Xavier 2010 Baseball Schedule
XU to Face Six 2009 NCAA Tournament Participants in 2010
CINCINNATI – Xavier University baseball head coach Scott Googins has announced the 2010 schedule, a slate that includes early season trips to Tennessee (Feb. 19-21), Georgia Tech (Feb. 26-28), Duke (Mar. 3) and Wake Forest (Mar. 5-7). The Musketeers will face six teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament in 2009, including Super Regional participant Louisville on March 16.
“We are really excited about the non-conference schedule that includes several teams with well known tradition,” commented Googins. “The guys are looking forward to playing at several great venues this season and those non-conference
Musketeer head coach Scott Googins
teams will prepare us for our conference play. We’re excited about the atmosphere of where we’ll be playing, against teams in the ACC, SEC and Big XII, all good baseball conferences and good teams in those conferences.”
XU will open the season with 10 straight road games before its home opener on March 9 against LeMoyne. The Musketeers will take on tournament participant Missouri in Columbia Mar. 12-16 followed by a single game at Louisville and then will host Oakland for a three-game homestand Mar. 19-21. Xavier is set to play at Kentucky (Mar. 23) and at Indiana (Mar. 24) before opening Atlantic 10 conference play at Saint Louis Mar. 26-28.
“We have young arms but they have to be able to produce and we are definitely hoping to build off success from last year,” Googins mentioned. “It’s hard to look that far ahead, to the A-10 schedule, but I think we will be in the mix. Hopefully our guys will be up to the challenge.”
The Musketeers will play nine three-game A-10 series this season, including La Salle (Apr. 9-11), Duquesne (Apr. 16-18), Charlotte (May 7-9) and Massachusetts (May 14-16) at home. Other than SLU, Xavier will travel to Richmond (Apr. 2-4), Rhode Island (Apr. 23-25), Dayton (Apr. 30-May 2) and Saint Joseph’s (May 20-22) to round out its conference schedule.
Other teams in the Musketeers’ schedule in 2010 include Campbell University, Miami (Ohio), Ohio State, Cincinnati, Eastern Kentucky and Ohio. XU will once again be participating in the second annual Joe Nuxhall Classic Apr. 13-14, which will be hosted by Miami (Ohio) this season. Xavier will defend its 2009 title at the Classic in 2010 against the field that includes Cincinnati, Miami and Wright State.
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Top College Baseball Moments Of 2009 #3
Longhorn Longball In Omaha
The Texas Longhorns played 61 games in 2009 before their trip to the College World Series. In those games they hit a total of 39 home runs, but Omaha was much more agreeable to Augie Garrido’s squad.
After averaging just .63 home runs a game in those 61 contents the Longhorns exploded for 14 longballs in their six games at Rosenblatt Stadium – an average of 2.3 a game.
What caused the sudden surge?
Russell Moldenhauer led Texas with 4 HR and a 1.000 Slg.% at the CWS.
Texas DH Russell Moldenhauer’s explanation was simple “We’re not playing at Disch-Falk (the Longhorn’s home field),” Moldenhauer said after belting a pair of solo shots in UT’s 7-6 loss to LSU in game one of the CWS Championship Series. Moldenhauer led Texas with 4 solo HR in his six games in Omaha after totaling just 15 hits in 38 games in 2009 prior to the College World Series (he was inured for much of the season).
The Longhorns needed every longball they could muster in Omaha. They scored 17 of their 36 runs at the CWS courtesy of home runs (12 of the 14 shots were solo,) Texas had just a .413 slugging percentage going into the College World Series, but they slugged at a .537 clip in their six games at Rosenblatt.
The home runs, along with a CWS-best 4.02 ERA in their six games, helped them overcome a.258 2-out batting average and .373 on-base percentage in Omaha. Their 2-out average ranked 6th in the eight team CWS field, while the OBP was last. However, only LSU’s .555 slugging percentage was better than Texas’ .537.
It’s also quite ironic that the team that led the nation with 104 sacrifice bunts (including an NCAA Tournament record with seven in a Super Regional game vs. TCU) in 2009 while hitting just a total of 53 home runs had more homers than any other team at the CWS. LSU was second with 13 Omaha home runs, but the other six College World Series participants managed a combined 18 HR in a total of 19 games at Rosenblatt.
