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Pat Murphy Leaves Arizona State

When Arizona State beat North Carolina 12-5 in a College World Series elimination game on June 18 Pat Murphy collected the 1,000th win of his coaching career.  Who would have thought at the time that it could also be the last win of his career?  ASU was

Pat Murphy won 629 games in 15 years at ASU.

eliminated by Texas a day later in Omaha, and what has transpired in the time since then has easily been the top college baseball story of the year.

Arizona State announced Murphy’s “resignation” on Nov. 20, ending his 15-year reign in the desert that saw his Sun Devils advance to Omaha four times.  However, Murphy tells a different story (or at least he did at one time).

About three weeks after his “resignation” was announced (a resignation that has never been publicly recognized by the NCAA) Murphy told the Arizona Republic newspaper “Without warning or explanation I was terminated as Arizona State head baseball coach. This was a decision—unprecedented in its timing—that was not dictated by me and isn’t something I agree with. I look forward to my next job coaching in the NCAA.”

The “He Said – She Said” just kept getting stranger after that.  ASU Vice President for Athletics Lisa Love issued a statement responding to media reports that NCAA sanctions could be heading Arizona State’s way (although she never mentioned any possbile sanctions).  The statement read like this:

Lisa Love (ASU photo)

“This statement is in response to recent media coverage.  Arizona State University’s athletics program has an unyielding commitment to rules compliance.  We adhere to policies that govern fair play, and when called into question, have embarked on self-evaluation to determine both the facts of the matter and, if necessary, corrective action. The style with which we proactively and transparently manage, self-correct if needed, and report findings to authorities (even inviting authorities to jointly participate in preliminary reviews), has been cited by the organizations that govern us as model management.”

“In a recent compliance review conducted by the Pacific-10 Conference in conjunction with the NCAA recertification process the following statement was made about ASU: “In every key area, the vital components of an effective compliance program are in place, and they are functioning properly.”

“External reviews of our compliance program go well beyond the NCAA prescription. In fact, the number and regularity of our external audits has been cited as an industry standard.”

“Intercollegiate Athletics at ASU’s mission consists of three parts: educating and graduating our student-athletes, playing by the rules, and winning at the championship level. All three parts of the mission are critical to our success and, when any one element is not being served, we take appropriate action to address the problem.”

Within a day the Arizona Republic published the alleged NCAA infractions facing ASU that it says Love received on Nov. 19 – the day before Murphy’s “resignation” was announced.

Here are the alleged infractions:

1. Baseball officials violated a one-call-per-week rule by making at least 490 phone calls to prospective athletes between January 2004 and June 2009, the NCAA said.

2. Baseball coach Pat Murphy and four others allegedly committed ethical violations and compromised the NCAA investigation by discussing, and preparing spreadsheets on, matters related to the probe.

3. A then-assistant coach engaged in unethical conduct by denying he had conversations with another staff member about improper phone calls to prospects, the NCAA said.

4. Murphy and a former staffer violated phone-call and other rules in recruiting a prospective athlete.

5. Former athletes, designated as student managers, performed on-field coaching duties during games and batting practices. Their involvement violated regulations that limit the number of coaches.

6. Baseball athletes received impermissible training at non-ASU sports centers between spring 2004 and spring 2008 for a total of $63,000 in extra benefits.

7. Twenty athletes received a combined $5,889 for work they did not do in Murphy’s Programs for Youth program.

8. Murphy failed to promote an atmosphere for compliance with NCAA rules and to monitor practices of baseball administrators between January 2004 and June 2009, the NCAA alleged.

9. ASU violated institutional control principles related to allegations No. 1, 5, 6 and 7.

10. ASU committed a secondary, or lesser, violation by conducting a baseball camp for six prospective athletes during a period when no recruiting was to take place.

Neither Love nor Murphy has commented publicly since the list of infractions was published.  No action on any of the allegations is expected to be taken until somewhere around the end of the 2010 season at the earliest.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

2.  LSU Wins The National Championship

3.  Longhorn Longball In Omaha

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

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

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LSU Wins The College World Series

Louis Coleman

Louis Coleman was LSU’s opening day starter at the new Alex Box Stadium back on Feb. 20, and he appropriately got the last six outs of the season in the Tiger’s 11-4 win over Texas on June 24 in the last game of the 2009 college baseball season.  It was one of nine relief outings for Coleman (14-2, 2.93 ERA), who returned to Baton Rouge for his senior season for the chance to bring home a title.

