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Tigers Still Missing Ace Ranaudo

LSU opens SEC play this weekend against Arkansas.  Here’s a look at their current pitching situation with Collegebaseball360.com contributor Randy Rosetta, who covers the LSU baseball beat for the Baton Rouge Advocate.

BLOG: 2theadvocate.com/blogs/linedrives

TWITTER: twitter.com/RandyRosetta

BATON ROUGE, LA–Could the weekend series against Kansas be a sign of things to come this Southeastern Conference season for LSU?

That might be the case until Tigers ace Anthony Ranaudo is back and healthy.

That was LSU coach Paul Mainieri’s assessment after the Jayhawks stunned top-ranked LSU for the second time in three days.

“We’re going to have a lot of series like this,” Mainieri said.

“We’re not as dominant on the mound as we were last year.”

Without Ranaudo for the third weekend in a row, the Tigers (13-2) got only one quality start in three games — Austin Ross’ no decision in a 4-2 LSU win Saturday.

Friday starter Joey Bourgeois couldn’t escape the second inning before allowing six runs, and Sunday starter Jordan Rittiner ran into trouble with a four-run fifth.

Kansas racked up 32 hits in 27 innings, anchored by a 13-hit assault Friday that was the most the Tigers have allowed this season. The Jayhawks had 12 hits Sunday.

Not that the LSU pitchers need to shoulder all the responsibility.

The Tigers squandered several chances at big innings throughout the weekend and got outscored 21-17. LSU scored more than two runs in an inning only once all weekend.

“We can’t expect to score four runs and win on a regular basis,” Mainieri said.

Ranaudo watch

Anthony Ranaudo

Mainieri said Ranaudo is scheduled to try to throw again today (Monday), and “if it goes well (LSU) will progress from there.”

Ranaudo has missed his last three starts with a stress reaction in his right elbow. He threw last Monday and still had discomfort, prompting a CAT scan that showed no structural damage to the tendon or ligament.

Should Ranaudo show positive signs today, he will throw again at least twice this week with the aim of getting him against Arkansas on Sunday.

Kansas coach Ritch Price said before the series his team was disappointed to not get a chance to see Ranaudo.

With Ranaudo on the shelf, the Jayhawks instead saw Bourgeois, Ross and Rittiner, who made his third consecutive Sunday start.

Rittiner was effective in his first two starts, allowing one run each time in six innings.

He was following a similar path Sunday — Kansas had one run in four frames — before the Jayhawks erupted for four runs in the fifth.

That didn’t keep Price from singing Rittiner’s praises.

“I really liked the freshman left-hander,” Price said. “Whether they use him as a starter or use him out of the bullpen, he’s really tough on left-handed hitters. Whether coach Mainieri keeps him in the bullpen or makes him a midweek starter, they’re going to be a lot better when they get their first-rounder back.”

LSU was also without sophomore left-hander Chris Matulis, who has had a sore forearm since his start against Pepperdine on March 4, a game he won 8-1.

Matulis could be the starter Wednesday against Nicholls State, but Mainieri said he wanted to sleep on it before making a decision.

Déjà vu all over again?

The series loss to KU comes at the exact same point of the 2009 season when the Tigers lost two of three games to Illinois before embarking on SEC play.

Between Illinois and this weekend, LSU lost just one other series: at home to Tennessee.

The Tigers start league play this weekend when Arkansas visits Alex Box Stadium in a showdown of 2009 College World Series teams.

Like the Jayhawks, the Illini handed LSU its first loss of the season.

“Everything is a learning experience,” Tigers senior Paul Bertuccini said. “It’s good to get tested like this before conference play. It was a tough weekend for us, but last year we did the same thing against Illinois and won the national championship. We can build off this.”

Or at the very least, the LSU players ought to learn something from the weekend.

“Whenever you lose two out of three, it needs to be a little bit of a wakeup call,” first baseman Blake Dean said.

Positive sign?

In the losses, the Tigers bullpen was up and down, with 13 hits and eight runs allowed in 111/3 innings.

