FROM PRESS RELEASE
Ten teams that qualified for the 2007 NCAA tournament, including two that advanced to the College World Series, highlights a 56-game slate as the 2008 Kansas State baseball schedule was announced by head coach Brad Hill on Thursday.

Of the 56 games, 29 make up one of the most exciting home schedules in recent memory, which features 20 games against opponents that advanced to regional play in 2007 and three against College World Series participants UC-Irvine and Arizona State.

“This is one of the tougher schedules we’ve put together since I’ve been here,” said Hill, who is entering his fifth year at the helm of the program. “We wanted to challenge our kids more and prepare ourselves for postseason play, and this schedule should give us a good indication of where this program is at.”

The 2008 season gets underway on Feb. 22 in Berkeley, Calif., as the Wildcats will have two games with California – one of three Pac 10 teams on the schedule – and Santa Clara. Following the trip to Berkeley, K-State travels to Beaumont, Texas, on Feb. 28-March 2, for games with Arkansas State, Michigan State and host school Lamar. The Wildcats will then make a four-hour trip west for two games at UT-San Antonio.

Kansas State opens up its home schedule with four games against MAAC champion and NCAA tournament qualifier LeMoyne on March 7-9, followed by one game against Washington State on March 11 before opening up conference play on March 14-16 against Nebraska. The conference opener against Nebraska at Tointon Stadium marks the first time since 2002 that the Wildcats have opened conference play at home.

Following a two-game series in Provo, Utah, against Brigham Young on March 18 and 19, the Wildcats will begin a nine-game home stand – their longest of the season – with three games against Binghamton on March 21-23, one game against Creighton on March 26, its second conference opponent in Oklahoma State on March 28-30, and a two-game series against Central Arkansas on April 1 and 2.

K-State will hit the road in conference play for the first time on April 4-6 as it heads to College Station to take on Texas A&M, the first of seven-straight games against teams that qualified for the NCAA tournament. Following the three in College Station, K-State will host Wichita State on April 8 and Baylor on April 11-13, before heading to Omaha, Neb., to face Creighton on April 15.

KSU Press Release

2008 Schedule

The Arizona Wildcats have released their 2008 schedule. They will open the season on February 22nd when they head Georgia for the beginning of a three game set. The Wildcats home opener is against Sacramento State on February 29th. The next weekend they head to Corpus Christi Texas to take on South Alabama, Texas AM Corpus Christi, and Notre Dame. They will play a big nonconference series with a three game set against Cal-State Fullerton on March 14th-16th. They will play a full Pac-10 schedule with UCLA, Washington State, Stanford, and Arizona State visiting Tuscon. The Wildcats will head on the road for series against USC, Washington, Oregon State, and Cal. The full schedule is available here.

Kendall Rogers of Rivals has posted his latest mailbag where he discusses issues and questions about college baseball. This week he fields a question about the Arizona Wildcats, how UC-Irvine dragged their feet in the coaching search, checks in on some of the mid-majors around the nation, and has a nice response about why ESPN does not cover more college baseball. The full article is available here.

Rivals has released their positional rankings for the 2008 season. The top ranked catcher in the country is Buster Posey of Florida State. They ranked Jacob Thompson as the top pitcher in the country and will get no argument from me as I had the chance to see him in 2007 dominate Boston College. The full rankings are available by clicking here.

We have found two new schedules from the Northeast 10 conference which is one of only two conferences in the country that uses wooden bats during their regular season. The Northeast 10 conference has been dominated by Franklin Pierce University the last few seasons with UMass-Lowell and Bryant University also picking up some NCAA bids. The schedules are linked below.

Bryant University
Assumption College

Here is your update on Fall Baseball Scrimmage Action for October 16th. Click on the links below for more information.

