stanford head coach Mark Marquess is just trying to mix up his rotation a little bit and see how guys work in different places. Mark Appel brings the power on Friday night and has almost out-dueled both Sonny Gray and Taylor Jungmann.
The three week “Country Music Swing” – Houston, Nashville, and Austin – has been tough on the Cardinal’s record, but they have been impressive so far. I get the sense that the team is ready for a few days off, and they’ll get it with finals week this week. In the big picture, Stanford won’t face as consistently good pitchers as they’ve faced these last three weeks, and that should help cut down on strikeouts. Stanford struck out 27 times in the series against Texas (Jungmann had nine) and therefore stranded 23 runners. All in all, this three-week test has been good for Stanford, though. They’ll be ready to take on teams in a deep Pac-10 Conference, and they’ll have just as much or more experience against the nation’s top teams when it comes time for the NCAA Tournament.

Dugouthats.com has officially licensed 2010 College World Series memorabilia year round!

From t-shirts and caps to limited edition prints commemorating the last CWS ever played at historic Rosenblatt Stadium. Dugouthats.com also always  hats of your favorite college teams like LSU, Texas, Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UCLA, South Carolina, Miami and more.

Stephen Francis checks-in again with some top week 2 performances from the Lone Star State…

David Paiz, RF — Texas Tech Red Raiders

Paiz put together a very nice four game stretch as the Red Raiders competed in their second consecutive tournament weekend in Lubbock with a pair of games against BYU and two against Northern Illinois.  He played his part well in Tech’s three wins by batting .444 for the weekend with eight hits in 18 at bats with five RBI and three runs scored.  Six of his hits and four of his RBI came against the Huskies as he seemed to feast off of the NIU pitching staff.

Texas Freshman Pitcher of the Week:

Andrew Mitchell, RHP — TCU Horned Frogs

Mitchell began the season for the Horned Frogs with the understanding that he would fill the role of weekday starter and would pitch out of the bullpen on weekends, barring any injuries to starters.  He took the mound against Baylor to pitch 6 2/3 innings of two-hit shutout baseball with four strikeouts and three walks to earn his first career victory.  As it would turn out, an opening weekend blister to TCU’s Friday starter, Matt Purke,  would thrust him into a Sunday start a mere five days after his first one; this time against college baseball powerhouse Cal State Fullerton.  The freshman responded by tossing five shutout innings and yielding just one hit with three walks and two strikeouts.  Although the bullpen couldn’t hold onto his lead, he still ended the week with 11 2/3 innings pitched with a 0.00 earned run average, three hits allowed, six walks, six strikeouts and his first career win.

Jamodrick McGruder, LF — Texas Tech Red Raiders

It was a good four days for Texas Tech outfielders.  Actually, it was a good four days for Texas Tech hitters in general, but McGruder did almost everything offensively possible to earn his keep this weekend.  Aside from getting plunked four times in four games, which should earn him at least something more than a bandage, the former Freshman All-American also stole two bases, batted .583, smacked three triples and drove in two runs while scoring five of his own.  He also walked four times and finished the weekend with an on-base percentage of .750 and a slugging percentage of 1.167 for a nasty 1.917 OPS.  McGruber has nothing on this guy as McGruder “took it like a man” this weekend and almost seemed to feed off of getting beaned.

Texas Sophomore Pitcher of the Week:

Michael Wacha, RHP — Texas A&M Aggies

If the name Wacha sounds familiar, don’t thank Fozzy Bear.  His name should actually sound familiar because he’s being featured for the second week in a row.  After six shutout innings in week one, he added to it by going seven shutout innings this past weekend against Gonzaga.  The Hoyas managed only five hits and struck out six times without a walk against the right-hander.  On the season now, he has tossed 13 innings with two wins in two starts without surrendering a run.  In fact, one more scoreless start just might have College Station shouting Wacha, Wacha, Wacha — which would be an appropriate chant when Baylor comes to town.

Anthony Rendon, 3B — Rice Owls

Rendon had a week reminiscent of Barry Bonds this past weekend.  Strike that, maybe that’s not a good comparison for an amateur athlete.  Perhaps Mark McGwire . . . never mind that comparison, either.  Let’s just put it this way.  Rendon took a lot of walks this week — seven to be exact.  Maybe there’s a reason for that.  He only batted .273 but hit two home runs, knocked in five runs and scored six runs of his own.  His .556 on base percentage dwarfed the batting average and more than made up for it.  Of course, that .818 slugging percentage didn’t look too bad, either.