Besides closer Matty Ott’s impressive four-batter, four-strikeout save Saturday, the other bright spot was junior Mitch Mormann.

In a pair of appearances, Mormann faced 15 hitters, allowed two singles and no runs to stretch his scoreless stretch to six innings over four outings.

Mormann has entered a game only once this season when LSU led.

Advocate chat

The Advocate and www.2theadvocate.com will host an LSU baseball chat from noon-1 p.m. Wednesday.

To submit a question and follow the chat live, log onto 2theadvocate.com/lsubaseballchat.

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Third Baseman Is CB360 Pick For Big 12 POY

Tony Thompson

Thompson will miss the first few weeks of the regular season due to a leg injury suffered in practice last week. Thompson fouled a pitch off his knee in practice last week and sustained a hairline fracture of his left kneecap.

His MRI showed no ligament damage, and his x-rays indicated that the kneecap has a hairline fracture, and no other structural damage.  Dr. Jeff Randall, KU Team Physician, is confident that Thompson will be completely healthy within 4-6 weeks.  He is receiving treatment from Kansas baseball athletic trainer Ken Wainwright on a daily basis.

“Obviously it goes without saying that this is a devastating way for our team to start the 2010 season,” Price said.  “The good news is that Tony will not need surgery, and he will be back in our lineup prior to the start of Big 12 Conference play.  Our team will need to come together and find a way to survive until we can get Tony healthy and back on the field.”

Thompson, a 6-foot-3 junior infielder from Reno, Nev., was a unanimous preseason All-America selection as well as the preseason favorite for Big 12 Player of the Year. He won the conference’s Triple Crown last year, leading the league in batting average (.389), home runs (21) and RBIs (82). He earned All-America recognition from three different publications last season, becoming the Jayhawks’ first All-American since Don Czyz in 2006.

Collegebaseball360.com also tabbed Thompson as the favorite to take home the 2010 Big 12 Player of the Year Award in our 2010 Big 12 Baseball Preview.  He ranked third in NCAA Division I baseball in doubles (27), fourth in total bases (186), as well as seventh in RBIs. He set single-season Jayhawk records in home runs and total bases, and ranked second in Kansas history in hits (96), doubles and RBIs.

“It’s unfortunate that this happened, but it’s better to have it happen now rather than in the middle of the season,” Thompson said.

In Thompson’s absence, the Jayhawks are planning to use the tandem of sophomore James Stanfield and redshirt freshmen Jordan Dreiling and Jake Marasco to fill in at third base.

“I’m confident that Jake Marasco, James Stanfield and Jordan Dreiling can handle the third base duties until Thompson returns,” Price said.

Kansas is scheduled to open the 2010 regular season Friday, Feb. 19 against Eastern Michigan at Hoglund Ballpark. First pitch is slated for 3 p.m.

“I’m just looking forward to getting back on the field before Big 12 play starts, and helping my teammates win games.”

(Release)

Kansas’ Field Of Dreams: KU, K-State & Wichita State Make The NCAA Tournament

Wichita State head coach Gene Stephenson

made in to an NCAA Regional in the same season for the first time ever.

While Wichita State has been as successful as its own high standards in recent years, 2009 was largely business as usual for the Shockers.  Stephenson’s squad advanced to its 27th NCAA regional this year.  But consider this:  WSU’s seven College World Series trips prior to ’09 are more than twice as many NCAA appearances (3) as Kansas and Kansas State had combined before last season.

Kansas State earned its first baseball win in program history back in 1897.  Entering 2009 the Wildcats had amassed a little more than 1,500 wins, but none of them had ever come in an NCAA Tournament game.  In fact, none of their losses had ever come in an NCAA game either.  Prior to head coach Brad Hill’s arrival in June of 2003 K-State had never been to the NCAAs, and they had qualified for exactly one Big 12 Tournament.

