The West Coast Conference announced the 2008 Preseason Conference Poll as selected by the coaches. San Diego is selected to finish in first place as they received seven out of a possible eight first place votes with Santa Clara getting the other one. Pepperdine comes in second place followed by Santa Clara in third place. The conference should be decided by these three schools as they all return veteran squads. The rest of the poll is filled with LMU, Gonzaga, San Francisco, Portland, and St. Mary’s. The full press release is available by clicking here.

FROM PRESS RELEASE
AUBURN, Ala. - The start of the baseball season is nearly upon us as the Auburn baseball team will hold its first team practice of the spring on Friday, Feb. 1. All Friday, Saturday and Sunday practices are open to the public while the weekday practices will be closed. The Tigers will play host to East Tennessee State in a four-game series, beginning at 3pm on Friday, Feb. 22, opening day for college baseball across the country. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM PRESS RELEASE
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Entering his eighth season at the helm of Maryland baseball, head coach Terry Rupp feels the 2008 Terrapin team is his most talented yet.

With an upperclassmen-heavy roster already in place, Rupp has added a solid group of freshmen and transfers to the squad, giving the team the flexibility in all aspects of the game that has not been seen in College Park, Md. for a long time. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM PRESS RELEASE
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The University of San Diego baseball team has been ranked No. 5 in the Rivals.com preseason top-25 poll it was announced Monday morning. This marks the highest preseason ranking in the history of the program.

San Diego is coming off the heals of the best season in program history with a 43-18 record, the first 40-win season in the history of USD baseball. The Toreros won their third West Coast Conference championship, received a program-best No. 4 national ranking and a program-first No. 8 national seed in the NCAA Regionals. Read the rest of this entry »

The Tallahassee Democrat writer Steve Ellis checks in with a season preview of the Florida State Seminoles. They lost 24 victories in Michael Hyde and Bryan Henry who graduated. They will be replaced by JC transfer Elih Villanueva and a bunch of sophomores to battle for the other spots in the rotation. FSU will need to replace All-American second baseman Tony Thomas Jr. but have picked up transfer Tony Delmonico from Tennessee. The full article is available here.

Kendall Rogers has continue with his reviews of this year top teams. He has done a very good job in talking to the coaches and doing his research on this year teams.

Coming in at # 6

Coming in at #7

Coming in at #8

Coming in at #9

Coming in at #10

Finally number #11

Point Loma Nazarene has set up video webcasts of all their home games with B2 Networks. Two games that should be worth watching are against Azusa Pacific on Feb. 9. The first game starts at 11 AM PST.

Embry-Riddle is webcasting at least some of their home games with Eagle Vision. They have a series coming up with Tennessee Wesleyan on Feb. 1 at 4 PM EST, and Feb. 2 at noon EST (double-header).

Both services are pay-per-view. B2 Networks charges about $6.

Wofford baseball player Charles Tutan Eller allegedly trying run a lady off the road on Wednesday evening. He is facing charges of Assault and Battery of a High and Aggravated Nature. Eller told police according to media reports that he was too drunk to remember the incident. The full article is available here from the Spartansburg Herald-Journal.

The Temple Media Relations department put out a season preview. Head Coach Rob Valli is enterning his third season in charge of the Owls program. He has struggled in his first two seasons but returns a veteran team loaded with pitchers and a solid group of position players. The preview is available here. We talked with Rob Valli last week about his program and our interview is available by clicking here.

The College Baseball Blog continues our series of interviews with head coaches with Mik Aoki of Boston College. He is entering his second season as the head coach of the BC program. He led them to a 24-27-1 record including a conference mark of 12-17 which was only 1.5 games out of eighth place. The Eagles return two weekend starters in Terry Doyle and Dan Houston but lost a ton of position players to graduation so there is some roster spots to fill. Read the rest of this entry »

Chris Moon graduated from Tucson High School last May as the best player on the nation’s most historically successful high school baseball team.

Moon, a star pitcher, and an even better hitting prospect, spent the summer on a local American Legion team that went to the World Series. There, he won the event’s Home Run Derby.

He started this school year on a baseball scholarship as a freshman at the UA, rated by some as the No. 1 college baseball team in the nation this preseason.

To read the rest of the article go here.

We love how every organization puts out a Top 25 poll. The latest is the USA Today/ESPN Preseason Coaches poll  with Arizona State taking the top spot. North Carolina, South Carolina, Rice, and Arizona round out the Top 5. The USA Today poll makes more sense as FSU is ranked 12th and Baseball America has them unranked. The full USA Today poll is available here with a breakdown of each squad.

The Bryant University Media Relations department has put out a great season preview for the 2008 season. Bryant is entering their final season as members of Division 2 as next season they will start the transition to moving to Division 1. Bryant made the Northeast Regional final in 2007 where they lost to Northeast 10 conference rival Franklin Pierce in an intense Regional Final. (A full CBB article about the game is available here) Bryant returns the Northeast Region top pitcher in Eric Loh. He will have two strong starters with Kevin Cobb and Dan Lozeau. The Bulldogs also have the Bryant career leader and two time conference selection Adam Vuolo returning for his senior season. The problem with the Bulldogs in 2007 was the lack of offense as many of their hitters should considerable weaknesses at the plate. Bryant will bring back sophomore catcher Jeff Vigurs and junior second baseman Dave Muscatello who showed some excellent skills in the field during a our visit. The full preview from Bryant is available here.

Hat Tip to Summer Ball for finding this article before us.

The Illinois State Media Relations Department checks in with Week 2 of the season preview this week focusing on the Infield. Mike Stalowy is the top returning infielder after having a disappointing 2007 season where he hit .300 with four doubles, a triple, and 11 RBI. He will continue to play every position in the infield including first base at the beginning of the season as he is recovering from off season shoulder surgery. Kyle Cherney is the only healthy senior in the infield but had a disastrous 2007 campaign which saw him struggle at the plate with a .194 batting average. The full preview is available here.

Shawn Shroyer of The University Daily Kansan checks in with a great interview with Ritch Price. He discusses how the uniform start date has affected his program which is making him a pain to his wife. Price also discusses the new caps his team will wear during some of the games which are inspired by some Montreal Expos uniforms. The full interview is available here.

Kansas has announced two transfers for 2008 with two left handed pitchers in Sam Freeman and Daniel Manos joining the program. Freeman comes over from North Central Texas College where he went 10-1 with a 3.20 ERA in 2007. Manos comes over from Santa Ana College (CA) where he went 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA in 17 appearances. The full release is available here.