Texas Junior Pitcher of the Week:

Taylor Jungmann, RHP — Texas Longhorns

Jungmann appears to be doing his best to remain a main-stay on this list.  After his first career shutout last weekend, the Longhorn ace went out and did it again against Hawaii.  The fact that he took the mound four hours after his normal start time didn’t seem to faze him at all as he pitched his second consecutive complete game shutout and allowed only four hits with nine strikeouts.

Chris Andreas, 1B — Sam Houston State Bearkats

Andreas put on a show in week two, simple as that.  He amassed a slugging percentage of 1.111 by going 9/18 at the plate with three home runs and two doubles.  He was also involved in a majority of the Bearkats’ runs by driving in ten and scoring seven.  He was named the “Hitter of the Year” by the SHSU baseball team in 2010.  Now we know why.

Texas Senior Pitcher of the Week:

Taylor Walton, RHP — UT-San Antonio

To be honest, it was a tough week for senior pitchers in Texas this week.  That’s probably because there aren’t very many of them, though.  Whatever the case, Walton went out and pitched a gem regardless of his classification.  The Midland native is playing his only season of Division I baseball, but didn’t look like it against St. Joseph’s with six scoreless innings on four hits with five strikeouts.  He earned his second win of the year and has now pitched 11 innings without allowing a run.

Texas Longhorns — vs. Stanford Friday, Saturday and Sunday

TCU Horned Frogs — @ Texas Tech Red Raiders Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Houston College Classic

Baylor Bears — vs. Houston Friday, Utah Saturday and Rice Sunday
Texas A&M Aggies — vs. Utah Friday, Rice Saturday and Houston Sunday
Houston Cougars — vs. Baylor Friday, Kentucky Saturday and Texas A&M Sunday
Rice Owls — vs. Kentucky Friday, Texas A&M Saturday and Baylor Sunday

This week we gather some insights from a couple of the top series in the country, #3 Vanderbilt vs. #12 Stanford and #4 TCU vs. #11 Cal State Fullerton, from reporters who were there (rankings based on the College Baseball 360 Week Two Composite National Rankings).

Jordan Pries

Jordan Pries looked very solid in both of his starts this week (Tuesday against Cal and Sunday vs. Vanderbilt) – add them up and you have two wins, 11.0 innings pitched, 4 hits, and 2 earned runs. He varied his stuff well, and he will definitely be a stalwart this season who the Cardinal can count on all year long. Pries’ fastball reaches into the low 90s at times, but the impressive stuff is his off-speed pitches. He has t a slider that looks the same as his fastball coming out of his hand, but dives hard across the plate and ends up for a lot of called strikes.

Brett Mooneyham, unfortunately for Stanford, will miss the entire season with finger surgery on his pitching hand. The blow is definitely a big one for the Cardinal pitching staff, who will miss having a front line starter who could potentially eat up a ton of innings and help keep the bullpen fresh.

Sonny Gray

Friday’s game was a true pitcher’s duel, and both sophomore (Stanford’s) Mark Appel and (Vanderbilt) junior Sonny Gray brought some good stuff to the table. Personally, I thought Appel had better stuff, but I mean that as a compliment to Gray. Gray definitely didn’t have his A-plus stuff on a very cold Friday night, but he still managed to sneak his way to six strikeouts and give up just one run on three hits. To me, that’s the mark of a good pitcher – a guy who can silence a potent Stanford lineup when he is having control issues with his fastball and he frequently missed the strike zone with first pitches. Gray brought scouts out in droves to see his performance (there were probably 15 to 20 teams there), and even though his pitches weren’t great, his pitching was.

The depth of the Vandy staff is also a high point for a team that I think is legitimately a top five team in the country. Gray is far and away their best starter – Grayson Garvin wasn’t as impressive in his Sunday start – but the Commodore bullpen is a force to be reckoned with, particularly Navery Moore. Moore can reach 98 miles per hour on the radar gun, and he also throws a nasty 94-mile-an-hour sliding fastball that is nearly impossible to hit. Having a true closer separates the men from the boys in college baseball, and I think Moore gives the Commodores a big advantage late in games.

A good example of how important a solid closer is to a top team is how the Cardinal let a three-run lead slip away in Saturday’s game, even though they had 17 hits and seven runs (and stranded 13 base runners). Stanford knows what it’s like to have a pure closer – Drew Storen in 2009 – so they know how to develop a guy to compete at the end of games as well.