Notre Dame (Video also available at the site)
Illinois State
Tulane
Georgia Tech
Memphis
Dartmouth vs Umass

The Kent State Baseball program has announced their 2008 schedule. They will open the season on February 22nd when they take on UNC-Greensboro in the first game of a three game set. The Golden Flashes will spend the next weekend at the Winthrop Tournament where they will play four games in four days against the host Winthrop, St. John’s, North Carolina and a placement game to end the weekend. The Golden Flashes final two weekend OOC series are at Washington State and Louisville. The conference schedule has trips to Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Bowling Green, Akron, and Miami (OH) with home series against Ball State, Toledo, Ohio, and Buffalo. The full schedule is available here.

The Cal Bears released their 2008 schedule recently which is highlighted by taking part in a tournament in San Diego where they will take on USD, Fresno State, SDSU, and Missouri. They will play a full Pac-10 schedule with UCLA, Arizona, Washington, and Oregon State visiting Berkley while Washington State, USC, Arizona State, and Stanford will welcome the Bears to their stadiums. The full schedule is available here.

Many schools are finishing up their fall seasons with intra-squad scrimmages. We have linked to all the weekend recaps below.

Wake Forest (Game 2)
Wake Forest (Game 1)
Indiana Fall Recap
Southeast Missouri State (Game 2)
Southeast Missouri State (Game 1)
Marshall Fall Series Recap
Villanova Fall Series Recap
UNC Fall Series Recap
Illinois State Fall Series Recap
Michigan State Fall Series Recap

I went to the game at the Dell Diamond between the Longhorns and the Baylor Bears. Baylor will make some noise next year in the BIG 12 and the Regionals. Look for Baylor to be in that top 16 seed as the seeding are announced next year. I know it is early but, Baylor is that good. What does this say about Texas. ALOT. I wish it was Friday February 22nd right now. Both of these teams will only get better as the fall season progress.

Press Release from Texas;

– The University of Texas baseball squad posted a 5-3 win over Baylor University in a fall exhibition Sunday at The Dell Diamond. Freshman Kevin Keyes and junior Jordan Danks hit home runs to lead the Longhorns to the victory in a pre-arranged 12-inning affair.

On the mound for Texas, junior Austin Wood, the Longhorns’ starter, and freshman Cole Green each pitched two scoreless innings. Junior Kyle Walker and freshman Stayton Thomas pitched one shutout inning apiece. Walker picked up the win, giving up one hit and one walk while striking out one. Green earned the save, scattering three hits over two innings, while fanning two.

Baylor broke the scoring seal in the third inning. Paul Miles hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a groundout by Ben Booker and scored on a single to rightfield by Raynor Campbell.

The Longhorns claimed the lead in the bottom half of the third. Freshman Tant Shepherd led off with an infield single and freshman Cameron Rupp grounded into a fielder’s choice to take Shepherd’s spot at first. In his first at-bat against collegiate pitching, Keyes deposited a home run over the fence in leftfield, staking UT to a 2-1 lead.

The Bears tied the game in the top of the sixth with a solo home run to right field by Aaron Miller, knotting the game at 2-2.

Texas reclaimed the advantage in the bottom of the seventh as Danks hit a moon shot over the fence in leftfield, giving UT a 3-2 advantage.

Texas tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the ninth. With one out, Danks was hit by a pitch and junior Preston Clark singled through the left side to put runners at the corners. Sophomore Russell Moldenhauer plated Danks with a sacrifice squeeze bunt and sophomore Brandon Belt hit a double off the wall in left centerfield, driving in Clark for the 5-2 advantage.

Baylor scored the games final run in the 10th inning as Miller hit an RBI double to drive in Landis Ware.

Travis Tucker, Michael Torres and Clark each had two hits for the Longhorns.

Beamer Weems and Shaver Hansen each logged three hits for Baylor and Booker and Miller chipped in with two apiece.

Texas returns to action at 3 p.m., CDT on Friday, October 26 against Texas State at The Dell Diamond.

www.texassports.com

Here is the link to the pictures that I took from the game.