Coleman and staff mate Anthony Ranaudo combined to go 3-0 with 30 strikeouts in 29 2/3 IP in seven combined appearances at the CWS.

In 2007 Mainieri inherited a team that had gone 35-24 a season prior to his arrival.  The Tigers were just 29-26-1 and missed the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year in his first season back in Baton Rouge (he played there for a year an met his wife before transferring).

Blake Dean and Sean Ochinko led LSU with 7 home runs apiece in ’07, but Dean’s 17

Anthony Ranaudo

HRs made him one of four Tigers to hit at least 11 long balls in 2009.   Ryan Schimpf led LSU with 22.

LSU’s run to the national championship actually started with a 4-1 loss to Vanderbilt on May 20 to open the SEC Tournament.  However, the Tigers rattled-off 14 straight wins before finally losing 5-1 to Texas in game two of the CWS Championship Series.   The Bayou Bengals outscored their opponents 117-47 in that month-long stretch.

Four of those wins came against 2008 College World Series teams (Georgia and Rice twice each).   LSU’s first game at the ’09 CWS was against Virginia, coached by Mainieri protege Brian O’Connor.  The two had taken Notre Dame to Omaha in 2002 when Mainieri was ND’s head coach and O’Connor was his pitching coach.

CWS MOP Jared Mitchell

LSU was simply across the board dominant in Omaha.  The Tigers posted a .313 team batting average, averaged 8.4 runs in 6 games, hit 13 home runs (2nd to Texas’ 14), had a 4.18 team ERA (Texas #1 at 4.02), an had a .991 fielding percentage with just two errors at the CWS.

Jared Mitchell was named College World Series Most Outstanding Player after hitting .348 with 2 HR, a triple, two doubles, 7 RBIs, and a .783 slg%.  Ochinko, who had hit 7 home runs prior to the CWS, had two home runs to cap his senior campaign.

When LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman (himself a winner of five national titles as LSU baseball coach) hired Mainieri on June 28, 2006 he said “It would take someone special to lead this program … someone who would thrive in the high expectations of a championship program. I believe LSU has found that man.”

On June 24, 2009 the circle was completed.

CLICK HERE to listen to the exclusive podcast interview Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires recorded with Paul Mainieri after LSU’s national championship win.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

3.  Longhorn Longball In Omaha

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

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

Longhorn Longball In Omaha

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

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

Southern Mississippi Sweeps Florida To Go To Omaha

Corky Palmer

Did I mention the fact that USM head coach Corky Palmer had announced his retirement just a month before that Regional title?    “This season we will keep working as hard as we can and to accomplish as much as we can,” Palmer said at the press conference to announce his impending retirement.  ” We’ve had two great wins against East Carolina and Ole Miss in the last two games, and we’ll continue to be competitive the rest of the year.”  What an understatement that turned out to be.

Southern Miss became one of three Conference USA teams to make a 2009 Super Regional (along with Rice and East Carolina).  Who could have predicted that Corky’s corps of relative unknowns would be the last C-USA team standing on college baseball’s biggest stage?

Here’s a look at how Southern Mississippi beat #8 National Seed Florida in the Gainesville Super Regional:

June 6: Game one started at 3:05 in the afternoon and Southern Miss. struck first.  Freshman B.A. Vollmuth, who was one of named the Atlata Regional’s Most Outstanding Player a week earlier, started the scoring in the top of the 2nd with his 4th postseason home run.  Corey Stevens gave USM another run in the 3rd on a sac fly.  Then the rain came.

A one hour delay was not good for Golden Eagles starting pitcher J.R. Ballinger, who was named to the Atlanta All- Regional team as well.  Ballinger gave up four runs (just one of them earned) in the bottom of the 3rd and exited with his team trailing 4-2.   The lead changed twice over the next two innings until Southern Miss. put a four spot on the

Collin Cargill

board in the top of the 6th inning to go up 9-6.

Jonathon Johnston gave-up just one hit in 3 2/3 scoreless innings to make sure his team would not give-up the lead again and then Collin Cargill earned his 12th save of the season (despite giving-up a 9th inning run) to finish-off the stunning 9-7 win.

