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Titans, Cardinal Back At It…

By CB360 Contributor Jack Blanchat

(Jack will be at the Fullerton Regional all weekend. Look for his post-tourney analysis here next week.)

Preview: Fullerton Regional

Once again, the NCAA schedule makers couldn’t resist the allure of a Stanford – Cal State-Fullerton matchup – but if the Cardinal and Titans are to square off for a trip to the Super Regionals, they must slip past a sneaky good Kansas State team and Big Ten Champion Illinois.

The Favorite:

The Fullerton is definitely the favorite to advance to the Supers this weekend – they’re a 40-win team with some eye-popping stats. The Titans have the nation’s 13th-best team ERA (2.85) thanks to a phenomenal pitching staff, but they also play a brand of small ball that can be confusing and frustrating to teams – the Titans’ 75 sac bunts are ninth in the nation – and they don’t need many runs to win games thanks to their pitchers.

Junior Noe Ramirez (8-3) has a 1.74 ERA and his opponents’ batting average is just .183, and junior Tyler Pill (6-1) has a 2.08 ERA and 99 strikeouts this season. Third starter Colin O’Connell has a 2.42 ERA and a 7-3 record – and he’s walked just 6 batters all season. To cap it all off, closer Nick Ramirez has 16 saves this year and a 1.12 ERA – on top of his .285 batting average and nine home runs as a first baseman.

The Challenger:

Stanford and Fullerton are familiar rivals – the teams usually play every year, and this is the second consecutive time the Cardinal have played in Fullerton’s regional. In 2008, Stanford sent Fullerton home in the Super Regional in SoCal, but in 2010, Fullerton returned the favor by knocking out the Cardinal. Hence why the NCAA wanted to see these teams go at it again, and why this regional will be televised.

Stanford is a legitimate threat to knock off the Titans this weekend because it can counter an excellent pitching staff. Stanford has a .298 team batting average, and sophomore Stephen Piscotty leads the squad with a .361 batting average. After that is Pac-10 Freshman of the Year Brian Ragira, who hits .321, and sophomore Tyler Gaffney, who is hitting .320 and riding a 17-game hit streak. Even Stanford’s “weakest” hitter is a threat – senior catcher Zach Jones, who has a .268 batting average, is actually batting .323 in his last 36 games after starting the season hitting .130 in his first 16 games. Jones also leads the team in extra-base hits. Stanford has a pretty solid pitching staff to boot – it’s 3.50 team ERA is 47th best in the country, and closer Chris Reed has a 6-2 record and eight saves of his own. It all adds up to one thing: don’t count out the Cardinal this weekend.

The Others:

Kansas State and Illinois will certainly be overlooked this weekend, but these are two solid squads who are both riding hot streaks. Illinois won the Big Ten Tournament by beating Michigan State by a combined 13-2 in two games, and the Fighting Illini are 16-4 in their last 20 games. However, Illinois doesn’t have a scary pitching staff – all of the Illini starters have an ERA over 4.00.

The story is almost the same for Kansas State, which staved off elimination once in the Big 12 Tournament before eventually losing to Texas A&M in extra innings in the Big 12 Championship game in Oklahoma City. The Cats can count on the big bats of brothers Jason and Jared King, who combined for 18 home runs this season, and have a combined slugging percentage of .577 (Jared’s is .547, Jason’s is .608). The Cats also have some small ball of their own to compliment the Kings’ power, with 2010 Big 12 Player of the Year Nick Martini swiping 24 bags to compliment the team’s 62 sac bunts. The pitching staff is a weakness for the Wildcats, though, as no starter has an ERA under 4.00. The back end of the pen does have closer James Allen, who has 17 saves, but all signs suggest that the Wildcats will be looking to win a slugfest this weekend.

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Rivals Both Headed To Regionals…

Stanford once again utilized its great pitching to take the first two games in the series up in Berkeley by scores of 3-2 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday. The Stanford bats woke up in the third game, part of a Saturday doubleheader, and the boys in red and white were leading 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth when foul weather set in and ended the game for good.

With the series victory, Stanford finished the season on a high note by beating two top-25 Pac-10 teams in back to back weeks (Arizona and Cal). Cal, on the other hand, hobbled across the finish line with three consecutive series losses in the Pac-10, albeit against three of the better teams in the conference (Oregon State, UCLA and Stanford).