Offensively, both teams were about equal, but Vandy does stand out for one reason. Stanford trots out a lineup that is full of right-handed hitters, but Vanderbilt has a totally balanced lineup, with a near-equal number of righties and lefties in the lineup at any time.

Kenny Diekroger

For Stanford, shortstop Kenny Diekroeger had another good week, hitting his first dinger of the season on Tuesday against Cal, then going 4-for-5 on Saturday with three RBIs. Similarly, sophomore centerfielder Jake Stewart had another good weekend, as he’s hitting .367 after hitting just .209 last year. He leads the team with three doubles already, and he is blazing fast in centerfield. Senior DH Ben Clowe is also hitting at a nice rate (.385), and he blasted a big home run off Garvin on Sunday. A sore spot for the Cardinal, though, was the suddenly poor Austin Wilson. The big rightfielder struck out eight times this weekend, and had serious trouble with the sliders the Vandy staff kept throwing him.

Vandy’s balanced offense can score in a lot of different ways – Tony Kemp and Mike Yastrzemski are fast and scrappy (but couldn’t swipe a single base this weekend thanks to Stanford catcher Zach Jones, who threw out three baserunners), Aaron Westlake is a big power hitter, and Jason Esposito is a very solid hitter.

Overall, I think both of these teams are legitimately top ten teams. Stanford easily could have won both the Friday and Saturday games, and Vandy could have easily swept the series. Keep an eye on both of these teams – they will be around deep into the postseason this year.

Blanchat was also there last Tuesday when Stanford hosted rival Cal in a midweek game…

Tuesday’s night’s matchup against Cal was very positive for both teams- the reception for the Bears in their last year of baseball for the foreseeable future was pleasant, even though there was some heckling. (A couple choice insults – “That was a big cut! Kind of like your baseball program!” and “Better luck next year!”)

Dugouthats.com has officially licensed College World Series memorabilia year round as well as officially licensed college baseball caps.

From t-shirts and caps to limited edition prints commemorating the last CWS ever played at historic Rosenblatt Stadium. Dugouthats.com also always  hats of your favorite college teams like Cal State Fullerton, TCU, Vanderbilt, and Stanford.

Stephen Francis was on hand to see TCU host Cal State Fullerton…

Noe Ramirez

With Titan Friday starter Noe Ramirez, looks can be deceiving.  He doesn’t look like an overpowering pitcher, but he uses off-speed pitching and location with his fastball to throw hitters off and for the most part he did it with success against the TCU lineup.  They made solid contact on a few pitches in the second inning though and with the way Kyle Winkler was handling the Fullerton lineup, that was all they needed.

The TCU and Fullerton lineups compare pretty well to each other at this point, although seven games may be a small sample size.  What sets the two lineups apart though is the power and speed of the TCU lineup vs. the execution ability of the Fullerton hitters.

With TCU, hitters one through nine are capable of driving the ball every at-bat with authority, although things appear to be “all or nothing” at this point.  The Frogs also have a fast group of players that remain aggressive on the basepaths from beginning to end.  With the new bats and the addition of a new hitting coach, the Horned Frogs do appear to have some kinks to work out.

For Cal State Fullerton, they executed very well on the weekend with clutch hitting late in the game.  They seemed to look a little more “seasoned” at this point in the season and took the final two games of the series by winning in the late innings.

While it would be interesting to see what these two teams would do against each other late in the year, it’s clear that Fullerton’s lineup had the easier time this weekend.  That doesn’t tell the full story though because between both teams, pitching was very good across the board.

Andrew Mitchell

Kyle Winkler won TCU’s only game of the series in Friday’s matchup with Ramirez. Matt Purke did not start all weekend due to a blister on his finger. TCU right hander Andrew Mitchell made his second start of the week in Sunday’s series finale and tossed five scoreless innings. He also earned a win after holding Baylor scoreless over 6 2/3 IP in his start last Tuesday.  Although the bullpen couldn’t hold onto his lead in Sunday’s 2-1 loss, the freshman still ended the week with 11 2/3 innings pitched with a 0.00 earned run average, three hits allowed, six walks, six strikeouts and his first career win.

The TCU – Cal State Fullerton and Vanderbilt – Stanford series were two of the top match-ups of the second week of the 2011 college baseball season. This week’s Notebook includes those series as well as other notables from around the nation.

Taylor Jungman has thrown two complete game shutouts to open the season.

junior did it again Friday with a 2-0, 4-hit win at Hawaii. All nine hits Jungmann has given-up this year have been singles. He has 18 strikeouts and just one walk.