The Plowboys used a three-run third and a six-run fourth to break an early tie and defeat the Roughnecks, 13-5, and capture the Texas A&M Baseball Fall World Series title Saturday afternoon at Olsen Field.

The series sweep gives the Plowboys their second straight fall world series crown, as they defeated the Farmers in three games in 2006.

“The Plowboys really came out early and set the tone offensively, and got a strong start from (Clayton) Ehlert,” head coach Rob Childress said. “When you come out and average over 10 runs and 14 hits a game, it’s easy to see why they were able to win this series in two.”

Roughneck second baseman Blake Stouffer opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with a two-out solo home run to right center, but the Plowboys answered in their next at bat as Caleb Shofner singled in Brodie Greene with the tying run.

The Plowboys would add three runs in the third to take a 4-1 lead when Greene doubled in a pair and Shofner followed with a run-scoring single to right center.

The game would be put out of reach in the top of the fourth, when the Plowboys sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six runs off three Roughneck pitchers to take a commanding 10-1 lead. David Alleman, Brian Ruggiano, Greene, Michael Heard and Ben Feltner all would drive in runs in the frame.

Trailing 13-1 in the seventh, the Roughnecks would cap the scoring on a two-out grand slam home run by center fielder Kyle Colligan.

Plowboys’ starter Clayton Ehlert tossed six strong innings, giving up just five hits and the first inning home run. He did not walk a batter and fanned four.

Roughnecks’ starter Kyle Thebeau suffered the loss, lasting three innings while allowing four runs and seven hits.

The world series marked the conclusion of fall workouts for the defending Big 12 Champion Aggies, who now look to the season opener on February 22 against Northern Colorado.

“This was a good fall for us,” Childress said. “We worked hard and saw a lot of good things, along with this we’ll need to work on before the start of the year. I know the guys will work hard in the upcoming offseason and they’ll be ready to go when it’s time to lace up the cleats again in February.”

TEXAS A&M Release

For the first game story Click Here

From Simmons Field

Opponents by conference

Big XII
Baylor (3)
Kansas (4)
Kansas State (3)
Nebraska (3)
Oklahoma (3)
Oklahoma State (3)
Texas (3)
Texas A&M (3)
Texas Tech (3)

Missouri Valley
Creighton
Indiana State (4)
Missouri State (2)
Southern Illinois

Big 10
Michigan State
Minnesota (2)

Ohio Valley
Eastern Illinois
Southeastern Missouri St

Mid-American
Toledo (3)

Independent
South Dakota State (2)

Mid-Continent
Western Illinois (2)

Big East
Connecticut

Big West
Cal Poly

CUSA
Central Florida

PAC 10
California

West Coast
San Diego

For the full Schedule click here

FROM PRESS RELEASE
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Team Gray came from a run down in the bottom of the seventh inning to score two runs and win Game 4 of the Scarlet and Gray World Series, 5-4, Thursday at Bill Davis Stadium. The deciding Game 5 will be played at 3 p.m. Friday and admission is free.

It was a game that started off slow with a slight rain in the air and Gray pitcher Theron Minium in control. Behind an early three-run lead, Minium cruised through his six innings of work, allowing just four hits and one earned run with no walks and one strikeout.

He was replaced in the seventh by Rory Meister and Team Scarlet took advantage by scoring three runs off three hits and one error to take a 4-3 lead. All the scoring occurred with two outs and all of the runs were unearned. Tony Kennedy reached on an error and back-to-back walks loaded the bases. Cory Ruppert lined a single to score two runs and Ryan Dew followed with an RBI single to give the Scarlet its first lead of the game.

But back came the Gray, which was down two games to none at one point in the series but has fought back to force Game 5. The first three batters – Nathan Grove, Cory Kovanda and J.B. Shuck – all coaxed walks off Scarlet reliever Brad Hays. Brad Brookbank signaled to left scoring Grove but Kovanda was out at the plate on a fine throw by Michael Arp. Shuck alertly went to third on the throw home, and he scored the winning run when Zach Hurley hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield.