Once again, pitchers Mark Appel, Jordan Pries and Chris Reed all pitched very well, and for the second week in a row, the Cardinal didn’t need much offense to have a winning weekend.

Appel went seven and one-third innings while only giving up one earned run and walking nobody in Friday’s 3-2 win. Reed gave up a hit and a walk, but he closed out the final one and two-thirds innings with the game on the line to seal the victory, which helped Appel’s record to 5-6 and earned Reed his seventh save of the year.

The story was the same in the first game of the scheduled doubleheader on Saturday, but this time Pries was the winner, as he went seven and one-third innings, giving up two unearned runs, one walk and just six hits. Reed closed out the game after he came in during the 8th with a 4-2 lead, runners on the corners and one out. Reed got a fielder’s choice groundout on a dramatic play at the plate and a flyout to rightfield to squash the Bears’ rally, and got a double play in the ninth to end the game.

Despite the losses, Cal’s pitching staff did well over the weekend also, with Erik Johnson striking out 11 Stanford hitters in Friday’s game, and Justin Jones settling down after giving up four runs in the first four innings to finish eight full innings with the Bears down just 4-2 before Reed closed things out for the Cardinal.

Despite the Bears’ solid arms, the offense is a major concern for the boys in blue and gold. Cal has scored just 33 runs in its last 14 Pac-10 games, an average of just 2.3 runs a game. They have been facing off against some excellent teams in that time span – Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA and Stanford – but the offensive struggles will most likely mean an early exit for the Bears unless they can turn things around in the batting cages before the NCAA regionals.

Stanford’s offense didn’t score a ton of runs either – just enough to get the victories – but a couple key cogs in the Cardinal offense had good weekend. Sophomore Tyler Gaffney extended his hitting streak to 17 games this weekend with consecutive 2-for-4, one run, one RBI days at the plate. Fellow sophomore Stephen Piscotty went 2-for-4 with an RBI on Saturday and had a double, a single, and a walk in the second half of the doubleheader before the game was called due to rain.

Senior catcher Zach Jones went 3-for-5 on Saturday and scored three runs in two games (he also had a double and a single in the rainout game) to raise his batting average to .268 this year. This was a particularly impressive feat because Jones was hitting .130 through 16 games, but Jones has finished the regular season by hitting .323 in the last 36 games, and he leads the team in extra-base hits with 31.

Both these teams will be interesting to watch in the regionals – the Pac-10 has been strong this year, and the Cardinal and the Bears both have some nice pieces going into the postseason, both teams have a tough draw with Stanford heading down to Cal State Fullerton and Cal traveling to Rice, but with a little bit of luck, and the offense,
defense and pitching to syncing up, the Bay Area rivals could find themselves advancing to a Super Regional.

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Cardinal, Wildcats Preparing For NCAA Bids…

Mark Appel (courtesy Gostanford.com)

No starter went fewer than six innings all weekend, and Friday night saw two sophomore starters battle in a dramatic fight to the finish. For Stanford, righty Mark Appel went eight innings with nine strikeouts, one walk, and no runs, and for Arizona, righty Kurt Heyer went nine innings with ten strikeouts, no walks, and no runs.

Appel got a no decision even though his team won, but he tied a career high in strikeouts, and had his second-longest outing of the year in the aces’ duel. Appel had excellent command of his change-up and his curveball all night, and the youngster continues to add diabolical off-speed pitches to compliment his mid-to-upper nineties fastball.

Heyer was fantastic as well, as his accuracy with his running two-seam fastball and rapidly sinking change-up propelled him through nine solid innings before the bullpen eventually gave up the loss.

The two pitchers will undoubtedly be Friday night starters next year as well, but, more importantly, they give each team a chance against any squad going in to the postseason.

Appel continues to raise eyebrows, particularly because he has gone against a ton of tremendous Friday starters this season – Sonny Gray, Taylor Jungmann, Gerrit Cole, and Sam Gaviglio to name a few – and he has continued to get better as the season has gone along.

Heyer doesn’t have Appel’s overpowering stuff, but he is very hard for hitters to hit squarely, and he hits the strike zone so often that batters cannot afford to sit back, because he will strike you out (he has 122 K’s already this year).

Starters Kyle Simon and Konner Wade were also fantastic for the Cats on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Simon went seven and one-third inning and kept the Stanford offense to three runs en route to a 7-3 win, stretching his record to 10-3 on the season. Wade threw six and one-third innings of shutout ball Sunday, gave up only one walk, and caused the Cardinal to hit into several double plays.