Hill came to Manhattan from Central Missouri State where he had guided the Mules to seven Division II College World

2009 Big 12 Coach of the Year Brad Hill

Series berths in his nine seasons in Warrensburg, Mo.   Hill’s program overhaul didn’t happen overnight, but the turning point toward respectability was probably in 2005.

On April 3, 2005, in Hill’s second season at the helm, Kansas State beat top-ranked Texas 5-3 in their series finale at Disch-Falk Field.  Texas would go on to win the national championship that season, while KSU wouldn’t sniff the postseason, but it was a monumental win for a program on the rise.  It marked the nearly 110 year old program’s first ever win over a number one ranked team, and after 17 tries it was also the Wildcat’s first ever win over the Longhorns-the standard bearer for baseball in the Big 12.

K-State finished 2008 with a 29-29 record, but the momentum of a run to the Big 12 title game (and loss to Texas) heading into the 2009 season.  The Wildcats went 43-18-1 this past season, and they were just flat better across the

A.J. Morris was 14-1 in 2009

board.  The team ERA dropped from 5.12 in ’08 to 4.52 in ’09, and the team batting average and home run totals jumped from .261/36 to .317/58.

The biggest individual improvements came from Justin Bloxom and A.J. Morris.  Bloxom hit just .288 with 8 HR and 49 RBIs as a junior, but he blossomed to .361/12/63 (all team-highs) in his final season in Manhattan.  Morris had won just 8 games in his first three seasons pitching in Wildcat purple (he redshirted his freshman season in 2006), but he was named the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year this past season after going 14-1 with a 2.09 ERA and 100 strikeouts in 116.1 innings.

K-State made its NCAA debut at the Houston Regional where Hill rolled the dice in the opener.  Instead of starting his ace, Hill went with Lance Hoge, who was victorious in a 16-8 win over Xavier.  Morris gave-up 13 hits the next day in a complete game 7-6 win over the host Owls.  KSU lost its next two games though to Rice, which advanced to a Super Regional match-up with eventual national champion LSU.

The transformation wasn’t quite as dramatic for Ritch Price as Kansas.  The Jayhawks had been to the NCAA

KU's Ritch Price

tournament twice prior to Hill’s arrival in Lawrence in July of 2002, but KU hadn’t been to an NCAA Regional since 1994-the year after the Jayhawks made it all the way to their only College World series appearance.

Price is now heading into his eighth season at the Kansas helm, and his teams have won at least 30 games six times.  Prices’s Jayhawks won their first conference title in nearly 50 years in 2006, to earn the program’s first NCAA bid since ’94.

Kansas started the season with the excitement of Schaeffer Hall’s no-hitter (click for podcast interview) vs. Air Force on opening day, and then started Big 12 play a little more than a month later with a 3-game sweep of top-ranked Texas.  The wins would propel the Jayhawks to a 39-24 overall record and 15-12

Tony Thompson won the Big 12 Triple Crown in 2009

conference mark-improvements of nine and six wins respectively from the previous season.

KU’s offense was spearheaded by Tony Thompson.  The sophomore third baseman hit just .276 with 5 HR and 18 RBIs as a freshman, but he made history in 2009 by becoming the first player to win the Big 12 Triple Crown.  Thompson led the conference in batting average (.389) home runs (21) and RBIs (82).  His efforts helped the Kansas offense go from a .261 hitting team with just 36 home runs in  2008 to a .301 average with 58 longballs last season.

Thompson

(Click play to listen to a podcast interview that Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires recorded with Thompson last spring.)

The Jayhawks’ 17-7 win over arch-rival Kansas State to end the regular season gave them 25 home wins in 2009-the 2nd most in program history.