“The Gray did a nice job coming back to win this game,” coach Bob Todd said. “Theron Minium pitched a real nice game and they led the whole game. They showed some character coming back to win and force a Game 5 after losing that lead in the seventh inning.”

The Gray opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Kovanda led off with a walk, advanced to second on a groundout and scored on a single to right by Zach Hurley. Gray coach Pete Jenkins then called for a hit-and-run and the execution was perfect as Tyler Engle drilled a double down the left field line and Hurley rounded the bases to score from first.

Team Gray increased the lead to 3-0 in the third with an unearned run. Brookbank reached on an error on the pitcher, moved to third on back-to-back walks and scored on a single to right by Brian DeLucia. Scarlet right fielder Ryan Dew threw out Hurley, who was trying to score on the play from second.

Meanwhile, Minium was easing his way through the first five innings with shutout baseball. He finally surrendered a run in the sixth to the Scarlet, allowing singles by Rupert and Dew with a run scoring on a double play ball, but that did little to dampen his effort on a moist and soggy day at Bill Davis Stadium.

Meister picked up the win while Hays took the loss. Offensively, Ruppert and Dew combined for four hits and three RBI to lead the Scarlet. Ben Toussant also had a pair of hits. No one on the Gray team had more than one hit, but the top four players in the order all scored runs. Hurley had two RBI.

Scarlet and Gray World Series Notes:

• Cory Kovanda is leading all hitters with a .583 average (7-12) and with five runs scored for the Gray.
• The Gray’s Zach Hurley has four RBI and is second to Kovanda with a .417 average (5-12)
• Gray pitchers have a 4.08 earned run average and have allowed 13 earned runs and 11 walks in 28.2 innings with 11 strikeouts.
• Matt Streng and Ryan Dew are leading the Scarlet offensively with .455 and .429 averages, respectively. Streng is 5-for-11 at the plate and Dew is 6-for-14.
• Dew, Cory Ruppert and Ben Toussant have three RBI apiece.
• The pitching staff has a 4.40 ERA with 23 walks and 18 strikeouts in 28.2 innings of work.
• Admission is free to Game 5 of the Scarlet and Gray World Series at 3 p.m. Friday at Bill Davis Stadium.

Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com checks in on Mike Bianco’s Rebel workouts in the Fall. The article (found here) includes Bianco’s reaction to Ole Miss’ historical bad luck in the Super Regionals and the joys of added depth.

After a Supers exit to Arizona State last year, this member of the College Baseball Blog sees redemption for the Rebs (no, the South isn’t rising again) as the SEC team to beat. Lance Lynn and Cody Satterwhite will be the closest thing to this year’s version of the David Price - Casey Weathers combo that Vanderbilt wore to a #1 ranking. Add in solid pitching and positional depth, and the Rebs are well positions to be the #1 seed in the SEC West when the conference descends on Hoover.

The Boston College Eagles have released their 2008 schedule which begins with a three game set against Georgia Southern which starts on February 22nd. Boston College then will play their annual game against the Boston Red Sox on February 29th. The Eagles will then play four games in two days against Mount St. Mary’s, St. Bonaventure, Lehigh, and Notre Dame in Palm Beach, Florida. They will then make a trip to Florida International for a three game set before heading down to Coral Gables to take on the Miami Hurricanes in both team’s conference opener. BC will play 31 games in the ACC conference in 2008 with other road series with Clemson, Georgia Tech, Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, and a single game with former BC head coach Pete Hughes with the Virginia Tech Hokies. BC will host Florida State, Duke, Wake Forest, and Maryland in their only home ACC series. Boston College will also take part in the Beanpot at Fenway Park on April 16th when they take on Northeastern and will play the championship game on April 23rd. The full schedule is available here.

UPDATE: BC will be hosting Georgia Tech as BC Media Relations made a mistake in the schedule.