Kyle Simon improved to 10-3 with Saturday's win.

The Cats’ pitching rotation is solid top to bottom (perhaps it’s not just a coincidence that their names all start with the letter K), but the bullpen leaves some room for concern, particularly Bryce Bandilla, who got saddled with two losses this weekend. The setup man struggled with control in both of his appearance out of the pen, and even though he passed the ball to closer Matt Chaffee in both of those games, the damage was already done by the time Chaffee came in.

The Wildcat offense was uninspiring for most of the weekend, and except for DH Josh Garcia’s two-run home run and shortstop Alex Mejia’s 3-for-4 day on Saturday, the Cardinal pitchers had their way with the Wildcat offense, which currently has the second best team batting average in the nation.

One pitcher who had a bit of breakout weekend against the Wildcat offense was righty Jordan Pries, who had an exceptional start on Sunday for Stanford. Pries went seven innings with six strikeouts, and only gave up one run on a solo home run. The junior has gotten the loss or no decision in his last eight starts, but he finally looked like the Jordan Pries who beat Cal and Vanderbilt in the same week earlier this season. Pries threw all four of his pitches for strikes
and generally confused Wildcat hitters, showing the stuff that powered him to a no-hitter this past summer in the Cape Cod League.

The Cardinal also got an excellent performance from junior closer Chris Reed, who vultured two wins this weekend thanks to late-inning victories on Friday and Sunday. He extended his record to 6-3 this season (which nicely compliments his six saves), and he had great off-speed pitches as well as the nasty, breaking, mid-90s fastball that has been unhittable so far this season.

Tyler Gaffney

Stanford’s offense got a boost from sophomore Tyler Gaffney, who now has a 14-game hitting streak after reaching base in all three games this weekend, and right fielder Austin Wilson, who continues to show how much he has matured at the plate over the course of this season. The freshman hit two seeing-eye singles on Sunday, including the hit that scored the winning run, and he showed that he has adapted to college pitching by no longer swinging for the fences in every at-bat.

Sophomore centerfielder Jake Stewart also returned to the lineup after missing the last several weeks with appendicitis. Stewart was leading the team in extra-base hits and stolen bases when the illness struck, and the capable leadoff hitter will likely provide a big boost to an offense that has seen its stalwart hitter – shortstop Kenny Diekroeger – stuck deep in a rut. The sophomore went 0-for-3 on Sunday to drop his batting average below .300 for the first time all year after he was batting over .400 for the first third of the season.

Stanford ends up with a big series win to keep it at .500 in Pac-10 play, but this series was so close that it very easily could have gone in Arizona’s direction. Keep an eye on these two teams coming into the postseason – I expect them to both be two seeds in regionals, and they most certainly could upset a one seed due to their powerful pitching staffs.

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Cardinal Back On Track…

Tyler Gaffney (courtesey Stanford)

The Stanford offense had an unmemorable weekend overall, but knocking around Gerrit Cole on Thursday night was certainly impressive. The Cardinal hit three home runs, including Zach Jones‘ third three-run homer of the year, and sophomore Tyler Gaffney knocked Cole out of the game after just 6 and 1/3 innings with a two-run shot.

But even though the Cardinal bats woke up against UCLA’s “Ace 1A,” they went silent just a day later against “Ace 1B.”

Trevor Bauer struck out 17 Cardinal hitters in a complete game 4-1 win on Friday night, and his stuff was unbelievable. The junior had 10 strikeouts through just four innings, using a fastball that touched 97 miles an hour, and a dominant curveball that never seemed to miss the strike zone.

After watching his performance on Friday, if someone were to tell me that Bauer is not the best pitcher in college baseball this year, I’d just assume they were crazy. Bauer leads the nation with 127 strikeouts, has an ERA of 1.42 and a WHIP of .802 in just ten starts this season (oh, and four of those starts were complete game wins). Simply put, I don’t think it’s possible for any team to hit Bauer when he’s pitching like this.

And, to make matters worse for other teams, freshman Sunday starter Adam Plutko is also very good – a 1.69 ERA this year – but the UCLA bullpen is a bit of a cause for concern because UCLA will most likely be in a lot of low-scoring games this year.

Trevor Bauer leads the nation with 127 Ks.

