http://collegebaseball360.com/schrage-named-baseball-coach-at-south-dakota-state/ http://collegebaseball360.com/schrage-named-baseball-coach-at-south-dakota-state/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 00:29:13 +0000 http://collegebaseball360.com/?p=22799

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Veteran college baseball coach Dave Schrage has been hired to take over the reins of the South Dakota State University baseball program, Athletic Director Justin Sell announced Tuesday.

Dave Schrage

“Dave Schrage’s familiarity with our recruiting area and his success in building programs like ours make him a tremendous addition to the Jackrabbit family,” Sell said. ” This was a very competitive search process which generated interest from a great pool of candidates from across the country.”

Schrage, who begins his duties Aug. 8, enters the 2012 season four wins away from reaching 600 for his career. In 23 seasons as a collegiate head coach, he has averaged more than 25 victories per season, including five campaigns with 32 or more wins. He has coached players who have earned all-conference honors 58 times and 38 of his former student-athletes have gone on to play professionally.

“I am very humbled and appreciative for this opportunity,” Schrage said. “I would like to thank the search committee, the staff, the head coaches, and especially Justin Sell for hiring me to lead the baseball program. I was so impressed with the quality of people when I visited campus. It is a great time to come to South Dakota State University. There is so much growth and excitement happening on campus. My family and I are looking forward to getting involved in the Brookings community and joining the Jackrabbit family.”

At South Dakota State, Schrage replaces Ritchie Price, who resigned on June 30 after three seasons to return to his alma mater, Kansas, as an assistant coach. Unlike many of his previous stops, Schrage inherits a winning program; SDSU has averaged 38 wins each of the past two seasons, tying the school record for wins with a 39-21 record in 2010, followed by a 37-20 mark in 2011. The Jackrabbits have advanced to the Summit League championship series three consecutive years.

“Coach (Reggie) Christiansen and coach Price did a super job building this program into a winner,” Schrage said. “I expect to keep that momentum going and reach even greater heights.”

Most recently, Schrage was head coach at Notre Dame for four seasons, leading the Fighting Irish to a 119-104-1 record from 2007-10. After posting a .500 record (28-28) his first season in South Bend, Schrage put Notre Dame back in contention for postseason play with a 33-21-1 record in 2008 and a 36-23 mark in 2009. The Fighting Irish led the BIG EAST Conference in fielding in both 2008 and 2009, while consistently ranking at or near the top in batting, on-base percentage and earned run average.

Schrage has previously found success at the mid-major level, including a four-year stint at Evansville (Ind.) from 2003-06, during which he guided the Purple Aces to a 130-108 record. Evansville improved its win total each of his four seasons, from 24 in 2003 to 43 in 2006. Schrage earned Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year honors for the third time in 2006 as Evansville won both the regular season and tournament conference titles, earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Purple Aces advanced all the way to the finals of the Charlottesville Regional, knocking off host Virginia before falling to South Carolina in the championship.

A Chicago native, Schrage directed a dramatic turnaround in his home state during a three-year run at Northern Illinois from 2000-02. After inheriting a team that was 4-51 the year before he arrived, Schrage’s squad turned in a 20-game improvement with a 24-33 record in his first season and then led the Huskies to a winning season in 2001 with a 28-27 overall mark. He was named runner-up for National Coach of the Year by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper in 2000.

Schrage began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant under his predecessor at Notre Dame, Paul Mainieri, at St. Thomas University (Fla.) in 1984. He later returned to his alma mater, Creighton University (Neb.), as an assistant coach for two seasons.

From 1986-87, Schrage coached the Queensland Rams club team in Brisbane, Australia, before returning stateside as he gained his first head coaching job at Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa. From 1988-90 he led the junior college program to a 61-66 mark.

Schrage then spent nine seasons as head coach at the University of Northern Iowa, where he was named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 1995 and 1997. His teams improved from two league victories in UNI’s first season in the MVC in 1992 to 18 during the 1997 campaign.