Despite an 0-3 mark at the Big 12 Tournament, KU earned the fourth NCAA bid in the 118 years of the program.  The Jayhawks made it to the championship game of the Chapel Hill, NC Regional, but lost 12-1 to the host North Carolina.  The Tar Heels would go on to their fourth straight College World Series appearance.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

11.  Stephen Strasburg Strikes Out 17 In A No-Hitter

12.  Ohio State’s Alex Wimmers No-hits Michigan

13.  Kansas Sweeps #1 Texas

14.  Bryce Brentz Has An April To Remember

15.  Clemson’s Kyle Parker Does Double Duty

16.  #1 Arkansas Beats #1 Arizona State

17.  Rhode Island Beats Miami And Oklahoma State

18.  Kansas State’s A.J. Morris beats Arizona State’s Mike Leake

19.  North Carolina’s Mike Fox Wins His 1,000th Game

20.  Illinois Shocks #1 LSU In Baton Rouge

21.  Alabama’s Kent Matthes Launches Longballs

22.  Freshman Levi Michael Starts In North Carolina’s Season Opener

23.  LSU Opens The New Alex Box Stadium

24.  Oregon Brings Back Baseball

Kansas Sweeps #1 Texas

Paul Smyth saved all 3 KU wins over Texas.

perfect innings with 2 strikeouts in the 5-4 win.  Smyth induces three flyouts in the 9th inning for his 4th save of the season.

Game 2-Saturday, March 21: 5 pitchers (Cameron Selik, Blankenship, Bochy, Colton Murray, & Smyth) combine to scatter four Longhorn hits over 4 innings in the 4-3 victory.  For the second straight game they issue no walks.  Smyth again finishes for his 5th save.

Game 3-Sunday, March 22: 3 pitchers (Blankenship, Murray & Smyth) hold the Longhorns without a run for the final  2 1/3 innings of the series in another 4-3 KU win.  Smyth gets his 3rd save in as many games, while Lawrence native Travis Blankenship earns his 2nd straight win in relief.

The 3-game KU Bullpen Totals: 7 2/3 IP – 5 H – 5 K – 0 BB – 0 Runs

Kansas pitching staff held the 3,4 & 5 batters in the Texas order (including pinch-hitters) to a

Travis Blankenship earned two wins in relief.

.212 (7-for-33) average with 4 RBIs in the 3-game set.

The Kansas offense over the weekend was a team effort as well as 8 different Jayhawk batters accounted for 11 RBIs in the three games.  Four different players had an RBI in the game one and game three victories.

Prior to the weekend, the Jayhawks had never swept the Longhorns in a 3-game series.  In fact, they had never even put together three straight wins at any time against Texas.  KU also started 3-0 in conference play for the first time since 1994.

The three wins over the Longhorns proved to be crucial for the Jayhawks.  They stood with a 37-22 overall record prior to the NCAA Tournament after going 0-3 (including a loss to Texas) in the Big 12 Tournament.  However, they were 15-12 in conference play.  But when the names were announced for the 64-team NCAA field Kansas was announced and sent to the Chapel Hill, NC regional.

Without the three wins over the eventual College World Series runner-up the Jayhawks likely would have missed an NCAA berth.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

14.  Bryce Brentz Has An April To Remember

15.  Clemson’s Kyle Parker Does Double Duty

16.  #1 Arkansas Beats #1 Arizona State

17.  Rhode Island Beats Miami And Oklahoma State

18.  Kansas State’s A.J. Morris beats Arizona State’s Mike Leake

19.  North Carolina’s Mike Fox Wins His 1,000th Game

20.  Illinois Shocks #1 LSU In Baton Rouge

21.  Alabama’s Kent Matthes Launches Longballs

22.  Freshman Levi Michael Starts In North Carolina’s Season Opener

23.  LSU Opens The New Alex Box Stadium

24.  Oregon Brings Back Baseball

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Sacramento State Director of Athletics Terry Wanless has announced that associate head coach Reggie Christiansen will succeed John Smith, who will retire following the 2010 season, as the school’s baseball coach.

“I am very excited to announce Reggie Christiansen as our next head baseball coach beginning in the 2011 season,” Wanless said. “I have been very impressed with not only Reggie’s work ethic and ability to teach the game of baseball, but his integrity and character. He has been a great asset to coach Smith, and I look forward to them working together

Reggie Christiansen

during coach’s final season.”

