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Ducks Skipper Sees Lack Of Respect For West Coast…

By CB360 Contributor Kris Anderson

Monday was a somber day in Eugene, Ore., as the Oregon Ducks learned that they were not selected to the NCAA Baseball Tournament’s field of 64.

Horton

Despite winning nine of their last 12 games and finishing the regular season by sweeping then No. 6 ranked Oregon State,  the preseason top-15 Ducks proved that three strong weeks could not save themselves from an 11-16 Pac-10 Conference record.

After learning of the tournament field, Ducks coach George Horton expressed his disappointment in not being selected, as well as the selection committee’s perception of college baseball’s western region.

“Those teams like us that thought they had an opportunity to play are devastated and confused,” Horton said on Monday. “You compare your numbers to others that get in, but ultimately, I didn’t think that west coast baseball was very well respected.”

Horton, who made six College World Series appearances and won a national championship during his 10 years as head coach of Cal State Fullerton, pointed to the fact that no national seeds were awarded to teams from the west. He also noted that western teams like Cal State Bakersfield, Gonzaga and Cal Poly—teams that were on the bubble—were not selected to regionals. He called the selections of three Big East teams and three Sun Belt teams “ridiculous.”

“I think the Fullerton regional and the Oregon State regional, they’re all tough, but that isn’t a typical western regional as far as level of difficulty, for me,” Horton said. “The UCLA one certainly is. For me, that’s the toughest regional on paper. And then the fact that all three of those teams match up with national seeds—one, three and six—I think is pretty ridiculous.”

Horton came to the defense of Pac-10 conference champion, UCLA , saying they “didn’t get much respect.”

“They played for the national championship last year, and have the same team back,” he said. “I thought the committee missed the mark there.”

“I thought the western region was under represented. I’m not taking anything away from the committee’s efforts or the national perspective in teams like St. John’s and some of those other team that got in. It’s too bad for western baseball and too bad for the Ducks. I don’t even know, ultimately, whether we were on the board….”

So, how does the west gain respect?

“You schedule all your games at home and play ‘Molly Putts University’ at home and get a bunch of great records,” said Horton, who has been the coach of the Ducks since the program was reinstated in 2009. “But that can’t happen because the budgets aren’t conducive to that, and we don’t have those kinds of stadiums like the ACC, SEC, Big 12 has.”

“They play all their games at home. They play weak opponents in the mid-week. Their leagues are very strong, make no mistake about it. But they all feed off each other because they all come into conference 24-3. And then whatever they do in conference, they do, and then they don’t lose a mid-week game.”

This season, Arkansas, for example, entered conference play with a 14-2 record, but went 15-15 vs. SEC teams. Also, they did not play any mid-week games against an SEC opponent.

Oregon played two mid-week games against No. 13 Oregon State, which they split. They also played two mid-week games against eventual West Coast Conference champion San Francisco and two against WCC runner-up, Gonzaga.

“In the west you play each other, so it’s almost like a conference wash where it’s fifty-fifty,” Horton said. “I’m a little west coast biased, of course, because I’ve been out here, but a third place team, a western team, a .500 team in the west, I think is a more difficult challenge than some of those teams that the others are playing. Not taking any respect from them. It’s always been a problem.”

“Every year you see two (Pac-10) teams, at least, in the College World Series, and the committee tends to forget that. I don’t know why.”

After the Ducks completed the sweep of their in-state rivals, the Beavers, Horton declared that his team had a 40-percent chance of being selected to regionals. After looking at tournament predictions and seeing how the committee treated teams from the west, he said 20-percent would have been more accurate.

The Ducks’ chances were also hurt by the results of certain conference tournaments, which Horton says he is not a “fan” of.

But none of that matters now. The Ducks will spend the off-season evaluating how a season that began with dreams of Omaha, is over before June.

 

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Both Longhorn Teams Are National Runners-Up

Bryce Brentz Has An April To Remember

Bryce Brentz

during college baseball’s dog days he had achieved Zeus like status.  In 20 April games in the Blue Raider’s line up Brentz his .694 (50 for 72) with 9 home runs, 28 RBIs, 24 Runs, and 8 doubles.