As a collegiate player, Schrage was an all-conference outfielder at Creighton, batting .400 as a junior and .433 his senior season. He also was an Academic All-America honoree during his senior campaign in 1983, and graduated that spring with a bachelor of science degree in finance. Schrage was honored on the MVC’s Centennial Celebration baseball team and is the only person in league history to earn all-conference honors and be named MVC Coach of the Year in baseball.

THE SCHRAGE FILE
* at Waldorf College (Iowa): 61-66 record in three seasons (1988-90)
* at Northern Iowa: 211-292 in nine seasons (1991-99)
* at Northern Illinois: 75-92 in three seasons (2000-02)
* at Evansville (Ind.): 130-108 in four seasons (2003-06)
* at Notre Dame (Ind.): 119-104-1 in four seasons (2007-10)

Career Totals: 596-662-1 in 23 seasons

(Release)

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Can Oral Roberts Repeat…AGAIN?

ORU head coach Rob Walton

The Skinny: To say that Oral Roberts has dominated the Summit League would be an insult to the word understatement.  The Golden Eagles not only run roughshod through the postseason by winning 12 straight Summit (formerly the Mid-Continent) League titles, but they have also gone 246-27 (.901) in Summit League regular-season games since joining the conference in 1998.  ORU is 36-1 in those conference tournament games.  They’ve won 27 straight such games, with the lone loss coming to Southern Utah in 2000.

All that success begs the obvious question:  Can anyone even challenge Oral Roberts in 2010?

Centenary

2009 Season: (33-19, 16-10)

Mascot:  Gents

Head Coach: Ed McCann

Location:  Shreveport, LA

Vitals: .312 BA, 36 HR, .398 OBP, .959 Fld%…4.87 ERA, 10 SVs, 387 K, 167 BB, .296 Opp. BA

Giant Killer: The Gents posted wins over top-ranked Texas A&M and 18^th ranked Arkansas in 2009.

No Cupcakes: Centenary opens the 2010 schedule in Baton Rouge against defending national champion LSU.  They also play a two-game set at another ’09 CWS team, Arkansas, in March.

Big Losses: Centenary has to deal with the loss of All-Summit League performers Chris LaLonde (4-0, 6.35 ERA) and Ricky Imperiali (.325, 19 doubles).  Travis Leverson led the team with a .386 BA & led the Summit with 18 stolen bases.

Who’s Back:  Michael Tompkins (.348, 8 HR, 45 RBIs) & Tell Ross (.350, 7 HR, 49 RBIs) will pace the offense.

Ace Rising:  Justin Kraft (6-4, 4.08 ERA, 4 CG, 77 K in 81.2 IP should be one of the top pitchers in the conference.

Northern Exposure:  Reigning America East champion Binghamton leaves New York for a 4-game series in Shreveport March 27-29.

IPFW

2009 Season: (13-38, 6-21)

Mascot:  Mastadons

Head Coach: Bobby Pierce

Location:  Ft. Wayne, IN

Vitals: .261 BA, 28 HR, .360 OBP, .952 Fld%…8.10 ERA, 264 K, 268 BB, .328 opp. BA

Boiler Up: IPFW notched two of their 13 wins on the season against Big 10 foe Purdue, sweeping the season series.

Mr. Everything: The Mastodons must replace INF Chris Gottschall, who led the team in every offensive category, except triples and stolen bases.

North Dakota State

2009 Season: (16-28, 10-14)

Mascot:  Bison

Head Coach: Tod Brown

Location:  Fargo, ND

Vitals:  .296 BA, 16 HR, .373 OBP, .952 Fld%…6.71 ERA, 285 K, 184 BB, .315 opp. BA

Youth Movement: NDSU returns two second team All-Summit League selections in So. P John Straka and So. C Justin Kilne.  Straka led North Dakota State with a 4-3 record with a 3.49 ERA and 54 strikeouts.  Kline set a Bison freshman record and led the Summit League with a team-leading .432 batting average.

Road Warriors: NDSU plays its first 26 games on the road this season before finally opening the home schedule April 13^th against Dakota Wesleyan.