All told seven of the Longhorn’s nine regulars hit home runs during their stay in Omaha. Here’s the breakdown with CWS HRs followed by each player’s final 2009 HR tally:
Russell Moldenhauer: 4/4 (Hit .350 with a slg% of 1.000 in 6 CWS games.)
Cameron Rupp: 3/11 (the 11 HR led Texas in ‘09. Tied w/Keyes w/6 CWS RBIs.)
Kevin Keyes: 2/9 (Added two doubles & tied for team-leading w/6 RBIs.)
Connor Rowe: 2/8 (Had 7 total hits, including two doubles at CWS.)
Travis Tucker: 1/3 (Rowe led Texas with a .400 avg. in Omaha.)
Preston Clark: 1/3 (Hit .381 in Omaha (8 hits), but his HR was his only extra-base hit.)
Michael Torres: 1/5 (He also had a pair of Omaha doubles.)
Neither Brandon Belt nor Brandon Loy homered in Omaha, but they had 3 and 4 RBIs respectively. Loy led the nation with 25 sac bunts in 2009, but he had just one in 6 games in Omaha. Belt had 11 sac bunts in ‘09, including two at the CWS.
Other Top Moments Of 2009
4. Southern Mississippi Sweeps Florida To Go To Omaha
5. The Texas vs. Boston College 25-inning Game
6. Andrew Darr Comes Off The Bench & Comes Up Big For Arkansas
7. Virginia Beats Stephen Strasburg In Irvine Regional Opener
8. Washington State And Gonzaga End Long NCAA Tournament Droughts
9. Cal Poly Gets Its First NCAA Tournament Bid
10. Kansas’ Field of Dreams: Kansas, Kansas State & Wichita State All Get NCAA Bids
11. Stephen Strasburg Strikes out 17 in a no hitter
12. Ohio State’s Alex Wimmers No-hits Michigan
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
Parker Helps Clemson To Music City Bowl Win
Two Sport Star Helps Tigers To First Bowl Win Since 2005
Nashville, TN– Clemson two sport star Kyle Parker passed for 141 yards and a touchdown to help the Tigers to a 21-14 win over Kentucky Sunday night in the Music City Bowl.
Parker, who also played in a Super Regional last spring with the Tiger baseball team, was 8 of 14 through the air. His lone touchdown pass of the night was a 32-yard strike to Jacoby Ford to give Clemson a 14-10 lead in the first half. He hit C.J. Spiller earlier in the 90-yard drive on a 42-yard catch and run.
Spiller was named Music City Bowl MVP after amassing 172 all-purpose yards. The senior running back had three catches for 58 yards, 15 rushes for 75 yards and returned two kickoffs for a total of 47 yards. It was his last collegiate game.
Clemson (9-5) had not won a bowl game since a 2005 Champs Sports Bowl victory. Kentucky (7-6) was trying to make program history by winning a fourth straight bowl.
Parker will now take a breather before he prepares for the start of Clemson’s baseball season. He hit .255 with 12 home runs and 52 RBIs in 2009. Parker was a freshman All-American in 2008 when he batted .303 with 14 HR and 50 RBIs in what would have been his freshman season in high school, but he graduated a semester early to begin his career at Clemson.
The Clemson baseball team opens its 2010 season Feb. 19 when it hosts Miami (OH). The Tigers also play Michigan State and Furman that weekend.
Top College Baseball Moments Of 2009 #6
Andrew Darr Comes Off The Bench & Comes Up Big For Arkansas
(With the end of the year fast approaching, we’re counting down some of the top moments from the 2009 college baseball season. We’ll have one a day through New Year’s Eve.)
Andrew Darr started 29 games in 2009 for the Arkansas baseball team. Most of those starts for the senior outfielder came before the month of April, but the most important start of Darr’s career came on June 6, 2009-the day the
Andrew Darr
Razorbacks beat Florida State to go to the College World Series.
Darr had just one at-bat in the Razorback’s three NCAA Regional wins a week earlier in Norman, OK, and he didn’t see the field in his team’s 7-2 win over FSU to start Super Regional play a day earlier in Tallahassee. In fact, the senior from Gilbert, Az hadn’t started a game in almost a month prior to the deciding Super Regional game.