This is because UCLA’s bats are not special, but they hit just well enough behind their three-headed monster of a pitching staff to beat anyone on any given day. The Bruins only have three batters that hit over .300, but they did have eight extra-base hits in three games off the Stanford pitching staff, so every batter can make you pay, particularly against righthanded pitchers because UCLA starts five lefties in their lineup.

Looking ahead, both of these teams are going to be threats in the postseason, but both teams do have things to fix. UCLA’s starters give them a chance to go back to Omaha – and maybe to win it all – but their offense and bullpen are concerns. Like I said, I don’t foresee UCLA scoring a ton of runs, so if any team can find a way to get past their starters and dig into the bullpen, the Bruins are vulnerable. However, I’m not sure how a team can get past all three Bruin starters in a double-elimination format, so expect to see UCLA in June.

If Stanford wants to make it deep into the postseason, it needs two players to regain their early-season form – Kenny Diekroeger and Jordan Pries.

Diekroeger has been struggling at the plate lately – his batting average has dropped from .422 to .336 over the last month – but he did have a three-run homer in Stanford’s midweek game against Santa Clara, as well as the walkoff single in Saturday’s game.

Pries has now lost his last three decisions (one against Trevor Bauer and his 17 strikeouts), but his stuff has not looked spectacular lately. After watching Pries dominate Cal and Vanderbilt in his first two starts of the season, I expected him to have a monster year, but he has not been able to dominate the mound like he did early in the year in his last two starts. However, he has not gotten any help from his offense – Stanford has scored only three runs in his last three starts.

Do I expect those two to get right over the last two months of the season? Absolutely. Both are veterans who know what it is like to go through the ups and downs of a long season, and I think the big series win over UCLA will help them regain their form. If that does happen, the Cardinal could be poised for a major late-season surge deep into the postseason.

Stanford’s Tyler Gaffney isn’t just a baseball player, he’s a running back for the Cardinal football team as well. Here’s a look into the two-sport athlete’s world (courtesy Gostanford.com).

The college baseball season is still a couple months away, but there are plenty of two-sport athletes still playing football. Baseball/football players like Coty Blanchard of Jacksonville State and others on this list are in action in the first round of the FCS football playoffs.

Matt Campbell

Army

Matt Campbell – Sr. – Baseball/Football

Campbell is a kicker for the Army football team and an infielder on the baseball squad. He is a kickoff specialist with 47 kicks for a 58.2 average in 2009 and 57 kicks for a 60.1 average and three touchbacks in 2010. He played in one baseball game in 2010.

Jon Crucitti – Fr. – Baseball/Football

Crucitti is a running back and outfielder who is in his first year at Army.

Crucitti has played in seven of Army’s first 11 games of the 2010 football season. He has carried the ball 29 times for 87 net yards.

Butler

Will Schierholz – Fr. – Baseball/Football

Schierholtz is a freshman from St. Louis who is a back-up quarterback for the Bulldogs this fall. He’s slated to pitch next spring.

Cal Poly

Jono Grayson – Sr. – Baseball/Football

Grayson played football for the Mustangs from 2006-2009 and played baseball in 2010. He has exhausted his football eligibility, but will play one more season of baseball at Cal Poly in 2011.

Kyle Parker

Clemson

Kyle Parker – RS Soph. – Baseball/Football

Parker had arguably the best two sport year ever last year. He threw 20 touchdown passes with 2,526 yards in the fall of 2009 to help the Clemson football team beat Kentucky in the Music City Bowl in his redshirt freshman year on the gridiron. Then last spring he hit 20 home runs with 64 RBIs to help the Tigers reach the College World Series.

He is the first and only player in Division One history to throw 20 TDs and hit 20 HR in the same academic year.

Parker was taken by the Colorado Rockies with the 26th overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft. He has signed with the Rockies and will report to spring training in 2011.

After this year, he still has two years of football eligibility remaining.

Parker passed for 2,079 yards with 12 touchdowns and 10 interceptions for the 6-6 Tigers in 2010.  CLICK HERE to listen to an exclusive podcast interview with Parker.

Columbia

Alex Aurrichio – Sr. – Baseball/Soccer

Aurrichio hit .329 with 13 HR and 40 RBIs in 2010 for the Columbia baseball team. He also started all 17 games as the soccer team’s goalkeeper in 2009.

Aurrichio started in goal in 16 of Columbia’s 17 soccer games in 2010. He had a 1.32 goals against average with 54 saves and four shutouts.