Christiansen, 34, is entering his second season with the Hornets, and first as the team’s associate head coach. He played a key role this past season in helping lead Sacramento State to its best record since 2003. Serving as the team’s hitting coach, the Hornets posted their fourth highest batting average (.318) and fourth highest home run total (63) in school history. Eight Hornet players posted career-best averages at the plate, and seven posted career-highs in home runs and RBI.

“I’d like to thank Dr. Wanless and President Gonzalez for giving me the opportunity to lead the program following Coach Smith’s retirement,” Christiansen said. “I’d also like to thank my wife for her continued support, as she has endured living in five different cities in the past eight years while I moved through the coaching ranks. I am certainly looking forward to the chance to work with a group of young men that are eager to succeed. I’m excited about the opportunity to help this program grow and build on the foundation that was developed by Coach Smith over the past 32 years.”

Prior to coming to Sacramento State, Christiansen was given the task of building a Division I baseball program during his four seasons with the Jackrabbits, taking over at the beginning of their reclassification period. Christiansen posted a 96-113 record at South Dakota State, turning a 12-win team in Division II a year previous to his hire in 2004 into a team that won the Division I Independent Tournament in 2007, collecting a 34-19 record.

John Smith

Prior to his arrival at South Dakota State, Christiansen was an assistant at the University of Kansas under Ritch Price for two seasons. During his time with the Jayhawks he served as first base coach and worked as a hitting instructor, while also overseeing the outfielders.

He spent the 2002 season as the head coach of his alma mater, Menlo College, in Atherton, Calif, where he had previously spent time as an assistant coach from 1997-99. He spent the 2001 season as the head coach in his hometown at Ferndale High School, and also spent time with three summer teams as an assistant coach, working with the San Mateo Bulldogs, the Humboldt Crabs and the Topeka Capitals.

“I’m excited and very supportive of Dr. Wanless’ decision to announce coach Christiansen as the program’s next head coach,” Smith said. “In a short period of time at Sacramento State, Reggie has demonstrated the work ethic, knowledge, and ability to teach the game the way it should be taught. He is a man of integrity with a high sense of morals, and I feel comfortable knowing that the program will continue on the right path.”

Smith announced his retirement on October 2, and will be stepping down after 32 years at the helm of the program.

(Press Release)

The University of Kansas baseball team will play a tough schedule in 2010 that includes 30 contests against teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season.

Complete 2010 Kansas Schedule (PDF)

Kansas Head Coach Ritch Price

“Our players are really looking forward to our 2010 schedule,” Price said. “It’s going to be one of the toughest in America, but we’re looking forward to some of the special places we get to play.”

Kansas opens the season at home for the first time since 2002, with a three-game series against Eastern Michigan, Feb. 19-21. KU’s annual game against Wichita State in Lawrence will be Feb. 23, wrapping up the team’s first homestand of the year.

KU will participate in the Peoria Spring Training Classic in Peoria, Ariz., at the spring training home of the Seattle Mariners. After one game at 2009 College World Series participant Arkansas in Fayetteville, the Jayhawks return home to host Iowa and Tabor, before a grueling stretch that ends with the Big 12 series opener at Baylor, March 26-28.

Between March 12-28, the Jayhawks will play 10 games away from Lawrence, including a three-game series at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., against defending national champ, LSU.

After a five-game homestand to start the month of April, the Jayhawks will be on the road for nine-straight contests, beginning with a non-conference game against Creighton at Rosenblatt Stadium on April 7, and ending with a non-conference match up with Missouri at Kauffman Stadium on April 21.

Following the Missouri game at Kauffman Stadium, KU will play 10 of its final 17 games in the comforts of Hoglund Ballpark, including home series against Big 12 foes Texas Tech (April 23-25), Missouri (May 7-9) and Oklahoma (May 21-23). KU will also host in-state rival Kansas State in the first game of a three-game series.

“Our 2010 schedule will prepare our team to compete in the Big 12 Conference and, if we’re successful, our RPI should qualify our team for the NCAA Tournament, and help us reach our goal of being a Top 25 program,” Price said.