Darr had caught Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn’s eye in batting practice though over the last week. So with his team needing just a win to get to the College World Series for the first time in five years, Van Horn played a hunch and started Darr in left field against the host Seminoles. To say the hunch paid off would be an insult to the word hunch.
Darr went 4-for-5 with a home runs two doubles and 3 RBIs, including a walk-off 2-run double to send the Razorbacks to Omaha. His solo home run in the 7th inning started a five-run frame to give the Razorbacks a 6-5 lead. The game seesawed in the late innings, and FSU took an 8-7 lead in the top of the 9th (Arkansas was the designated home team for game two, even though the game was at FSU.)
Darr came to the plate with runners at first and second and one out in the 9th and stroked the first pitch he saw to the gap in left-centerfield to bring Bo Bigham and Zack Cox home to end the game and send the Hogs to Omaha. The Razorbacks became just the ninth team in NCAA history to advance to the College World Series without playing either the Regional or Super Regional round in their home ballpark.
Darr started three of his team’s four games at the College World Series. The only game he didn’t start in Omaha was an elimination game against Virginia, but he made the most of his time on the field in that game as well. He entered that game as a defensive replacement in the 9th inning of that game and ended-up with an RBI double in the 12th inning to give Arkansas a 4-3 extra inning win.
While Darr’s final stats of his final college season, .252 avg., 4 HR and 18 RBIs, are far from eye-popping it would be hard to argue that there was a more important .252 batter in the country in 2009.
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Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires talked to Darr right after he and the Razorbacks returned to Fayetteville from Super Regional win. Click the “play” button above to listen to that podcast interview.
Other Top Moments Of 2009
7. Virginia Beats Stephen Strasburg In Irvine Regional Opener
8. Washington State And Gonzaga End Long NCAA Tournament Droughts
9. Cal Poly Gets Its First NCAA Tournament Bid
10. Kansas’ Field of Dreams: Kansas, Kansas State & Wichita State All Get NCAA Bids
11. Stephen Strasburg Strikes out 17 in a no hitter
12. Ohio State’s Alex Wimmers No-hits Michigan
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
Top College Baseball Moments Of 2009 #16
#1 Arkansas Beats #1 Arizona State
(With the end of the year fast approaching, we’re counting down some of the top moments from the 2009 college baseball season. We’ll have one a day through New Year’s Eve.)
It was unique enough just to have Arizona State (22-5) playing at Arkansas (22-6) in a pair of mid-week games, but the two teams’ rankings made the match-up even more special. Arizona State was ranked #1 in the nation in three polls: Baseball America, NCBWA and the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll. Arkansas was number one in the Collegiate Baseball Poll.
The games were just the second regular season meetings between the two teams after ASU had swept two games in Tempe in 2008. The Tuesday/Wednesday April 7 & 8 games also represented the first ever #1 vs. #1 match-up in the history of Arkansas’ Baum Stadium.
Arizona State scored first in game one when Zack MacPhee stole home in the 3rd inning and then Kole Calhoun singled-in Carlos Ramirez an inning later to make it 2-0 ASU. Arkansas got on the board with a run in the 4th inning, but Ramirez blasted his 11th home run of the year in the top of the 6th to put the Sun Devils up 3-1.
The Razorbacks would erupt for five runs in the 7th inning, capped by a pinch-hit Scott Lyons 2-run single to right-centerfield to put Arkansas up 6-3. The Hogs added a run in the 8th inning for a 7-3 win in front of a crowd of 8,342.
A record crowd of 11,434 packed Baum Stadium the next night only to see the Sun Devils jump out to a 6-1 lead through three innings. Jason Kipnis’ 10th home run of the year was among the early damage inflicted by ASU, but for a second straight night the early lead would not hold.
Arkansas capitalized on an Abe Ruiz error at first base to plate a total four runs in the 4th inning to its deficit to 6-5. Three of the runs were unearned.
ASU added a run in the top of the 5th to make it 7-6, but the Razorbacks scored three more runs, all with two outs, in the bottom of the frame. Andrew Darr’s single plated the first run, and then Tim Carver drove-in Darr and Brett Eibner with another single to give Arkansas an 8-7 win and the two-game series sweep.
Zack Cox was one of six pitchers sent to the mound by Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn. He gave-up just two hits in three shutout innings to earn the win. Stephen Richards tossed a perfect 9th inning for his 6th save of 2009.