Oakland

2009 Season: (22-34, 10-18)

Mascot:  Golden Grizzlies

Head Coach: John Musachio

Location:  Rochester, MI

Vitals:  .299 BA, 49 HR, .380 OBP, .960 Fld%…8.00 ERA, 5 CG, 8 SV, 274 K, 273 BB, .336 opp. BA

Record Setter: The Golden Grizzlies must replace infielder Andrew Stafford who broke single-season school records by smacking 82 hits and posting a .381 batting average.

Strong Arms: Oakland returns all 10 pitchers who earned a win last season.

Tough Test: Oakland opens its season with a three-game series against Mississippi in Oxford.

Oral Roberts

2009 Season: (33-15, 16-2)

Mascot:  Golden Eagles

Head Coach: Rob Walton

Location:  Tulsa, OK

Vitals:  .303 BA, 80 HR, .403 OBP, .962 Fld%…3.76 ERA, 9 CG, 4 SV, 498 K, 193 BB, .242 opp. BA

Seth Furmanek

Key Departures: ORU faces the task of replacing Summit League Player of the Year Mark Serrano (9-1, 2.50 ERA), and San Diego Padres first round draft pick Jerry Sullivan (8-3, 3.12 ERA).

Key Returners: Senior C Seth Furmanek (.333, 17 HR) and senior INF Colby Price (.342, 10 doubles), lead a potent Golden Eagles offense.

Road Tests: Oral Roberts has trips this season to Baylor, UCLA, and Texas.

Home Cookin’: Since 1998 ORU’s J.L. Johnson Stadium has hosted either the Mid-Continent or Summit League postseason tournament 10 of 12 times.

South Dakota State

Jesse Sawyer

2009 Season: (26-30, 17-10)

Mascot:  Jackrabbits

Head Coach: Ritchie Price

Location:  Brookings, SD

Vitals:  .315 BA, 65 HR, .392 OBP, .963 Fld%…6.80 ERA, 4 CG, 6 SV, 322 K, 222 BB, .317 opp. BA

Country’s Best Eh: Junior third baseman Jesse Sawyer was named the top Canadian college baseball player according to CanadianBaseballNetwork.com after setting SDSU single season records for homeruns (19) and total bases (148).  Sawyer also led the team with 61 runs scored and 58 RBI.

Hot Streak: After starting the season 5-22, the Jackrabbits won 19 of their last 25 games while all nine regular starters finished the season hitting above .300

Southern Utah

2009 Season: (27-24, 15-7)

Mascot:  Thunderbirds

Head Coach: David Eldredge

Location:  Cedar City, UT

Vitals:  .318 BA, 52 HR, .396 OBP, .957 Fld%…5.85 ERA, 6 CG, 11 SV, 258 K, 237 BB, .313 opp. BA

Man on a Mission: Southern Utah third baseman Bo Cuthbertson earned Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America honors and was named to the PING!Baseball All-Freshman third-team after leading the team with a .393 average.  Cuthbertson, though, is taking the next two years off while serving on an LDS mission in Uruguay.

Thunderbird Hoosiers: SU returns just 15 players from last year’s roster.

Career Leader: Newly named assistant coach Keli’i Zablan finished his Thunderbird playing days first in career at-bats and total bases.

Western Illinois

2009 Season: (13-33, 8-16)

Mascot:  Leathernecks

Head Coach: Mike Villano

Location:  Macomb, IL

Vitals:  .297 BA, 37 HR, .956 Fld%…10.27 ERA, 235 K, 218 BB

Stan Hyman

Tragic Loss: Mike Villano was named Western Illinois head coach November 23^rd after Stan Hyman passed away at age 50 after battling leukemia.

Big Wins: The Leathernecks first victory last year was a 24-0 win over Medaille, with their second coming four days later over 12^th ranked Oklahoma State.

Major Opportunities: WIU faces some heavy hitters on this season’s schedule.  Included are trips to Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

Predictions:

2010 Champion: Oral Roberts, while Centenary looks to be the closest challenger

2010 Player of the Year: North Dakota State’s Justin Kline

2010 Pitcher of the Year: North Dakota State’s John Straka