Head Coach Scott Stricklin has released his 2007 schedule. They will play in some marquee games this year including participating in the Winthrop University (includes East Tennessee State and Temple) and Louisville University (California and Indiana State) Invitationals and they visit Wake Forest, Florida, and Southern Miss each for a 3 game sets. This is by far the toughest Non-Conference schedule I have seen this season. I have to give Coach Stricklin some credit for going out and scheduling some big names. The full schedule is available here.

Kent State has also released the list of recruits for the 2008 season. They have six players who are joining the team and five of them are from Ohio. This class continues the tradition of strong recruiting under third year head coach Scott Stricklin who had his recruiting class last year ranked 17th by Baseball America.

North Carolina recently graduated four players who went on to play professional baseball before fulfilling their graduation requirements. All four student-athletes came back to college recently and finished up on their degrees. The four players are Bo Dickerson, Marshall Hubbard, Matt McCay, and Daniel Moore. Coach Mike Fox was quoted saying that “Our players are here first and foremost to receive an education, and these four have made us extremely proud. We have a great track record of graduating our players, even those that leave early to pursue a career in professional baseball.”

Full release available here.

The West Virginia Mountaineers have released their 2007 schedule. They will start the season in Winston Salem to play Cleveland State for a three game set at Ernie Shore Field. They will then return to the Carolinas the next two weekends to take part in the Baseball at the Beach and the Coastal Carolina tournaments. They will then return to Morgantown to start the home schedule with a doubleheader against Niagara. They will continue their homestand for another 16 games before heading on the road to start the road portion of the Big East schedule. The full schedule is available here and The College Baseball Blog likely will see these guys when they visit the Huskies late in the season.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock have released their 2007 schedule. There is no major surprises with them facing the teams in the Sun Belt conference in addition to mid-major powers in Northern Iowa and Creighton. The full press release is available here and the schedule in HTML format here.

Erik Morrison, the junior infielder of the Kansas Jayhawk baseball team did a recent Q & A with the Kansas Athletic department on the upcoming season and other topics. It is an interesting read and gives you some insight into Mr. Morrison’s world.

Article available here.

I was forwarded this article from Maryland Sports Information staff member Dan Reisig. He is always a big help with getting information on the Terps.

Maryland baseball head coach Terry Rupp announced today seven future Terrapins who joined the team by signing National Letters of Intent this fall. The seven players, four of whom have chosen to play collegiate ball in their home state, are valuable assets who will have the opportunity to contribute when they join the Terps for the 2007-08 school year.

The seven signees are: Kyle Blackwell ( Rockville , Md. /Sherwood HS), Reid Chenworth ( Baltimore , Md. /Calvert Hall HS), Brett Harman ( Baltimore , Md. / Westminster HS), Adam Kolarek ( Catonsville , Md /Catonsville HS), Curtis Lazar ( Stafford , Va. / Mountain View HS), Matthew Quinn (North Penn, Penn./Landsdale HS), and Bill Rice (Sewell, N.J./Washington Township HS),

“With our 2007 recruiting class, we have addressed a lot of our needs to help us down the road as we try to get better in this league,” Rupp said. “With the addition of these seven recruits, we have definitely helped our club immensely. We have addressed two key areas – left handed hitting and front-line pitching and added some size and some athleticism to our program. Overall, we are very excited to get these guys on campus.”

Blackwell is a slender 6-2, 165 pound right-hander whose live arm gives him tremendous upside as well. According to assistant coach Jim Farr: “We hope to develop his secondary pitches so that he can come into the mix as a freshman.”

Chenworth is a big 6-5, 210 pound athletic left-handed hitter who will see time in the outfield. A member of his high school volleyball team, he has good speed and power and projects to play left field, according to Farr.

Harman is a 6-5, 200 pound pitcher who can contribute in various ways. Said Farr: “He is an outstanding, in-state right-handed pitcher. He has exceptional movement to his fastball, and projects to be able to pitch up front in our rotation.”

Kolarek is a player who will contribute both from the mound and in the field. The 6-3, 190 pound left-hander will compete for playing time in the outfield as well as out of the bullpen. His fastball is in the upper 80s and the Terps coaching staff will be working on developing his secondary pitches as well.

Lazar is a big, 6-4, 190 pound left-handed first baseman/outfielder who, according to Farr, “is an athletic kid who can run. He can hit with power and is good around the bag.”