Eastern Illinois

Cameron Berra – Fr. – Baseball/Football

Berra is a freshman from St. Louis who is just beginning his collegiate two sport career. He is a kicker on the football team and will play catcher next spring.  His grandfather was a cousin of Hall of Famer Yogi Berra.

Berra served as EIU’s primary kicker through in 2010. He connected on 8 of 11 field goal attempts and 19 of 20 PATs. He also averaged 52.5 yards with two touchbacks on 32 kickoffs.

Scott Riddle

Elon

Scott Riddle – Sr. – Baseball/Football

Riddle passed for 3,345 yards and 23 touchdowns in 2009. He is the Southern Conference record holder for career completions and passing yards. He hit .317 with six home runs and 31 RBIs in 2010.

Riddle passed for 3,241 yards with 28 touchdowns and 6 interceptions in 10 games in 2010. He was named First Team All-Southern Conference by the league’s coaches, while earning second team accolades by in the SoCon media poll.

Fairfield

Tucker Nathans – Sr. – Baseball/Soccer

Nathans played both baseball and soccer in his first three years at Fairfield, but he has decided to concentrate solely on baseball during his senior campaign. He hit .357 with seven HR and a team-best 50 RBIs in 2010.

CLICK HERE to listen to an exclusive podcast interview with Nathans.

Taiwan Easterling

Florida State

Taiwan Easterling – RS Jr. – Baseball/Football

Easterling had 35 receptions for 442 yards and two touchdowns for the football team in 2009. He had four receptions for 56 yards and a touchdown in the Seminoles’ 2010 season-opening win over Samford. He played in 23 games with one start on the baseball diamond in 2010, going 3 for 23 with two RBIs at the plate.

Easterling has 32 catches for 462 yards and 4 touchdowns through FSU’s first 12 football games in 2010. He and the Seminoles face Virginia Tech in the ACC Championship game.

George Washington

Marshall Seedorf – Jr. – Baseball/Swimming

Seedorf is a rare baseball player who also swims in college. He has been one of George Washington’s top freestyle sprinters during his first two years. Seedorf also pitched in 20 games in relief in 2010, going 1-1 with two saves.

Holy Cross

Josh Hauser – So. – Baseball/Football

Hauser is in his sophomore year with the Holy Cross football and baseball teams. He pitched in 12 games in relief in 2010, with a 4.34 ERA in 18 2/3 innings pitched. Hauser is also a tight end on the gridiron.

Hauser had five catches for 43 yards for the Crusaders in 2010.

Indiana

Matt Ernest – RS Jr. – Baseball/Football

Ernest pitched in six games with a 4.97 ERA in 12 2/3 innings in 2010. As a wide receiver in 2009 he caught seven passes for 69 yards. He’s moved to the defensive side of the ball in 2010 and is now a cornerback.

Ernest was IU’s 10th leading tackler with 29 in 2010.

Greg Heban – RS Fr. – Baseball/Football

Heban made two relief appearances for the Hoosiers in 2010. He is also a cornerback on the football squad.

Heban was IU’s seventh leading tackler with 40 in 2010.

Coty Blanchard

Jacksonville State

Coty Blanchard – Fr. – Baseball/Football

Blanchard was taken by the Baltimore Orioles in the 41st round with the 1,228th overall pick in June’s MLB draft. He decided not to sign to that he could pursue both baseball and football at Jacksonville State.

Blanchard’s college football debut was a big one. He came off the bench to go 9-for-23 for 126 yards and two touchdown passes in Jacksonville State’s season-opening 49-48 double overtime win over Ole Miss. It was the first win over an SEC school for an Ohio Valley Conference team since the league was formed in 1948.

He earned OVC accolades again on October 3rd when he was named conference Newcomer of the Week for his efforts in a 40-34 win over Murray State. Blanchard passed for 68 yards and a TD, rushed for 28 yards and averaged 39.4 yards on seven punts to help the 4th ranked (FCS) Gamecocks improve to 5-0.

Blanchard was named to the OVC’s All-Rookie Team in 2010 after passing for 296 yards with 8 touchdowns and two interceptions. He also rushed for 282 net yards with two touchdowns on the ground. He and Jacksonville State face Wofford in the first round of the FCS Playoffs.

He  is expected to start at shortstop for the baseball team in 2011.

Kentucky

Brian Adams – Soph. – Baseball/Football

After missing all of what would have been his freshman football season due to treatment for severe blood clots, Adams played in eight games for the Kentucky baseball team in 2010. He hit .472 with a home run and eight RBIs in 36 at-bats. He is a redshirt freshman wide receiver with the football team this fall.