15…Innings it took on Saturday for Hawaii to scratch-out a 5-4 win over the Longhorns. David Peterson scored the winning run on a wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the 15th. Pitchers from the two teams combined for 25 strikeouts, seven walks, four hit batters, and six wild pitches in the 4 1/2 hour maraton. Hawaii’s Pi’ikea Kitamura and Texas’ Paul Montalbano were each o-for-7 at the plate.

3…Big wins for Cal at the Baseball at the Beach Tournament in Myrtle Beach, SC. In the second weekend of their swan song season, the Golden Bears outscored Coastal Carolina, North Carolina State and Kansas State by a combined 29-1 to improve to 5-1. The bulk of the runs came in their 17-0 win over Coastal Carolina. Chanticleer ace Anthony Meo yielded 9 ER on 10 hits in just 5.0 IP in the drubbing.

7…RBIs to go along with 2 HR by Golden Bears CF Chad Bunting in the win over Coastal Carolina. Bunting was 7-for-12 (.583) for the weekend in Myrtle Beach.

5…Straight wins to open the season by Michigan State before dropping an 8-0 decision at Clemson Sunday. The 5-0 start for Jake Boss, Jr.’s squad is the best by MSU since 1964. Senior centerfielder Brandon Eckerle leads the Spartans with a .696 (16-for-23) average.

6…Straight losses to open the season by Michigan after being swept in three games by Rutgers in Port St. Lucie, FL. All six Wolverine losses are to Big East Teams (they were 0-3 at the Big East/Big Ten Challenge). Rutgers starter Tyler Gebler tossed a complete game to earn the win in the series-opener.

10…Combined runs allowed (7 earned) by UCLA aces Trevor Bauer and Gerrit Cole in Saturday and Sunday’s shocking 5-3 and 8-3 losses to San Jose State. After the losses, the Bruins fell to 4-2 after opening last year with 22 straight wins.

Matt Zahel saved both of Toledo's wins at Louisville.

2…Wins to start their series at Louisville by Toledo. The Rockets won by scores of 3-1 and 4-2 Friday and Saturday as the Cardinals lost their first two home games of a season for the first time in 20 years. Toledo closer Matt Zahel saved both wins with a total of 2.0 perfect innings with three strikeouts. Toledo had lost twice to Canisius and once to Creighton in the season’s opening weekend. Louisville won Sunday’s finale 4-2.

0…Hits allowed by Georgia Tech starter Jed Bradley in 7.0 IP in Saturday’s 5-0 win over St. John’s. Bradley fanned 10 with three walks to earn his first win of 2011. Bradley has 20 Ks and has allowed just four hits and one run in 12 1/3 innings this season.

.800…Batting average of Yellow Jacket 3B/1B/C Matt Skole in the 3-game series. Skole was 8-for-10 with a HR and 7 RBIs on the weekend.

0…Runs scored by St. John’s in their first two games of the series with the Yellow Jackets before finally erupting for a 13-3 win in Sunday’s series finale. The Red Storm has scored a total of 35 runs in their three games at the season-opening Big East/Big Ten Challenge.

10…Runs scored in the first inning by Georgia Tech in Friday’s 13-0 series-opening win. Red Storm starter Sean Hagan exited after allowing all 10 ER on 9 hits in just 2/3 IP.

2…Of 3 games won by Cal State Fullerton at TCU to hand the Horned Frogs their first series loss in nearly two years. After dropping Friday’s opener, the Titans won by finals of 8-4 and 2-1 Saturday and Sunday, respectively. TCU ace Matt Purke (17-0 in his career) did not pitch in the series due to a blister on his finger. TCU last lost a series in March 2009 when they lost two of three to San Diego State.

1…Career Division One win by Delaware pitcher Eric Young. It came in Friday’s 7-3 upset at Arizona State. Young, a transfer from Riverside CC, gave-up two runs in 5.0 IP in his first career start in the series-opener against the Sun Devils. Blue Hens DH Jimmy Yezzo helped Young by going 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs.

Danny Hultzen

15…Strikeouts with no walks in 7.0 IP by Virginia’s Danny Hultzen in Friday’s 10-1 win over East Carolina. Hultzen yielded a single to open the game and then retired 19 straight Pirates. He struckout the side three times.