17,300 fans came through the turnstiles for the historic two-game series at Baum Stadium. It broke the record of 15,919 set earlier in the season vs. Nebraska.
Both teams would make it to the College World Series in 2009, but they took distinctly different roads to Omaha.
Pat Murphy’s Sun Devils won 22 of their last 26 games to close the regular season. They were a combined 5-0 in the Regional and Super Regional games they hosted vs. Kent State, Oral Roberts and Clemson.
Arkansas was just 10-16 (including 2-2 at the SEC Tournament) down the stretch, but they caught fire after getting into the NCAA Tournament. The Razorbacks were 3-0 at the Norman, OK Regional with a win over Washington State and two victories over the host Sooners. They won both of their Super Regional games vs. Florida State in Tallahassee, FL to advance to Omaha.
Other Top Moments Of 2009
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
Top College Baseball Moments Of 2009 #18
KSU’s A.J. Morris Beats ASU’s Mike Leake
(With the end of the year fast approaching, we’re counting down some of the top moments from the 2009 college baseball season (in no particular order). We’ll have one a day through New Year’s Eve.)
It was a Super Regional caliber pitching match-up even if nobody really knew it…yet. It was Tuesday, March 10, and Kansas State was going to play perreniall power Arizona State in Suprise Arizona at the spring training home of the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.
The Sun Devils’ pitcher, Mike Leake, was a known commodity. Leake was the reigning Pac 10 Pitcher of the Year and a Second Team All-American as a sophomore in 2008 after going 11-3 with a 3.49 ERA. He was one of just two ASU pitchers to earn 20 wins in his first two seasons on the mound in Tempe.
At 3-0, the Kansas State pitcher, A.J. Morris, had pitched solidly to that point, but to say his first three years as a college pitcher were much more modest than Leake’s would be an understatement.
Morris red-shirted in 2006 in his first season at K-State after lettering twice at Humble (TX) High School. He was 4-2 with a 3.78 ERA in 19 appearances (5 starts) in 2007, and an unspectacular 4-4 with a 6.04 ERA with 12 starts and 14 appearances in 2008. Hardly ace-like stuff by any measure.
But if nobody knew about Morris and the Wildcats before the game, they would
A.J. Morris was 14-1 in 2009.
remember them afterward.
In a head-to-head duel with one of the top pitchers and teams in the country Morris had what was to that point the best game of his career. Morris gave-up two runs on five hits in a (then) career best 8 1/3 innings as K-State shocked Arizona State with a 6-2 win. The red-shirt junior did not allow a hit in 6 of the 8 full innings he pitched, and he faced the minimum in an inning three times.
Arizona State came into the contest averaging better than 9 runs through its first 12 games. The only real offense the Sun Devils could manage against Morris was a solo home run by Carlos Ramirez that ended Morris’ run of 19 2/3 scoreless IP to start the season.
Leake didn’t pitch poorly, but he was far from dominant. The righthander surrendered two runs (one earned) on seven hits with just three stikeouts in 7 IP to suffer the loss.
The 6 runs and 11 hits by the Wildcats were the most allowed to that point by a Sun Devil pitching staff that had a 1.01 ERA entering the game.
Both teams stood at 11-2 after the KSU win, and it would set the tone for what would be a record-setting season for both the team and its starting pitcher.
Morris finished with a 14-1 record and 2.09 ERA with 100 strikeouts in 116.1 IP. He was named the 2009 Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and received multiple All-American
KSU head coach Brad Hill & A.J. Morris
accolades. His 14 wins tied with LSU’s Louis Coleman for the second-most in the nation.
K-State head coach Brad Hill was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year. In his sixth season he led Kansas State to a school record 43-18-1 record and the program’s first ever NCAA Tournament berth.
Arizona State made it all the way to the College World Series. Leake finished with an NCAA-leading 16 wins with a 1.71 ERA and 162 ks in 142 IP as the ASU staff ace.
The March 10 loss to Morris and Kansas State would be his only loss of the season.
Other Top Moments Of 2009
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
Oklahoma 2010 Baseball Schedule
Sooners will host 28 home games in 2010
NORMAN, Okla. – University of Oklahoma Vice President/Athletics Director Joe Castiglione and head coach Sunny Golloway released the Sooners’ 2010 baseball schedule consisting of 56 regular season games on Wednesday.