Both teams managed 12 hits and one home run in the game.  It was the fourth time in five NCAA Tournament game that the Golden Eagles rapped-out at least 12 hits.

June 7: Southern Mississippi was the designated home team for game two, but it looked early on like it wasn’t going to be their day.  Florida jumped-out to a 6-1 lead through the first three innings.  USM ace Jeff McInnis was roughed-up for all 6 runs in 5 IP.

The Golden Eagles chipped at the lead by scoring two runs in the 4th and adding another in the 5th inning to make it a 6-4 game.   That was the score when USM batted in the bottom of the 8th.

Southern Miss. rallied for 3 runs in the bottom of the inning.  USM had tied the score 6-6 and had runners at first and third with one out.  Adam Doleac scored on a ground ball hit by Tyler Koelling after Joey Archer was forced out at second base.  Koelling had to beat the relay throw to first to avoid an inning-ending double play.

Doleac was only in the game because he had entered the game in the clean-up spot after Corey Stevens was ejected from the game after a collision with Florida catcher Buddy Munroe.

B.A. Vollmuth

The bullpen came-up big again for Southern Miss.  Scott Copeland tossed 3 shutout innings and then Cargill induced a double play to end the game and send the Golden Eagles to the school’s first College World Series.  “Their bullpen again did a heck of a job,” Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said afterward. ” We had a solid game plan going against their starter, but once again their bullpen put up six-straight zeroes on the scoreboard.”

In the two Super Regional games the USM bullpen pitched gave-up just 3 runs on 8 hits in 10 innings of work.  Cargill saved both games to run his season total to 13.

“It’s been a great ride,” Palmer said after the Super Regional win.  “I don’t know what happened three weeks ago but those seniors bonded and we just grew up each week. We’ve earned everything that we have got. We had great relief pitching and Joey (Archer) got the big hit. This is quite an accomplishment for our school to go to Omaha. Seven-straight regionals are nothing to sneeze at but to take this step to Omaha will do wonders for our program.”

Palmer’s retirement would have to wait.

CLICK HERE to listen to a podcast interview with Southern Mississippi’s B.A. Vollmuth.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

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

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

The Texas vs. Boston College 25-Inning Game

Austin Wood

12 1/3…innings Austin Wood pitched without giving-up a hit.  Wood entered the game with one out and a runner at second base in the 7th inning.

14…career-high strikeouts by Wood in his 13 total innings of work.  He walked two batters and eventually gave-up two hits.

9 2/3…innings pitched in relief by Belfiore who entered the game in the 9th inning.

11…strikeouts and 129 total pitches Belfiore threw in what turned out to be the last college game of his career.

22…combined scoreless innings pitched by Wood & Belfiore…they totaled 25 strikeouts.

25.1…combined innings pitched by 8 other Texas & BC pitchers…they totaled 17 strikeouts.

Mike Belfiore

169…pitches thrown by Austin Wood in his scoreless, two-hit 13-inning effort.

683…total pitches thrown by a total of 10 Longhorn & Eagle pitchers.

96…degrees at first pitch at 6:02 p.m. Central Time.

78…degrees when the game ended at 1:05 a.m.

36…combined runners left on base-24 by Texas and 12 by Boston College.

33…putouts recorded by Texas 1B Preston Clark - A new NCAA single-game record.

Travis Tucker

12…at-bats each by Longhorns Travis Tucker & Michael Torres to set a new NCAA record.

3…combined hits by Tucker and Torres.

7…total players who had at least 10 official at-bats during the game.

37…total players who participated in the game – Texas head coach Augie Garrido and BC head coach Mikio Aoki each used all of their position players.

3…positions each played by BC’s Belfiore, Matt Hamlet and Andrew Lawrence.

192…combined plate appearances and 171 combined at-bats by the two teams-both single game NCAA records.

1988…the year of the previous longest NCAA postseason game – A 19-inning content between Clemson and Fordham in New Britain, CT.

1971…the year of the previous longest game in NCAA history – A 23-inning game between Louisiana-Lafayette and McNeese State.

46…scoreless half innings on the scoreboard in the game.

4…half innings in which either team scored a run.  The Longhorns scored 2 in the 2nd inning and didn’t score again until Travis Tucker drove-in Connor Rowe in the top of the 25th inning in what turned-out to be the game-winner.