19…Combined strikeouts by Texas A&M’s John Stilson and Gonzaga’s Ryan Carpenter in Friday’s 1-0 win in 11 innings by the Aggies. Stilson, who was one of the top closers in the country last year, fanned 9 in 9.0 shutout innings in his second start of 2011, while Carpenter rang-up 10 Ks in 7 1/3 IP.

2…Wins over Top-30 teams (CB360 composite poll) by Stanford’s Jordan Pries. The junior helped the Cardinal beat #26 Cal in his first start on Tuesday and then earned another victory at #3 Vanderbilt on Sunday for Stanford’s only win in the 3-game series in Nashville. Pries totaled 11.0 IP with 8 Ks and 6 BB. He didn’t allow a hit through the first four innings of the 5-2 win over Vandy (7-1), although the first seven pitches he threw were balls. Stanford (3-3) will rely on Pries even more this year after the announcement that teammate Brett Mooneyham will miss the season after requiring surgery to repair a finger he cut in January.

7 2/3…Scoreless innings pitched by Radford relievers Jason Patton, Brad Wimmers and Abram Williams in Friday’s 13-inning 8-6 win over Auburn. Highlander LF Matt Hillsinger led-off the to of the 13th with a home run to help Radford to the upset.

14…Runs allowed in 11.0 IP by Alabama starting pitchers Adam Morgan, Nathan Kilcrease and Tucker Hawley in losses at the Jaguar Classic, hosted by South Alabama. The Crimson Tide staff surrendered a total of 43 hits in setbacks to Southeastern Louisiana, South Alabama and Central Florida.

26…Game hitting streak, to tie a school record, by Central Florida’s Beau Taylor that ended in Saturday’s loss to Southeastern Louisiana . Taylor made-up for in by going 2-for-4 with a home run and 4 RBIs in Sunday’s 12-4 win over Alabama.

3…RBIs and a home run by Appalachian State’s Jeremy Dowdy in Friday’s 7-4 upset of Miami in Coral Gables. The Hurricanes still took two of three games in the series.

Lawrence Pardo

29…Years since Appalachian State had beaten a ranked opponent prior to that win at #19 Miami. Freshman (and Miami native) Lawrence Pardo earned his first win in his second career start in his return to his home town. Prado gave-up three unearned runs on four hits in 6.0 IP.

2…Wins in the first two weeks of the season by Connecticut. The Huskies entered the season with the program’s first top 10 ranking, but have stumbled to a 2-4 start. Their lone wins are over winless Michigan and Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Friday and Saturday starters Elliott Glynn and Matt Barnes, respectively, have suffered all four defeats.

1.2…Runs-a-game scored by UConn in its four losses, while averaging 11 runs in its two wins, but just 1.2 runs in its four losses. Coaches we spoke to at the Big East/Big Ten Challenge last weekend said the losses of Pierre LePage (.327-29 SB) and Mike Olt (.381-23 HR-76 RBIs) from last year’s line-up will be tough to overcome.

10…Strikeouts by Oregon State’s Sam Gaviglio in Friday’s complete game, two-hit 2-0 over UConn. The junior has 15 Ks with one BB and has allowed just two unearned runs in 15 2/3 IP this season.

2…RPI-boosting wins last week by Texas A&M Corpus Christi, which beat Texas 8-7 on Tuesday and then topped Oregon State by the same score on Saturday. Islanders catcher Jumpy Garcia was 2-for-5 with 4 RBIs in the win over the Longhorns.

16…Innings it took Elon to defeat South Florida 7-5 Sunday in Tampa to tie the longest game in USF history. The game featured 14 pitchers, but amazingly took just under 3 1/2 hours to play. 21 of the game’s 24 hits were singles, the other three went for doubles.

16…Strikeouts in 7 2/3 IP by Memphis pitcher Dan Langfield in Friday’s win over Kennesaw State. The sophomore gave-up a pair of first inning singles, struckout the side in the second innings and then retired 16 of the next 19 batters he faces.

240…Points raised on Mike McGee’s batting average (.440) after the Florida State outfielder went 9-for-15 with two HR, 9 runs and 11 RBIs. McGee made his first pitching appearance of the season in the top of the 8th inning  and then homered in the bottom of the inning Sunday against Hofstra. It marks the eighth time McGee has homered and pitched in the same game.

27…Consecutive batters retired, spanning two starts, by Florida’s Brian Johnson. The lefty set down 10 straight batters to end his first start of 2011 against South Florida and then retired the first 17 men he faced in last Thursday’s win over Boston College. He is 2-0 with 12 shutout innings to open his sophomore campaign.