The Air Force Academy has posted the 2008 schedule on their website. The Academy will open the season in the Service Academies Spring Classic with Navy and Memphis joining them from February 22nd-24th. They will be making a trip to Mississippi State for a three game set at the end of February. The Falcons will also take part in the Palm Beach Papa John’s Challenge in Palm Beach, FL but the participants are not listed yet. The most interesting thing on the schedule is on April 18th-20th when they have games listed against UNC or UVSC in Colorado Springs. I wonder if this means that North Carolina is planning on heading to Air Force this year or is this a different UNC as in Northern Colorado. I suspect that it is Northern Colorado but the Falcons fans can hope that it is the two time CWS finalist North Carolina. The full schedule is available here.

The Air Force Academy will visit the Naval Academy on September 28th and 29th in part with the Navy-Air Force football game on Saturday. The game on September 28th will start at 3 pm and Saturday’s game will begin at 9 am. The teams will open each other’s season in Millington TN on February 22nd.The full release is available here.

Shawn Shroyer of The University Daily Kansan (student paper) completed his second week of walk-on tryouts with the Kansas baseball program. We are sad to report that Shroyer was cut but had a great time getting back on the playing field. The full article is available here.

The Virginia Cavaliers played the Ontario Blue Jays in an exhibition game on Friday which the Cavaliers won 9-1 in a sixteen inning contest. The Cavaliers got a home run from Jeremy Farrell and solid pitching. The pitching staff only gave up three hits in the game with Jacob Thompson not pitching any innings. The Cavaliers are expected to be at the top of the ACC conference again with a strong lineup but need to find a replacement on the mound and in the field for Sean Doolittle who left for professional baseball after being drafted in June.

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Our favorite Rivals writer Kendall Rogers checks in with a mailbag column talking about some of the challenges Vanderbilt is facing with the loss of David Price, a preview of Arizona State, the future of Memphis baseball, and finally Texas AM utility player Blake Stouffer chances of winning National Player of the Year. The article is available here.

I have noticed a recent trend with the NC State baseball program with top players transferring to other schools across the country. After the 2006 season, Matt Mangini transferred for his junior season to Oklahoma State where he ended up getting picked up by the Seattle Mariners with the 52nd overall pick. This past summer Mike Roskopf transferred out of NC State to the University of Southern California for his senior season. Roskopf showed me some major power this past season when the Wolfpack visited Boston College. What is Elliot Avent doing to these kids? Is it just a random occurence that these players have transferred out the last two seasons? I hope someone has some insight into the reasoning these players have left.

Dan Spencer who recently moved to Texas Tech from two-time national champion Oregon State is making drastic changes with the Texas Tech pitching staff. Spencer is trying to get the pitching staff to do three things every time they take the mound: Throw strikes, Be Aggressive, and Compete on every pitch. It sounds simple but will be tough to implement as the Red Raiders have the worst Team ERA since 2003. The goal of the program is to have an ERA of 4.00 or lower which will make the Red Raiders competitors on the national scene. The full article is available here.

The Penn State Baseball Program played three intra-squad scrimmages over the weekend with the Blue team winning on Friday by a score of 3-1 and on Saturday 4-0. The White team prevented the weekend sweep by winning on Sunday 5-0. A recap of the weekend is available here.

Kyle Long who committed this summer to play baseball at Florida State beginning in the 2008-2009 school year received a major scare in a high school football game on September 14th. He laid motionless on the field after being hit in the back of his neck. He was taken off on a stretcher but was back working out within 48 hours after it was only a brief scare. Long is the son of Howie Long who is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Long is expected to compete for a spot in the starting lineup in 2009 and might pitch for the Seminoles. The biggest challenge for Mike Martin Sr. with Long is going to be keeping him off of the football field as Long is a big recruit in football with his 6′7 280 pound frame. The full article on Kyle Long’s injury is available here.

Vandysports.com’s Mike Rapp sat down with Commodore Shortstop Ryan Flaherty. “Flash”, as the ‘07 3rd Team All-American (Rivals.com) Shortstop is known, was injured last week when a routine grounder took a freak hop and popped him in the eye.

Flaherty suffered a broken orbital bone, but is expected to return to practice in the next two weeks with the help of a protective facemask.

Flaherty is riding a VU record 35 game hitting streak into 2008. As a Sophomore, Flaherty hit .381, with 23 doubles, 59 runs and 57 RBI. He was named to Team USA and has had a stellar .969 Fielding Percentage each of the past two years. Flaherty led Vanderbilt in hitting (.339) as a true Freshman.

Flash is the son of College Baseball Hall of Famer Ed Flaherty, the head coach at Southern Maine University.

Rivals.com subscribers can read Mike Rapp’s article here.

Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com has confirmed what the College Baseball Blog passed along yesterday, that former Southern Cal coach Mike Gillespie has been hired to take on the UC-Irvine job.

The report breaks the news that Cal State Los Angeles coach Pat Shine will serve as an assistant to Gillespie and run the program. You can read Kendall Roger’s article here.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss baseball team takes its first step towards earning its sixth-straight postseason appearance, Monday, when the team begins its fall practice schedule.

The Golden Eagles, which finished 39-21 overall last season and were 14-10 in Conference USA play, earning them a third-place finish in league play and a s Southern Miss also played in the Oxford Regional, going 1-2 in that event as the program’s win mark reached at least 39 for each of the past five seasons.

Southern Miss baseball coach Corky Palmer welcomes 13 new players, along with 10 position players and eight pitchers who saw action from last year’s squad as practice opens at 2:30 p.m. at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

“We are very interested to see how our new players will do as we feel like we had a good recruiting class coming in this season,” said Palmer, who is starting his 11th season at the helm of the program. “There should be a lot of excitement as we get started because we also have a lot of players coming back from a year ago. Hopefully we will have a good fall practice to get us ready for the spring.”

The practice schedule for the Golden Eagles typically runs Monday through Friday with 2:30 p.m., start times. Southern Miss will occasionally scrimmage on Sundays. Those start times are 1:30 p.m.

The defending Big 12 Champion Texas A&M baseball team will play 39 home games in 2008, including 20 straight to start the year, head coach Rob Childress announced Monday.

Half of the Aggies’ games in 2008 will be played against teams who made the NCAA Tournament in 2007, including Ohio State, Arkansas, Rutgers, Oklahoma State, Rice, Baylor, Missouri, TCU, Sam Houston State, Nebraska and Texas. All but seven of A&M’s opponents return to the diamond off winning seasons.

Texas A&M Release.

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According to sources Coach Gillespie has decided to get back into coaching after 15 months lay off. It has not been made official yet but UC-Irvine will announce the new coach of the Anteaters as Mike Gillespie real soon. Coach Gillespie comes to UC-Irvine after spending 20 years at USC and winning a National Championship back in 1998. This sets up a family rivalry with USC as his son-in-law Chad Kreuter took over the Trojans job in 2007.

More Details to come soon.

The University of Illinois infielders Joe Bonadonna and Brandon Wikoff were recognized for their summer accomplishments. Bonadonna played for the Duluth Huskies in the Northwoods League where he received the Silver Glove Award (top defensive player) for second basemen. He was also named to the league’s post season All-Star team. Bonadonna also broke the Northwoods league record for stolen bases in a season with 45 in 56 attempts. Wikoff received accolades from Perfect Game Crosschecker as the 24th best prospect in the Northwoods League and picked up a spot on the post season All-Star team. The full release is available here.