Brentz homered in four straight and 4 out of 6 games in one stretch vs. Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Louisiana-Monroe, and Mississippi State.   The sophomore is a Knoxville, TN native, and the only game in which he failed to homer in that stretch was in his home town vs. the Volunteers.

The 6’0 also made four starts during the month, the best of which was an 8 inning effort with 9 strikeouts against just one walk in a 13-3 win over Sun Belt Conference rival ULM.  Brentz finished the season with a modest 5-3 record and 4.57 ERA, but consider this:  In his four starts as MTSU’s #1 pitcher Brentz struckout a combined 21 opposing batters. In 230 at-bats in the 2009 season Brentz fanned just 32 times himself while leading the nation with 28 home runs.

By season’s end Brentz had put-up just sick numbers.  He led MTSU with a .465 batting average, 28 home runs, and 73 RBIs with a .930 slugging percentage and .535 on-base percentage for a 1.465 OPS.

Brentz tied for the NCAA lead with 28 HR in '09.

His HR total tied with Alabama’s Kent Matthes for the NCAA lead, his slg % was tops in the nation by 68 points over the next closest hitter, and his OBP ranked fourth among individual batters.

Collegebaseball360.com Editor, Sean Stires, talked to Brentz just after his spectacular month of April.  CLICK HERE to listen to that exclusive podcast interview.

Brentz’s efforts helped Middle Tennessee State win the 2009 Sun Belt Conference Tournament and a trip to the Louisville NCAA Regional.

He played for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team over the summer with the likes of Florida State’s Tyler Holt, Michael Choice of UT Arlington, Yasmani Grandal of Miami, and Christian Colon from Cal State Fullerton.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

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

JONESBORO, Ark. – Thirty-one home games, including 15 Sun Belt Conference matchups and a home clash with perennial national power Ole Miss highlight the schedule for the 2010 Arkansas State baseball season, which gets underway Feb. 19 when the Red Wolves host Southern Illinois in a three-game series at Tomlinson Stadium and Kell Field.

Three of the top four teams in last year’s Sun Belt Conference regular season standings will visit Tomlinson Stadium, including defending regular season co-champions Middle Tennessee State and Western Kentucky.  Florida International, which finished fourth in the regular season a year ago, and sixth-place

Arkansas State Head Coach Tommy Raffo

South Alabama will also travel to Jonesboro.  The Red Wolves will close out the regular season by hosting in-state and conference rival Arkansas-Little Rock.

Complete 2010 Arkansas State Schedule

Regional rivals Memphis, Southeast Missouri State, Murray State and UT Martin will all visit Jonesboro during the regular season as well, and the 2010 schedule marks the first time since the 2004 season that ASU’s schedule consists entirely of Division I opponents.

Arkansas State will play 11 of its first 12 games at home, hosting SIU, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Portland in the season’s first three weekends.  The Red Wolves open SBC play March 12-14 at Louisiana-Lafayette before returning to Jonesboro to face MTSU in the March 19-21 SBC home opener.

“We are very excited about the 2010 baseball schedule,” said ASU head coach Tommy Raffo.  “We are presented with some early challenges before conference play begins that will help prepare us for play in the Sun Belt.  The 31 home games at Tomlinson Stadium will be a great opportunity for our players, our fans, and the people in Northeast Arkansas to watch quality baseball.”

Seven starters return from last year’s team, including All-Sun Belt Conference performer Murray Watts, who hit .305 a year ago and led the team with 16 doubles, 10 home runs and 44 RBIs.  Junior outfielder Todd Baumgartner, who hit a team-best .350 with 15 doubles, eight home runs and 43 RBIs returns as well.  The Red Wolves also return junior Andy Ferguson and sophomore Jacob Lee who were both weekend starters on the mound a year ago.

(Release)

Blue Raiders Have 27 Home Games In 2010

MTSU Head Coach Steve Peterson

“With the exception of Ohio University, our schedule looks much like it has in recent years,” noted Peterson. “It will feature a lot of familiar foes, and have a lot of road games close by that our fans can follow us to.”