Quinn is a 6-5, 205 pound right-handed pitcher who, according to coach Farr, has a large upside. “Matt is just starting to come into his own,” he said. He throws in the 86-88 mph range with three pitches. He has the ability to pitch at either the front end or the back end of a game.”

Rice, a 6-0, 180 pound left-handed hitter will see time at all three positions in the outfield. Said Farr: “He’s a good enough runner to play center, and he has the arm strength to play right field. He projects to hit some doubles for us with occasional power.”

Among the seven recruits, four hail from the Free State , adding to the 18 Maryland natives on this season’s roster. Overall, the Terrapin coaching staff feels that it has assembled a group of recruits who will be valuable members of both the baseball team as well as the campus community.

“We have some quality kids, both athletically and academically,” Rupp said. “We feel that all seven players are men of great character.”

2007 Maryland Baseball Signees

Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (High School)
Kyle Blackwell RHP 6-2 165 Rockville , Md./Sherwood HS
Reid Chenworth OF 6-5 210 Baltimore , Md. /Calvert Hall HS
Brett Harman RHP 6-5 200 Baltimore , Md./Westminster HS
Adam Kolarek LHP/OF 6-3 190 Catonsville , Md./Catonsville HS
Curtis Lazar 1B 6-4 190 Stafford, Va. / Mountain View HS
Matthew Quinn RHP 6-5 205 North Penn, Penn. /Landsdale HS
Bill Rice OF 6-0 180 Sewell, N.J./Washington Township HS

I am trying to keep this site updated with the most current releases of schedules for the 2007 season. The schools below have released their schedules in the last week.

Harvard
McNeese State
Stephen F. Austin

The Georgia Tech Media Relations department recently released a very good article on Micheal Fisher and other Georgia Tech athletes on their efforts to raise money for the Hillside Foster Home in Georgia. They raised over $900 in Gift Cards to Target in addition to 75 gifts and toys they had donated through the three toy drives which occurred during the fall semester. It is nice to see Mr. Fisher and his fellow athletes doing a great thing for people that are in a tough situation.

The full release is available here.

There have been some recent releases on some more recruits for the 2007-2008 school year.
Virginia
UC Davis
Georgetown
Louisville
UTPA
Cal Berkeley
Wisconsin Milwaukee

SeBaseball.com has posted a recent article on the Boston College Baseball program. They expect BC to compete for a spot in the ACC Tournament this upcoming season and possibly get a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The full article available here.

Warchant checks in with a Q & A with Seminole pitcher Micheal Hyde. He discusses the upcoming season and the challenges in which the Seminoles will face this year with other information so you can get to know him better. The Q & A is available here.

New Notre Dame Head Coach Dave Schrage has released the 2007 baseball schedule. They will continue their tradition of opening the season in San Antonio with one game against Prairie View A & M and two games with Texas State. They were scheduled to play Northwestern in a 3 game set but Northwestern had to back out at the last minute. The Irish will also participate in the Baseball at the Beach Tournament at Coastal Carolina with UNC-Wilmington and TCU joining them. They also head down to Stetson to participate in that tournament with perennial power Nebraska joining Stetson and Iowa in the tourney. There is no major surprises in their schedule with no trip to Uconn this year the College Baseball Blog Staff will not see the Irish. I hope Head Coach Dave Schrage good luck on the season and hope they make it back to Omaha and continue the tradition of Paul Mainieri.

Full Schedule available in PDF format and HTML.

Notre Dame released the signings for the 2007-2008 season recently and that article can be found here.

George Horton checks in with his comments on the team for the 2007 season after fall practice. He lost a ton of talent from last years team and has to replace them with inexperienced players if he wants to make it back to Omaha. The full season preview is available here.

The Duke Blue Devils have released their 2007 schedule. They will compete in the East Carolina Invitational this year on February 23rd-25th. The ACC portion of the schedule has two highlights on the season with Florida State and Georgia Tech visiting Durham. In addition to FSU and GT, Boston College, Maryland, and Virginia Tech come in for ACC teams. The schedule is extremely challenging for second-year Head Coach Sean McNally but they are headed in the right direction. They have to replace Dan Otero who served as the Number 1 pitcher for the Blue Devils because he transferred to South Florida to join Lelo Prado in building a power.

Full Schedule available here.

Rivals has posted a new Mailbag which talks about issues with Florida State, Ohio State, Georgia, and East Carolina. Kendall Rogers does an excellent job covering college baseball and check out his mailbag here.