Adams has played in 11 of Kentucky’s 12 football games in 2010. He has three catches for 23 yards.

Liberty

Josh Healey – Fr. – Baseball/Football

Healey is in his first year at Liberty. He is a football defensive back and a pitcher for the baseball team.

McNeese State

Jace Peterson – Jr. – Baseball/Football

Peterson batted .366 with 16 stolen bases for the baseball team in 2010. He had 39 tackles with three sacks as a safety on the gridiron in 2009.

Peterson had 30tackles with two sacks for the Cowboy’s in 2010.

Nebraska

Khiry Cooper – Soph. – Baseball/Football

Cooper had 13 receptions for 80 yards with a touchdown for the Cornhusker football team in 2009. He started 16 games primarily as an outfielder and batted .258 with eight RBIs for the baseball team in 2010.

New Mexico State

Tanner Rust – Soph. – Baseball/Football

Rust served in a back-up role for both the football and baseball teams as a freshman in 2009-2010. He played in 11 football games in 2010, going 8 of 18 for 33 passing yards.

Nicholls State

Mike Barba – Soph. – Football/Baseball

Barba played in 23 games with four starts for the baseball team in 2010. He batted .143 with one RBI.

Russell Wilson

North Carolina State

Russell Wilson – Jr. – Baseball/Football

Wilson passed for 3,027 yards and an ACC-leading 31 touchdowns in 2009 as NC State’s starting quarterback. He hit .306 with three home runs on the baseball field in 2010. After being taken in the 4th round with the 140th overall pick in the June MLB Draft by the Colorado Rockies, he signed a professional contract. Wilson batted .230 in 122 at-bats over the summer for the Tri-City Dust Devils in the Class A Northwest League. He is back at NC State playing football this fall.

Wilson has passed for 3,288 yards with 26 touchdowns and 14 interceptions through NC State’s first 12 football games for the bowl-bound Wolfpack in 2010. He has also rushed for 394 net yards and nine touchdowns.

Northwestern

Quentin Williams – Soph. – Baseball/Football

Williams batted .192 with a home run and seven RBIs in limited action in 2010. He had 55 at-bats in 17 starts. He also pitched 4 1/3 innings in three relief appearances. He is also a defensive lineman on the football team.

Williams has 15 tackles with an interception in 2010. He received Academic All-Big Ten recognition for the fall semester.

Oklahoma State

Nathan Sorenson – Fr. – Baseball/Football

Sorenson is a highly touted true freshman who was rated as one of the top 50 high school quarterback prospects by all of the recruiting services. He was also picked by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 47th round of the June MLB Draft. Sorenson pitched and played shortstop for his Texas high school state championship team. His 4.5 speed also helped his high school 4×800 relay team win a state title.

Patrick Weeden

Brandon Weeden – Jr. – Baseball/Football

While Weeden never played college baseball, but he is an interesting two sport athlete. He was a second round draft pick by the New York Yankees in 2002 and pitched in the minor leagues for the Yankees, L.A. Dodgers and Kansas City Royals organizations before leaving baseball to enroll at OSU in 2007.

This season has been Weeden’s first as a starter in Stillwater and he has led the Cowboys to the first 10-win season in program history. The 27-year-old has passed for 4,037 yards with 32 touchdowns and just 13 interceptions while completing better than 67 % of his passes for the bowl bound Cowboys.

Princeton

Stephen Harrington – So. – Baseball/Squash

Yes, there is college squash and Harrington is the only squash player on the Two-Sport Report. Harrington batted .238 (5 for 21) on the baseball diamond in 2010. He started four times as a freshman. He was 3-3 as a freshman playing varsity squash.

Sacred Heart

Bobby Shepard – RS Soph. – Baseball/Football

Shepard made eight relief appearances in 2010. He pitched 7 1/3 innings with a 12.27 ERA. He is also the starting punter for the Pioneer football team.

Shepard averaged 38.7 yards on 42 punts for the Pioneer football team  in 2010.

South Alabama

Eddie Cabrera – Soph. – Baseball/Football

2009 was South Alabama’s first season of college football, which makes Cabrera the first player in the 45-year history of the USA baseball program to play football and baseball.

He played in five games with two total tackles for the football team in 2009, but did not see action on the diamond in 2010.