Complete 2010 MTSU Schedule

Tennessee and Vanderbilt are home-and-home foes once again, as are Austin Peay, Belmont, David Lipscomb and Tennessee Tech.

Middle Tennessee will play Southern Illinois in multi-game series’ home and away, and will also have a three-game road trip to Jacksonville State in early March.

“We have a tough non-conference slate, as we always try to do, to prepare us for conference play,” said Peterson. “Tennessee was very good at the end of the season last year, and Vandy is being touted as perhaps having the best pitching staff in the country. Tennessee Tech made the NCAA tournament last year, and Southern Illinois and Jacksonville State are always a tough series for us.”

The 56-game schedule will include 18 games against Sun Belt Conference foes, beginning with a three-game home stand against Louisiana-Monroe March 12-13-14. It will close the regular season with what has become the traditional season-ending series with Western Kentucky.

Sunday, April 25th, is tentatively set as Little League Day at Reese Smith Field. Middle Tennessee will host SBC foe Arkansas-Little Rock on that day.

(Release)

The Florida International baseball team recently finalized its 2010 schedule, announced head coach Turtle Thomas. The 2010 slate is packed with big-name programs both at home and on the road to go along with the always-challenging Sun Belt Conference schedule. “I think the Sun Belt getting better and better every year because we have a lot of great coaches in this conference,” Thomas said. “There are no easy ones in this league.”

Complete 2010 FIU Schedule

FIU opens the season at home when they host the Maryland Terrapins from the ACC February 19-21. The Golden Panthers will then take on Oral Roberts

FIU Head Coach Turtle Thomas

on February 26-28. Last season the Golden Eagles finished 33-15, won the Summit League and went on to the Tempe Regional where they won two games before being eliminated by Arizona State, who FIU will also play in 2010.

After the six-game homestand, FIU will hit the road for the Arizona State Surprise Tournament in Surprise, Ariz. After opening up the tournament against Utah Valley State on March 4, FIU will play UC Riverside (33-20 in ’09) March 5 and Cal Poly March 6. The Mustangs of Cal Poly finished 37-21 and also went to the Tempe Regional in 2009. The Golden Panthers then close out the tournament playing College World Series participant Arizona State on March 7. The Sun Devils, who were ranked as high as No.2 in the country in postseason polls, went 51-14 and advanced to the CWS where they won two games before being bounced by Texas.

Following the tough trip to Arizona, things don’t get much easier for FIU as they host the defending ACC champions Eagles of Boston College March 9-10. BC beat Miami in the finals of the ACC tournament last year and advanced to the Austin Regional. FIU will then host Big East member Rutgers March 12-14.

FIU will then head to the west coast of Florida on March 16 to face the Eagles of Florida Gulf Coast who were the A-Sun regular season champions in ’09 after posting a 36-18 record. FIU then hosts Southern Utah March 17 before opening up the Sun Belt schedule with a visit from the Troy Trojans March 20-23.

MORE SCHEDULES

A visit from A-Sun tournament champions and Gainesville Regional participant Jacksonville March 23-24 will precede FIU’s next conference series as they travel to Little Rock, Ark. March 26 for a 3-game set with the UALR Trojans and then come home on April 2 to host the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns. The Golden Panthers then go on the road for the first of hopefully two trips to Murfreesboro, Tenn. April 9-14 as they visit the Blue Raiders, a team that was co-regular season champions and won the Sun Belt tournament last year on their way to an NCAA Louisville Regional birth.

On April 14, FIU will face yet another NCAA regional participant as the Wildcats of Bethune Cookman come to town. After a visit from the New Orleans Privateers on April 16-17, FIU will head to Bowling Green, Ky. to face Sun Belt Conference regular season co-champions and NCAA Oxford Regional participant Western Kentucky April 23-25.

FIU plays Jacksonville again on April 27-28, this time on the road before heading home to host ULM starting April 30. A trip to Daytona Beach on May 5^th will ready the Panthers for their trip to Jonesboro to face Arkansas State starting May 7. FIU then hosts South Alabama starting May 14 before facing FGCU at home and finishing the season in Boca Raton facing the Florida Atlantic Owls starting May 20.

