Four in-season tournaments, including the annual Baseball at the Beach at BB&T Coastal Field, 13 games against Atlantic Coast Conference competition, midweek games at traditional powers and 21 Big South Conference games highlight the 2008 Coastal Carolina University baseball schedule, annouced today (Oct. 29) by head coach Gary Gilmore.

The University of Alabama announced its 2008 baseball schedule today, which features 33 games in the state of Alabama and 20 games against teams that played in the 2007 NCAA Regionals, Super Regionals and College World Series.

The recent changes to the college baseball schedules have forced teams to play more games in a shorter period of time, creating five-game weeks for most teams throughout the country. Alabama is no different and the complexity of the schedule will have the Tide playing 26 road games this season, the most under head coach Jim Wells and the most by UA since playing 26 road games during the 1994 season.

“It was a very challenging schedule to put together due to the change in the format of the season,” Alabama head coach Jim Wells said. “First of all, we play in the toughest league in the country, then on top of that to have to play two midweek games makes it even more difficult.

“The NCAA’s uniform start date for all teams is Feb. 22, so we lost two weekends of baseball that we used to have,” Wells added. “I think we have a good schedule and we are playing some really good teams. We are on the road quite a bit this year, but most of the road games are in the state of Alabama against some really good in-state teams. We are excited to be going to Florence, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile and Jacksonville to showcase the Crimson Tide baseball program. I think that is a good thing.”

The Crimson Tide will play 30 home games this season, including 15 non-conference games and 15 SEC games.

The non-conference home schedule includes series with Cal Poly (Feb. 22-24), Youngstown State (March 7-9) and New Orleans (March 18-19). The Crimson Tide will also play single games against Troy (March 5), Samford (March 12), Jacksonville State (March 25), UAB (April 1), Mississippi Valley State (April 8), SE Louisiana (April 9) and Lipscomb (April 22).

Alabama’s 2008 SEC home schedule features defending SEC Champion Vanderbilt (March 21-23), Ole Miss (March 28-30), Mississippi State (April 18-20), Auburn (April 25-27) and Florida (May 9-11).

Press Release

Schedule

The Vanderbilt Commodores finished up the Black and Gold Scrimmage over the weekend with the Gold team winning Game 1 by a score of 7-4. The Gold team was led by All-American Pedro Alvarez who went 2-4 including a homer with 2 RBI. Nick Christiani started the game for the Gold team going five strong innings while only allowing two hits to get the victory. Brett Jacobsen started for the Black squad and lasted five innings while giving up three runs on six hits. The leading hitter for the Black team was Parker Hanks who went 2-4. Game 2 was won by the Black team 7-4. The team was led by a very strong pitching performance from Mike Minor who pitched five no-hit innings while allowing only one walk to dominate the Gold lineup. Parker Hanks led the Black team again with three hits and three RBI in five at-bats. Dominic de la Osa led the Gold team in a losing effort by going 2-3. The final and deciding game on Sunday was won by the Gold team 6-2. The team was led on offense by Gabe Ortiz who went 2-4 with 3 RBI. We have linked to interviews and recaps from each day of the Fall Series below.

Game 1: Recap
Game 1″ Box Score
Game 1: Photo Gallery
Game 1: Interview with Nick Christiani

Game 2: Recap
Game 2: Box Score
Game 2: Interview with Tim Corbin

Game 3: Recap
Game 3: Box Score
Game 3: Interview with Tim Corbin
Game 3: Interview with De la Osa

-Valley Baseball League Press Release-

For the second year in a row, the Most Valuable Player of the Major League Baseball World Series is a Valley Baseball League alum as third baseman Mike Lowell led the Boston Red Sox to the title in 2007.

Lowell played for the Waynesboro Generals in the Valley League in 1993. Two VBL alumni were also on the Boston roster as relief pitchers for the postseason. Javier Lopez played for the New Market Rebels in 1996 and Kyle Snyder competed for the Winchester Royals in 1997.

The 2007 series marks the second straight year that a former VBL player has been named World Series MVP. In 2006, former Harrisonburg Turks infielder David Eckstein led the St. Louis Cardinals to the title.

Lowell hit .400 in 15 at bats in the series with three doubles, one home run, and four RBIs as the Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies 4-0. For the postseason, he hit .353 with 18 hits, seven doubles, two home runs, and 15 RBIs. In the regular season, he hit .324 in 154 games with 37 doubles, 21 home runs, and 120 RBIs. It was the second World Series championship for the Puerto Rican native, who also helped the Florida Marlins to a title in 2003.

Lopez appeared in five games for the Red Sox in the postseason and pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and four runs. He appeared in one game during the World Series with two hits allowed. For the season, Lopez went 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA and ranked second for the Red Sox with 61 appearances.