Overall, Oklahoma will face 12 opponents, for a total of 28 games, that participated in last year’s NCAA
OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway
Tournament, including five non-conference opponents in Arkansas, Indiana, Jacksonville, San Diego State and TCU.
Complete 2010 Oklahoma Schedule (PDF)
Five of the 12 NCAA participants from 2009 (Arkansas, Kansas State, San Diego State, TCU and Texas) recorded 40 or more wins a year ago, while Arkansas (College World Series), TCU (Super Regional) and Texas (College World Series) advanced deep into the tournament.
The Sooners will kick things off on Feb. 19 in the San Diego State Tournament held at Tony Gwynn Stadium. OU begins action in San Diego against the host Aztecs. The Sooners also face Indiana and San Diego over the weekend.
The SDSU Tournament is just one of four that the Sooners will participate in during the 2010 regular season. Following the trip to San Diego, OU travels across the country to Florida for the Jacksonville Tournament hosted by Jacksonville University. OU will face a trio of first-time opponents in Valparaiso, Jacksonville and Richmond.
Oklahoma will host its first regular season tournament in Norman from March 4-7 as South Florida, Western Illinois and Stephen F. Austin visit L. Dale Mitchell Park for the Sooner Classic. The 1985 season was the last time OU hosted a regular season tournament (Knor Sooner Shootout) but it was held at the All Sports Stadium in Oklahoma City.
The fourth and final tournament, The Whataburger Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas, is one of the top tourneys in Division I baseball each of the last five years. The 2010 field includes OU, Mississippi State, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UCLA.
The non-conference slate also features home games against Dallas Baptist, Houston Baptist, Massachusetts, Arkansas Pine Bluff, TCU, Memphis and Arkansas, while OU travels to DBU, TCU and Oklahoma State for midweek games.
The game on Tuesday, April 13 with OSU marks the first year that the Bedlam Series will be extended to four regular season games, with the home team alternating each season. The contest will not count towards either team’s Big 12 records and the Cowboys will return the trip in 2011.
“Year in and year out we look to schedule some of the best non-conference competition in order to prepare us for the grueling Big 12 season,” said Golloway. “This year’s schedule is once again evidence of that. We are excited for our fans as we host several exciting match ups at home in and out of conference play, including the extra Bedlam game.”
The 27-game Big 12 schedule begins at home against Baylor (March 19-21). The Bears are the first of four 2009 NCAA Tournament teams to visit Norman in Big 12 play. OU also welcomes Texas (April 1-3), Missouri (April 9-11) and Kansas State (April 30-May 2) for three-game sets.
The Big 12 road series include Nebraska (March 26-28), Texas Tech (April 16-18), Texas A&M (April 23-25) and Kansas (May 21-23).
The Bedlam Series, presented by The Oklahoman and Oklahoma Farm Bureau Insurance, will be held May 7-9. Game one between OU and Oklahoma State is set for May 7 in Tulsa at Drillers Stadium. Then the teams return to Oklahoma City for the final two games of the series slated for May 8 and 9 at the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.
For the sixth consecutive year, the Phillips 66 Big 12 Tournament will be held in Oklahoma City at the Bricktown Ballpark from Wednesday, May 26 through Sunday, May 30.
The NCAA Tournament begins on campus sites with the NCAA Regional (June 4-7) and NCAA Super Regional (June 11-14). The 2010 College World Series will be played in Omaha, Neb., at Rosenblatt Stadium from June 19-30.
The Sooners return 17 letterwinners from the 2009 squad that made the program’s fourth appearance in an NCAA Regional Final in the last five years. OU finished second in the Big 12 standings and earned a No. 7 national seed while hosting a regional for the second time in four years.
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ECU’s Billy Godwin Gets Contract Extension
New Pact Runs Through 2014
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina University has announced an extension of head baseball coach Billy Godwin’s contract, which will secure his position through the 2014 season. The new agreement, approved Friday by the University’s Board of Trustees and announced by ECU Director of Athletics Terry Holland, will add three years to his existing contract that was set to expire June 30, 2011.
ECU Skipper Billy Godwin
Godwin has guided the Pirates to three consecutive NCAA Regional appearances in four seasons, and in 2009, led ECU to its first Super Regional since 2004 after claiming the Greenville Regional title at Clark-LeClair Stadium. In addition, he joined Keith LeClair on a short list of East Carolina coaches to record three-straight 40-plus win seasons after posting a league-best 46-20 mark last spring that also included a Conference USA regular season crown.