Tyler Gaffney

Stanford

Tyler Gaffney – So. – Baseball/Football

Gaffney backed-up Heisman Trophy runner-up Toby Gerhart as a freshman on the gridiron in 2009. He ran the ball 22 times for 87 yards and a touchdown for Stanford’s Sun Bowl team. He also earned All-Pac 10 Honorable Mention accolades after batting .328 with three home runs, 13 doubles and 24 RBIs during the 2010 baseball season.

He has 58 carries for 258 net rushing yards and four touchdowns for the 11-1 bowl-bound Cardinal football team in 2010.

Tennessee-Martin

Jordan Stokes – Soph. – Baseball/Football

Stokes is a back-up catcher for the baseball team and third string quarterback on the Skyhawks football team.

Texas State

Jeff McVaney – Jr. – Baseball/Football

McVaney is a two-way player on the baseball field. He’s also a fullback on the Bobcat football team. He earned 2010 all-league honors in the California Collegiate Summer League after batting .329 with 30 RBIs.

Villanova

* The Wildcats have three baseball/football players who were part of the school’s 2009 FCS National Championship football team. Villanova is again in the FCS playoffs and faces Stephen F. Austin in the first round of the 2010 playoffs.

Marlon Calbi – Jr. – Baseball/Football

Calbi is a back-up quarterback for the Wildcat football team who also serves as the team’s holder on field goals and PATs. Calbi batted .248 with one home runs and 20 RBIs on the diamond in 2010.

Christian Culicerto – Jr. – Baseball/Football

Culicerto is also a back-up quarterback on the football team. He walked-on and made the baseball roster in 2009. Culicerto pitched in relief four times in 2010 with a 7.71 ERA.

Culicerto has played in two football games in 2010. He is 2 of 3 for 17 passing yards with one TD pass.

Matt Szczur – Sr. – Baseball/Football

Szczur helped lead the Villanova football team to the 2009 FCS National Championship after being named both the CAA Offensive and Special Teams Player of the Year. He batted .443 in 39 games for the VU baseball team in 2010. Szczur missed several games during the season, because he donated bone marrow to a young leukemia patient.

Like Russell Wilson and Kyle Parker, Szczur signed a pro baseball contract after being taken (5th round) in the 2010 MLB Draft.  He hit .397 in 18 games at low-A Boise, but hit just .192 for high-A Peoria in the Midwest League.

Szczur suffered an injury early in the 2010 football season. He has 160 rushing yards, 113 passing yards with a touchdown, 42 receiving yards and a touchdown, five punt returns for 42 yards, and 11 kickoff returns for a 21.2 yard average.

Western Illinois

Chris Fuchs – Sr. – Baseball/Football

Fuchs is the starting punter for the Leathernecks football team and is also a relief pitcher on the baseball team. He made 13 relief appearances with one start in 2010.

Fuchs punted 60 times for a 39.6 yard average in 2010.

Western Kentucky

Chris Bullard – Sr. – Baseball/Football

Bullard is a linebacker on the football team as well an an outfielder for the Hilltopper baseball team. He made five starts and played in 19 games on the diamond in 2010. He still has a redshirt year of eligibility remaining.

Bullard was WKU’s fourth-leading tackler with 50 tackles in 2010. He also had four sacks.

Landon Bennett

Wofford

Landon Bennett – Jr. – Baseball/Football

Bennett is a back-up punter for the Wofford football team and plays outfield for the baseball team. He batted .333 with four home runs and 35 RBIs in 2010.

Bennett was the starting punter for the SOCON Champions as a red shirt Freshman in 2008 (39.1 avg). He did not play in 2009 rehabing. He finished the 2010 season as the starting punter for the SOCON Champions & was also the starting punter for the round 1 & 2 of the playoffs (38.5.

He has been starter in OF on baseball team since his freshman year, batting 298 in 2009 and .333 in 2010. He is a starter this year also but graduates this spring. Bennett has accepted a baseball scholarship to Georgia State to play out his final year during grad school in 2012.

Yale

Brook Hart – Sr. – Baseball/Football

Hart is a quarterback for the Yale football team and a pitcher for the baseball team. He split time under center in 2009, passing for 750 yards with five touchdowns and four interceptions. He was also 3-3 with a 6.26 ERA on the mound. Hart started eight games with four relief appearances, tossing two of his team’s six complete games. He also earned one save.

He played in three games on the gridiron in 2010, passing for 227 yards with a touchdown and an interception.