Snyder did not make an appearance in the postseason for the Red Sox. During the regular season, he was 2-3 in 46 appearances with a 3.81 ERA in 54 1/3 innings.

FROM PRESS RELEASE
The University of Texas baseball squad dropped an exhibition game to Texas State University, 4-3, Friday afternoon at The Dell Diamond in Round Rock.

For the rest of my pictures click HERE.

Doug Kroll of CSTV has released his top 25 poll based on Fall practices. It’s worth checking out. Arizona State is listed as the top team. We will see about that.

Click here for the article.

The University of California-Santa Barbara has released the 2008 schedule. The Gauchos will open the season on February 22nd against Marist in the beginning of a three game set. The next weekend the team will travel to Loyola Marymount for a four game set over three days. They will also head to Houston and host Southern Utah, St. Mary’s, and USC in OOC weekend series. The Gauchos will play a 24 game conference schedule with Cal-State Northridge, UC-Davis, Cal-State Fullerton, and UC-Riverside all visiting Santa Barbara. The team will have conference road series against UC-Irvine, Long Beach State, Cal-Poly, and Pacific. The full schedule is available here.

An impressive home schedule, 27 games against NCAA Tournament teams and a season-opening trip to national power Stanford highlight the 2008 Nebraska baseball schedule released Thursday.

The Huskers, who reached the title game of an NCAA Regional for the sixth time in the last eight seasons in 2007, will be tested against a slate that features five teams – Arkansas, Texas, Wichita State, Texas A&M and Missouri – which were No. 1 seeds in the 2007 NCAA Tournament.

According to Head Coach Mike Anderson, the Huskers’ non-conference schedule, which also features NCAA qualifiers UC Riverside, Louisiana-Lafayette and Creighton, will prepare Nebraska for the rigors of Big 12 action. Anderson credited the Huskers’ tough non-conference slate in 2007 as a key reason the Big Red reached postseason play for the seventh time in the last eight seasons.

“We’re going to challenge ourselves again with this schedule,” Anderson said. “We understand that, but it was worth it to get our team ready for the postseason.”

“Last year was an example where playing a tough schedule paid off in getting into the NCAA Tournament,” Anderson said. “Because of the tough non-conference schedule we played and the wins against good teams outside of the Big 12, it not only helped us prepare for the conference, but also helped us in the NCAA Regional.”

The 55-game regular-season schedule includes 32 home games, including a four-game series with NCAA qualifier UC Riverside to open the home schedule on Feb. 29. Other marquee non-conference tilts include a two-game series with SEC power Arkansas (March 18-19), a three-game series against Louisiana-Lafayette (May 2-4) and single games against Wichita State (April 15) and Creighton (April 22).

The Huskers open the 2008 season at Stanford’s Sunken Diamond for a four-game series with the Cardinal Feb. 22-24. It marks the Huskers’ first trip to Stanford since the 2000 Super Regional. One week later, the Huskers will open the home campaign with another familiar foe, as UC Riverside visits Hawks Field for a four-game series. The Huskers took on the Highlanders, who won the Big West Conference title in 2007, at the Tempe Regional last June. The four-game set begins a 10-game homestand prior to the Huskers’ Big 12 opener at Kansas State on March 14.

Following the series at K-State, Nebraska begins a seven-game homestand with a bang, as Arkansas makes its first-ever visit to Hawks Field for a two-game series on March 18-19. The week continues with a key Big 12 Conference series against Oklahoma and two games against Northern Colorado. The Huskers wrap up the month with a series at defending Big 12 regular-season champion Texas.

The month of April is heavy into conference action, as NU hosts Texas Tech (April 4-6) and Kansas (April 18-20) and travels to Oklahoma State (April 11-13) and Baylor (April 25-27). The Huskers will play several midweek contests including the first two games of a three-game series with Creighton (April 1 and April 22) as well as matchups with Iowa (April 8), Wichita State (April 15) and two games against Western Illinois (April 29-30) which begin NU’s final homestand of the year.

The Huskers will spend the first two weekends of May at Hawks Field, hosting Louisiana-Lafayette (May 2-4) and Big 12 Tournament champion Texas A&M (May 9-11) in the final home weekend of the regular-season. NU wraps up its three-game series with Creighton in the annual game at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium on Tuesday, May 13, before closing conference play at Missouri on May 16-18.

Postseason play begins with the annual Big 12 Tournament at the Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City from May 21-25 before NCAA Regionals (May 30-June 2), NCAA Super Regionals (June 6-9) and the College World Series (June 14-25) at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Press Release

For the full Schedule

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss baseball coach Corky Palmer has announced that the annual Black and Gold game will be held this Saturday (Oct. 27), at 1:30 p.m., at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field.