“Coach Godwin’s teams have achieved a great deal of success on the baseball field, but just as importantly, he and his program have embraced both East Carolina University’s values and Coach Keith LeClair’s vision for ECU Baseball,” Holland said. “The coaching staff and players represent the best of intercollegiate athletics in all they do and make us proud every time they take the field. We are pleased to do everything we can to keep Billy Godwin as our coach – he is a perfect fit for this institution.”
His 2009 squad spent 19 consecutive weeks in the national polls and ranked as one of the most prolific offenses in the nation – finishing with a NCAA-best 814 hits and standing among national leaders in runs (4th/565), doubles (6th/154), home runs (7th/108), slugging percentage (12th/.546) and batting average (15th/.339). For the third consecutive season, the Pirates topped Conference USA in home runs after belting a school-record 108 to follow 89 and 68 round-tripper totals in 2008 and 2007, respectively.
The 2009 C-USA Keith LeClair Coach-of-the-Year honoree has tutored 25 all-conference performers and four various player-of-the-year selections, and produced a total of 15 Major League Baseball draft choices since 2006.
“I would like to thank (ECU Chancellor) Dr. Ballard, Terry Holland and the Board of Trustees for their support and outstanding leadership,” Godwin said. “I am humbled and honored to be the head baseball coach at East Carolina. The commitment to our baseball program is phenomenal from our administration to our loyal Pirate fans. Our coaching staff is very excited about the future of Pirate Baseball and the continued ability to compete for championships.”
Godwin, who was elevated to the head coaching position during the fall of 2005 after a brief tenure as an assistant, has compiled an overall record of 161-90 as East Carolina’s skipper.
(Release)
Around The Bases Nov. 19
Four Things I’m Thinking About Right Now
By Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires
1. College football’s Doak Walker and Biletnikoff Awards could both go to guys who also play college baseball. If you have followed our Two Sport Reports so far this season you know that Stanford’s Toby Gerhart and Notre Dame’s Golden Tate are among college baseball players who have excelled on the gridiron this fall.
Gerhart’s 1,395 rushing yards are currently the third most in the nation, while Tate is fourth in the land with 1,172 receiving yards. Tate has scored a total of 14 touchdowns (11 receiving, 2 rushing & 1 punt return), while Gerhart has rumbled across the goal line 19 times. Tate needs just 78 more receiving yards to break current Chicago Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija’s Notre Dame single season receiving school record.
Gerhart batted .288 with 7 home runs and 36 RBIs for the Cardinal in 2009. Tate hit .329 with 13 stolen bases and scored 45 runs at the top of the Irish line-up last season.
Both were also just named Walter Camp Player of the Year semifinalists. The duo goes head to head when Notre Dame visits Stanford on Nov. 28th in the regular season finale for both teams.
2. I talked a little about schedules last week, and I mentioned how Virginia’s first two weeks of 2010 will be challenging with three games each vs. East Carolina and Rhode Island. Well how about Rhode Island’s 2010 slate? Rhody opens the season with three games in Starkville, MS vs. Mississippi State and then heads to Charlottesville, VA for those three games against the Cavaliers the following weekend.
There’s a double edged sword for a northern team scheduling two such trips. The Pros: You’ll get guarantees for making the trips (needed revenue for teams that don’t get DI college football windfall), you’ll bump your strength of schedule and RPIs, you give your players exposure to great college baseball environments, and you have the chance to compete against and beat good competition. The Con: You need to win at least two games in a three-game series to get credit when it comes down to NCAA Tournament selection time.
I’ve talked to an NCAA selection committee member about this before. Winning just one of three games is essentially the same as losing all three games when it comes to selection. Teams from the north are better off scheduling just two games against an ACC or SEC team and hope for a split, but most teams from the south have no interest in that.