The Sun Belt Conference Championships will be held in Murfreesboro, Tenn. on May 25-29.

(Press Release)

Warhawks To Face Three 2009 College World Series Teams

Full La.-Monroe 2010 Schedule

“I feel that we have a great schedule that our fans will enjoy and that will help our team reach a Regional,” Schexnaider said. “With 15 games against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament last season, the schedule provides us with the challenges we need to accomplish our goals.”

The Warhawks open the season at one of the eight Super Regional sites from last season for a three-game set against Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss., on Feb. 19-21. The series was originally scheduled for two mid-week games later in the year, but when the NCAA extended the season by one week it was moved to the beginning of the year with an extra game added.

Creighton, Stephen F. Austin and Northwestern State await the Warhawks the following weekend (Feb. 26-28) in Nacogdoches, Texas, for a round robin tournament. ULM and Creighton met two years ago in Rosenblatt Stadium to end the regular season, while the Lumberjacks and Demons are old Southland Conference foes.

ULM travels to Hattiesburg, Miss., on Mar. 3 for the first of two games on the season against Southern Mississippi, who played in the 2009 College World Series. The Warhawks have won two straight games against the Golden Eagles on their home field, including a decisive 9-2 victory last season.

The Warhawks open their 26-game Warhawk Field schedule with a three-game set against Mississippi Valley State on Mar. 5-7.

A date with the defending national champions is next for ULM as it heads down to Baton Rouge, La., for a meeting with LSU at Alex Box Stadium on Mar. 9. The Warhawks then host Memphis in the first of a home-and-home series on Mar. 10 with the Conference USA foe before opening conference play.

The Sun Belt Conference opener will be a rematch of the Sun Belt Tournament Championship Game as the Warhawks travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., for three games against Middle Tennessee on Mar. 12-14.

A trip to Northwestern State on Mar. 15 follows the league opener and Southern Mississippi makes its return trip to Warhawk Field on Mar. 16 to open a four-game homestand. New Orleans returns to Warhawk Field for the second consecutive year Mar. 19-21 for three Sun Belt games.

ULM hits the road for five of the next six games beginning with a Mar. 23 date at Texas-Arlington. A home contest against McNeese State on Mar. 24 breaks up the road trip before the Warhawks travel to Bowling Green, Ky., for three league games at Western Kentucky. Facing elimination, the Warhawks defeated the Hilltoppers twice in the Sun Belt Tournament last year to advance to the title game.

Following a return trip to McNeese State on Mar. 30, the Warhawks play six of their next eight games in the friendly confines of Warhawk Field beginning with a Mar. 31 matchup with Grambling State. NCAA Tournament foe Binghamton is in town for three games on Apr. 2-3.

The two road contests come mid-week as the Warhawks travel to Memphis and Central Arkansas on Apr. 6-7 before hosting Arkansas State on Apr. 9-11 in a three-game Sun Belt series.

A return trip to Grambling State on Apr. 13 breaks up a string of 12 league games. The Warhawks travel to Mobile, Ala., on Apr. 16-18 for three SBC games at South Alabama before returning home Apr. 23-25 for a three-game league set against Florida International.

Staying with teams from the Sunshine State, the Warhawks fly down to Miami, Fla., for three games against league foe Florida International on Apr. 30-May 2. ULM will look for its second straight victory in New Orleans, La., over Tulane on May 4 before returning home to host Troy on May 7-9 in a three-game Sun Belt series.

The final regular season road games send the Warhawks to Little Rock, Ark., for three league games against UALR on May 14-16.

The regular season wraps up with a home game against Northwestern State on May 18 and a three-game series against Louisiana-Lafayette on May 20-22. The series against the Ragin’ Cajuns marks the first time in ULM’s four years in the Sun Belt Conference that it will play a league series during the final weekend of play.

The top eight teams in the league will meet in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on May 26-29 for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament with the winner earning the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

(Press Release)