Weekend Series Tops Recent Comings & Goings…
What was probably the biggest happening of the fall took place over the weekend in Nashville, when Vanderbilt hosted Cal State Fullerton for a pair of games in the DeMarini Fall Classic. The Titans and new head coach, Rick Vanderhook, took both games in the exhibition series.
Fullerton took game one by a final of 10-8. The teams combined to allow 7 unearned runs thanks to single errors charged to each team. Titan starter, Dylan Floro, earned the win by allowing just a run on a hit in 4.0 innings of work. Grahamm Wiest got the win in relief in game two for Fullerton. He tossed 5.0 shutout innings with 5 strikeouts.
After going to the College World Series for the first time earlier this year, Vanderbilt has a lot of turnover in both the starting rotation and the everyday line-up.
Aces Grayson Garvin (13-2, 2.48 ERA) and Sonny Gray (12-4, 2.43 ERA) are both gone to the professional ranks, so Kevin Ziomek and Sam Selmon made the Saturday and Sunday starts, respectively.
Selmon tossed 5.0 shutout innings in his Sunday start, but the bullpen allowed 9 runs over the next 4.0 innings. He made just seven relief appearances as a sophomore in 2011. Ziomek gave-up 5 runs, but just one was earned in 2.0 innings. The lefty from Amherst, Mass. was 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA as a freshman last year with five starts and 22 relief outings.
Vanderbilt returns players like Tony Kemp, Mike Yastrzemski, Anthony Gomez, Riley Reynolds, and Connor Harrell from the CWS squad, but they lost their top RBI men in Aaron Westlake (18 HR, 56 RBIs), Jason Esposito (9 HR, 59 RBIs) and Curt Casali (7 HR, 53 RBIs).
Freshman phenom Chris Harvey caught one game and spent time as the DH in both games. He was a combined 1 for 7 in the series His lone hit was a solo home run in game one. It was Vanderbilt’s only long ball of the weekend. Harvey graduated high school early and is spending what would have been his senior year of high school as a freshman with the Commodores.
First baseman Carlos Lopez was 5 for 8 at the plate with 2 RBIs for the Titans. Outfielder Austin Kingsolver was 5 for 9 with 3 RBIs and a triple.
Both teams now prepare for their tough 2012 season openers in February. Tim Corbin and Vanderbilt open with a three game series at Stanford, while Vanderhook and Fullerton open with a three game set at Florida.
Raising More Than A Little Money…
Missouri and Iowa recently played a pair of exhibition games in Columbia as well. Mizzou won the first game 9-1, with the two teams tying 3-3 in the second game, but the outcomes were really the sub-plots to the weekend.
The real story was the fact that the exhibition games raised for than $12 thousand dollars to benefit the Joplin, Mo. Little League. Diamonds there were leveled after a tornado ravaged the entire Joplin area last May.
Ticket sales generated a total of $3,710, the sale of former Mizzou baseball jerseys raised $2,250 and $4,081 was collected in private donations.
All of the money raised will go directly to helping rebuild the fields for Joplin Little League. Following the tornado, the Little League received plenty of supplies and equipment but was left with the daunting task of rebuilding its fields.
Speaking of Missouri baseball, Texas Ranger second baseman, Ian Kinsler, is a Mizzou alum.
The Rhody Raffle…
For the Fourth straight year Rhode Island baseball is raising money for its program in a unique way. The winner of a raffle will have their choice of $10,000 in cash or a pair of Boston Red Sox season tickets.
The raffle runs through March 20, 2012, and is a significant fundraiser for the Rhode Island baseball team. All proceeds go directly back to the program to help offset the costs of travel, equipment and facility improvements.
An entry in the raffle is $100. Click Here to enter.
Robinson Renovation…
UCLA recently announced that it will add nearly 600 more chairback seats at Steele Field at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The project is expected to be complete by this December. Once it’s done, the stadium will seat 1,820 fans. 290 seats will be installed above each dugout to accommodate the expansion. 2012 will mark the 32nd season for Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Releasing Schedules…
2012 schedules continue to be released by individual schools on a regular basis. Our Schedule page has links to those (that we know of) that have been released to date. Expect schedules to continue to be released from now through early February.
We will once again publish a list of some of the top non-conference schedules from across the country once they are all releases. Some of the current front-runners include Stanford, Cal State Fullerton, TCU, and Wichita State. Check out the schedule page to check all of the schedules that have been released so far.
Moneyball Mike…
If you have seen the movie Moneyball, you may have been thinking (as I did) “I’ve seen that guy before”, during one of the scenes. UC Irvine head coach, Mike Gillespie, had a cameo in the Brad Pitt film. Gillespie had a non-speaking role playing former Oakland A’s coach, Ken Macha, while the A’s staff was meeting in an office. By the way, Gillespie looks much more like Macha than actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman resembles then A’s manager Art Howe.
The Dugout in Omaha is your one stop for the most officially licensed 2011 College World Series apparel.
The Dugout is located right across the street from the Road To Omaha statue outside TD Ameritrade Stadium, but if you left Omaha without that College World Series hat, shirt or memorabilia you were thinking about you can still get it at Dugouthats.com! The Dugout also has fitted college and minor league caps – just like the ones the players where on the field.
The best part is, when you click on one of the red links to Dugouthats.com you will save 20% on your order when you enter the coupon code CB360!