18…scoreless innings between runs – Boston College scored single runs in the 4th and 6th innings.

Kevin Keyes

1…home run hit in the game – A 2-run shot by Texas RF Kevin Keyes in the 2nd.

3…other Longhorns who played rightfield after Keyes left the game after just three at-bats.

2…times the scoreboard at Disch-Falk Stadium had to be reset during the game so the score could be displayed by innings.

1…standing ovation the two teams received at the end of the game.

Final Thoughts: After the game ended just after 1 a.m. Texas out-slugged Army 14-10 in a game that started later that night at 6p.m.  Longhorn starter Taylor Jungmann gave-up 6 runs in just 3 1/3 IP.  They used just four other pitchers in that game.  Preston Clark’s game-ending grand slam gave the Longhorns the Regional title.

Texas hosted and beat TCU in two of three games at the Super Regional the following weekend.  Austin Wood totaled 3 innings of relief in the last two games to help the Longhorns get to the College World Series.

In his six appearances after the famed 13-inning outing here are Wood’s numbers: 11 IP, 16 hits, 10 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, with a 6.54 ERA. Wood made his nation-leading 41st appearance of the season when he toed the rubber for the last time in the final game of the CWS vs. LSU.  Texas was the eventual national runner-up.

Mike Belfiore was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks with the 45th overall pick on the 2009 MLB draft.  After signing he made 11 starts with 14 overall appearances for the single-A Missoula Osprey.  He was 2-2 with a 2.17 ERA with 55 strikeouts in 58 IP.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

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

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

Andrew Darr Comes Off The Bench & Comes Up Big For Arkansas

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.

Darr

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

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

Virginia Beats Stephen Strasburg In Irvine Regional Opener

Virginia head coach Brian O'Connor

Strasburg was nothing less than stellar all season in leading the Aztecs to their first NCAA Tournament in 18 years.  The righthander was unbeaten at 13-0 and he was the national ERA and strikeout leader.  Virginia was a former also ran in the ACC, but they were in their sixth straight NCAA Tournament since Brian O’Connor had taken over as head coach.

Phil Gosselin's 1st inning HR helped UVA beat Stephen Strasburg (UVA photo)

Even if Virginia could somehow beat Strasburg  the Irvine Regional field was filled with other landmines.  The host Anteaters were ranked #1 in the nation and the defending national champion Fresno State Bulldogs were seeded fourth.

Virginia struck first when the second batter of the game, Phil Gosselin, connected on a solo home run.  Afterward O’Conner said the home run sent Strasburg and the Aztecs the message that the Cavs “weren’t going to back down”.   UVA was aggressive yet patient, making Strasburg throw 50 pitches while giving-up single runs in each of the first two innings.

Strasburg gave-up two runs on eight hits in his seven innings that afternoon.  He struckout 15 with no walks (but two wild pitches) in what turned out to be his only loss of the season in the last collegiate start of his All-American career.  SDSU reliever Andrew Leary gave up three runs, including a solo home run to Steven Proscia, in two innings of work.

Virginia starting pitcher Robert Morey couldn’t match Strasburg’s 15 strikeouts (Morey had 9 in six innings), but he put-up a number that was even more important:  zero runs.  “It’s hard to lose when you don’t

UVA pitcher Robert Morey

give-up any runs,” O’Connor later said.  “That’s what it came down to.”

That’s what Virginia’s Regional win and its entire NCAA Tournament came down to.  The Cavs’ pitching staff surrendered just two runs in three games en-route to winning the Irvine Regional.  (They outscored the Anteaters by a combined 9-1 in their two wins.)  After a 4-3 12-inning loss to Ole Miss in game one of their Super Regional Virginia battled back to win 4-3 and 5-1 to earn the program’s first College World Series berth.

OConnor

(Press “Play” above to listen to O’Connor talk about the Regional win in a podcast interview with Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires.)

Virginia’s 2.65 team ERA in nine games was second in the nation during the 2009 NCAA Tournament.  Vanderbilt had the lowest ERA at 2.45, but the Commodores played just five games.  Strasburg’s talent was good enough to make him the overall number one pick in the 2009 MLB draft, but Virginia’s team pitching carried them to Omaha.