The game will conclude the Golden Eagles five weeks of fall practice and give fans a sneak preview of the 2008 squad. Nineteen letterwinners return from last year’s squad that finished 39-21 - 14-10 in Conference USA, which was good for 3rd place - and reached the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season.

“This game is for our kids, and gives them a chance to play in front of the community as well as the parents and our fans,” said Southern Miss coach Corky Palmer. “From what I have seen this fall, we have a good pitching staff and some offensive threats. Our seven through nine (spots in the order) could be a problem. At this point, I have no idea who is going to play third (base) or leftfield going into the year as those positions are up for grabs, but the rest of the positions are pretty solid.”

The Golden Eagles also went through the fall without the services of two of its players, including senior Trey Sutton (Hattiesburg, Miss.) and junior James Ewing (Beaumont, Texas). Sutton has not participated in any of the fall drills because of a left knee injury that he sustained in last year’s Conference USA tournament, while Ewing has been limited to defensive duties only due to a back injury.

Palmer, though, has lauded the pitching he has seen this fall including senior Barry Bowden (Vidalia, La.), senior David Clark (Columbia, Miss.) and junior transfer from LSU-Eunice, Josh Billeaud (Scott, La.), while the 10th-year coach has also seen some bright spots in his freshman class.

“Anthony Doss (Brandon, Miss.) and Austin Davis (Meridian, Miss.) have played real well and am real happy with the way they have played as true freshmen.”

Here is the CBB Fall Ball update for October 24th. Click on the links below for the full articles.

Utah: Wrapping up Fall workouts
Wright State: Fall World Series Update
Vanderbilt: Feinberg Interview
UNLV: Beuerlein Right in Line
Washington: Fall World Series Update
Oregon State: Fall World Series Update from Daily Barometer
LSU: Gold takes Game 2 of Intersquad Series from Daily Reveille

The Fighting Illini have announced their 2008 schedule which is highlighted by trips to Texas Tech, Baylor, and University of Texas-Pan American. The team will take part in tournaments at Baylor and UTPA while playing a three game set against the Red Raiders of Texas Tech. The team will make their annual spring break trip to Florida from March 14th-21st where they will play six games against Northern schools. The Illini will play conference home series against Michigan, Penn State, Northwestern, and Purdue. They will head on the road to play Michigan State, Indiana, Minnesota, and Ohio State for conference series. The conference tournament will take place from May 21st-24th at the regular season champs field. The full schedule is available here.

The University of Nevada-Las Vegas has announced their 2008 baseball schedule. The Rebels will open the season on February 22nd when Central Michigan begins a three game set in Vegas. The Rebels will also play two home games against Washington State and a three game series against Maine before heading on the road to play Arizona. They will also host WCC power San Francisco and head to Cal-State Fullerton before heading into conference play. The full schedule is available here.

Jeff Francis is set to start for the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday Night in Game 1 of the World Series. He has pitched in two games in the playoff run where he has a 2-0 record with a 2.13 ERA. Hitters are only hitting a paltry .213 against the lanky lefty. Francis was a standout player with the University of British Columbia where he was drafted out of in the first round. Tbirdbaseball.net sent us a video of an interview done with the CBC about Francis which can be watched by clicking here.

Bobby Moranda has started up fall practice with his Western Carolina squad. He is entering his first season as the head coach of the Catamount program. He was with the Georgia Tech program for six seasons under Danny Hall. Asheville Citizen-Times writer Tyler Norris Goode checked in on Fall practice recently where he recognized a change in philosophy. The full article is available here.

After two weekend games, the best-of-five Purple-White World Series is tied at one game all.

Each team had impressive showings in its respective victories, with the Purple-clad Horned Frogs taking game one, 7-2. The White team answered with a 7-0 win Saturday.

Head coach Jim Schlossnagle said he liked the way freshman second baseman Aaron Schultz looked at the plate for the White team through the first two games. Schultz had a hit in each game.

On the pitching side, Saturday’s starters, freshman right-hander Greg Holle and sophomore left-hander Derek VerHagen, stood out for Schlossnagle.

Holle pitched 4 2-3 innings and allowed two hits and two walks in the shutout for the White team during game two. VerHagen received no run support, surrendering two runs on four hits for the Purple team. The lefty also had seven strikeouts.

For the Purple team, sophomore right-hander Tyler Lockwood racked up five innings in relief of junior right-hander Andrew Cashner, a transfer from Angelina College.

Article

Game 1 Recap

Game 2 Recap