Jim Foster’s URI team won 37 games in 2009. They played single games against the likes of Miami, Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Boston College (all tourney teams), but they missed the NCAA Tournament. They still have a handful of “TBA” games in Winter Haven, FL to be added to the 2010 slate. We’ll see how things shake out…
3. I talked last week about guys flying below the radar in high school and then blossoming in college. There’s no better example than Middle Tennessee State’s Bryce Brentz. The 2009 Team USA outfielder who grew up in Knoxville is wearing blue instead of orange in college, and he’s wearing it well. As a sophomore last season Brentz led the nation with his .465 average, 28 home runs and .930 slugging percentage. Not bad for a guy who says he never thought much about playing for Tennessee because he was a “late bloomer”. MTSU has also won 71 games with a 2009 NCAA Regional appearance in Brentz’s first two years in Murfreesboro.
4. There’s been a lot of recent talk about revamping instant replay in Major League Baseball. Most of the talk, centered around umpiring mistakes that were made during the playoffs. People like Bob Costas are in favor of expanding replay during the playoffs, but not necessarily during the regular season. The reasoning is there are more cameras in use and the games mean more, so why not take advantage of the extra technology and make sure you get the calls right. Would you want that rationale applied to the College World Series? Those games are arguably the most important games of the college season, and they’re all televised by ESPN. Who’s to say they are really the most important games though? One could argue though that game three of a Super Regional is just as important as any game in Omaha, because you have to win there just to get to the promised land. While all Super Regional games are now televised there are not as many cameras in use there, and the angles are different, because the college stadiums are smaller than Rosenblatt Stadium.
Getting the calls right is the most important thing, but sometimes hairs are split by technology. Case in point: the Chicago Bulls vs. Denver Nuggets game last week. A last second shot initially looked like the Bulls won the game. However after ten minutes of replay review the shot was waved off and the Nuggets won. If it takes ten minutes to make the decision shouldn’t the initial ruling just stand?
College football has instant replay, but that system is far from perfect. Who hasn’t watched a college football game and scratched their heads at calls made on the field that are overturned even when video replays don’t indisputably support the decision to overturn them. Too often judgment in the replay booth replaces judgments made on the field, and that’s not how replay is supposed to be used.
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2010 Ohio State Baseball Schedule
Buckeyes will compete in Florida and Tennessee prior to start of Big Ten campaign
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State baseball team will begin the 2010 season playing 18 of its first 21 games in the state of Florida with the other three being played in Knoxville, Tenn., head coach Bob Todd announced Thursday.
The Buckeyes, the defending Big Ten Conference champion who started 18-3 last year with the first 21 games played in Florida, open up their season Feb. 19-21 with three games in Jacksonville against North Florida, Florida A&M and Richmond before taking part in the second-annual Big Ten/Big East Challenge Feb. 26-28 in Clearwater/St. Petersburg. The 10 team, 30-game event pits the Buckeyes against South Florida, Notre Dame and in-state foe Cincinnati. Ohio State defeated the Fighting Irish and Bearcats in the inaugural Big Ten/Big East challenge last season.
OSU Head Coach Bob Todd (Courtesy OSU)
Ohio State’s initial series of games on the road also includes trips to Port Charlotte, Fla. (March 5-7), Knoxville (March 12-14) and to Winter Haven, Fla., for a series of Spring Break games against opponents to be announced.
2010 Ohio State Schedule (PDF)
Big Ten Conference play opens the weekend of April 2-4 at Northwestern and the regular season will conclude May 20-22 in Columbus with a series against Minnesota. The Bill Davis Stadium home opener is set for 2:05 p.m. Wednesday, March 31 against Toledo. It will be the first of 21 home games for the Buckeyes in 2010.
A few notes about some of the 2010 opponents:
- North Florida (Feb. 19) – Defeated Florida State (No. 10 final Collegiate Baseball ranking), Florida (No.13) and Miami (No. 20).
- Notre Dame (Feb. 27) – Big East Tournament runner-up.
- Tennessee (Mar. 13) – Took 2-of-3 from CWS champion LSU.
- Michigan (April 30-May 2) – The series this year will be played in Ann Arbor.
- Louisville (May 4-5) – Finished 2009 ranked No. 14; Advanced to Super Regional before falling to Cal State Fullerton; returns to Columbus after the Buckeyes traveled to Louisville for a pair in 2009.
- Indiana (Apr. 9-11) – Big Ten tournament champion in 2009; teams did not play a Big Ten series in 2009.
- Minnesota (May 20-22) – Big Ten regular season and tournament runner-up; NCAA Regional participant.
(Press Release)