Oak

(Press play to listen to another podcast interview with O’Connor.  This one was recorded as the Hoos were headed to the CWS.)

CLICK HERE to see more 2009 NCAA Tournament and College World Series statistics.

Virginia is ranked third (behind Texas and LSU) in the Collegiate Baseball 2010 preseason rankings.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

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

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

Washington State And Gonzaga End NCAA Droughts

The state of Washington is not exactly synonymous with college baseball, but the Washington State Cougars and Gonzaga Bulldogs did their best to change that in 2009.  While Oregon State was giving that other state in the Pacific Northwest all the attention with a pair of National Championships in recent years, the Evergreen State was having trouble just getting a team to the NCAAs.

Prior to 2009 the last time the Cougars qualified for the NCAA Tournament was 1990 – the year after John Olerud finished his career in Pullman.  Meanwhile, future NBA Hall of Famer John Stockton was a freshman on the hardwoods the last time the Zags sniffed the NCAA diamond all the way back in 1981.  All that changed in 2009.

Washington State got off to just a 5-11 start thanks to a brutal non-conference schedule.  Donnie Marbut’s squad got off to just a 5-11 start, but seven of the losses were to teams that would eventually qualify for the NCAA field themselves.  The early season experience would prove invaluable once Pac 10 play began.

By the time the regular season was complete Wazzu stood at 31-23 overall, and tied a school record with the 1990 team’s 19 wins in Pac 10 play.  Here’s a look at some of the other notable milestones achieved by the 2009 Cougars:

• Broke a 13-game losing streak in Tempe, AZ to Arizona State with an Apr. 12 win over #1 ASU thanks to
  

  Michael Weber

  Michael Weber’s 8th inning home run.

• The losing streak in Tempe dated back to 2001 & the win put WSU above .500 in Pac 10 play for the first time since 1999.
• The Cougars won a series at USC to give them back-to-back series wins vs. the Trojans for the first time ever.
• WSU swept five series in 2009 (including three in Pac 10 action) all of the sweeps came on their home diamond, Bailey-Brayton Field, they had just three home sweeps in the previous 11 years combined.
• Their 3-game sweep of rival Washington to end the season was their first over the Huskies since 1984.
• Marbut’s Cougars also had 16 come from behind wins during the ’09 campaign.
• The Cougars also had a fourth straight winning season-something that hadn’t happened in Pullman since 1994
  

  WSU head coach Donnie Marbut

  when a 35-26 record capped a run 37 straight seasons above .500.

Marbu

Click play above to listen to Washington State head coach Donnie Marbut’s podcast interview with Collegebaseball360.com Editor Sean Stires.  The interview was recorded right after the Cougar’s selection to the NCAA field.

After all was said and done Washington State earned its first NCAA bid since 1990, and was was sent to the Norman, OK Regional as the #3 seed.  The Cougars lost 10-3 to eventual College World Series qualifier, Arkansas, in their opener.  Chad Arnold struckout 10 the next day in a 3-2 elimination game win over Wichita State, and then Wazzu bowed-out the next day with a 7-2 loss to the host Sooners.

The NCAA drought for Gonzaga, which is located less than two hours south of Washington State in Eastern Washington, was even longer.  1981 was the last time the Bulldogs had gone to the NCAA postseason, but that would change in Mark Machtolf’s sixth season in Spokane.

WCC Coach of the Year Mark Machtolf

Gonzaga got off to a 6-1 start, but then lost four straight (a streak that was started with an 8-4 setback to their Pac 10 neighbors to the north).  The Zags responded with eight straight wins after that though to propel themselves to a 33-16 regular season record.  Gonzaga and Washington State each won a game in head-to-head action.  A third scheduled game between the two was canceled due to weather.

Among the notable achievements for Gonzaga in 2009:

• The Zags won six of seven West Coast Conference series – including two sweeps.
• Gonzaga topped the 30 win mark for the third straight season – the first time that’s happened in more than 25 years.
• Machtolf was named WCC Coach of the Year – in six seasons his 180 wins are the third-most in school history.
• Matt Fields (8-1, 3.47 ERA) became the second Bulldog ever to win WCC Pitcher of the Year accolades.
• Five Zags earned All-WCC recognition.
• Senior firstbaseman Ryan Wiegand became Gonzaga’s all-time hits leader.
• The team also set a school record when five players- A.J. Proszek, Tyson Van Winkle, Steven Ames,
  

  WCC Pitcher of the Year Matt Fields

  Fields, and Wiegand - were taken in the June MlB draft.

The Bulldogs swept to games from Loyola Marymount in the WCC Championship Series to earn its first NCAA Tournament bid since the ’81 season.  They were sent to the Fullerton Regional as the #3 seed and out-slugged #2 Georgia Southern 19-10 in their opener.

Gonzaga exploded for seven first inning runs, knocking out Georgia Southern starter Chris Mederos (himself an MLB draftee) after only 2/3 of an inning.  Wiegand, Anthony Synegal and Mark Castellitto each homered for the Zags.  Gonzaga scored in all but one inning of the game, while every Zag scored a run and had at least one hit.

Things didn’t go as well the next two days as Gonzaga lost to eventual CWS qualifier Fullerton and Utah, but the opening round win gave Gonzaga the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory since 1980.

So now, after a combined 46-year NCAA drought for Gonzaga and Washington State, Mark Machtolf and Donnie Marbut each have a common goal for 2010:  Repeat.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

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

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

Cal Poly Gets Its First NCAA Tournament Bid

Larry Lee's Mustangs earned the program's first NCAA bid in 2009.

bid.

It’s not like Cal Poly plays in a cream puff conference.  The Big West includes such teams as perrenial College World Series participant Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine (2007 CWS) and Long Beach State.  But competition like that can be both a blessing and a curse- good competition means a good strength of schedule and RPI numbers, but too many fourth-place conference finishes can be just too much to overcome when the field of 64 is ultimately announced.

Larry Lee’s squad had dipped even lower when they finished 2008 with a 24-32 overall record and a 7th place finish in the nine-team Big West conference standings.  2009 was going to be different though.

The season started with a bang when Cal Poly hosted and won two out of three games from 2008 CWS team Rice.  The Mustangs dropped the opener 10-7, but they managed to score 7 runs in just 4 2/3 against the 3rd ranked Owls’ Ryan Berry, who finished the season with 7-2 record and 2.42 ERA with 4 complete games.

Cal Poly jumped out to a 6-0 lead in game two en-route to a 10-3 romp, and then rallied from an early 6-2 deficit to win the series finale 7-6.  J.J. Thompson doubled home Bobby Crocker with one out in the bottom of the 9th for the walk-off win. Thompson ended the season as one of seven Mustangs to collect at least 41 RBIs.

The series win over one of the top teams of the current decade helped fuel Cal Poly’s 17-4 start to the season.  It was the program’s best start since the 1997 team that opened with an 18-2 mark, but even the ’97 team didn’t get to the postseason.

Larry Lee’s Mustangs would go on to win 11 of 14 series during the ’09 regular season.  They took both games they played from defending National Champion Fresno State, and on March 31 they posted their first win over USC in 34

Adam Buschini's .422 average led the Big West in '09.

years.

By season’s end Cal Poly led the Big West in nearly every offensive category including: batting average (.324), slugging percentage (.495), on-base percentage (.409), runs (468), hits (655), RBI (420), home runs (61), and total bases (1,001).  Mustang pitchers also led the conference in strikeouts (391) and fewest walks allowed (235).

Adam Buschini led the Mustangs with a .422 batting average, 11 home runs, 61 RBIs, and a 1.091 OPS.  Reliever Eric Massingham led a solid pitching staff with 7-3 record with a 3.07 ERA and 6 saves in 25 relief appearances.  Both were drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies last June.

Despite the statistical success Cal Poly finished third in the Big West regular season standings.   With a 37-19 overall record and no postseason conference tournament to try to earn an automatic NCAA bid,  Lee’s team would have to wait to see if its name was called on selection Monday.  The Mustangs did earn their first berth when they were announced as the #3 seed in the Tempe Regional which also featured #1 Arizona State, #2 Oral Roberts and #4 Kent State.

The Mustangs lost their two NCAA games to Oral Roberts and Kent State, while Arizona State advanced all the way to the College World Series.

LarryLee

Press play to listen to a podcast interview with Cal Poly head coach Larry Lee.  The interview was recorded just after the Mustangs learned of their first NCAA bid.

Other Top Moments Of 2009

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

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’ 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