The Florida State Seminoles will be heading to Omaha for the 19th time in school history and the 13th time under head coach Mark Martin Sr. without winning a title. They have a current record of 54-12 after losing to Bucknell (7-0) in the opener of the Tallahassee Regional before reeling off victories over Florida (17-11), Bucknell (24-9), Tulane (17-8 and 16-7). The Seminoles then hosted Wichita State in the Super Regionals where they lost the first game 10-7 before winning the final two games by scores of 14-4 and 11-4 to qualify for the College World Series. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 College World Series, 2008 NCAA Tourney, ACC, CBB Column, FSU

The Miami (FL) Hurricanes will be making their 23rd College World Series appearance and 11th under head coach Jim Morris. The Hurricanes enter Omaha with a 52-9 overall record after taking the final two games of the Super Regional against the Arizona Wildcats (6-3 L, 14-10 W, 4-2 W). The Hurricanes swept through the Coral Gables Regional with victories over Bethune Cookman (7-4), Missouri (6-5), and Ole Miss (11-2). Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 College World Series, 2008 NCAA Tourney, ACC, Miami (FL)

By Willie Nicklaus

Florida State’s Buster Posey is the ACC Player of the Year and was the 5th pick of the 1st round.

Charlotte’s Chris Taylor, was named the Atlantic 10 Baseball Co-Player of the Year, and was drafted in the 45th round by the Cardinals. From the Atlantic Sun, Florida Gulf Coast’s Jason Peacock won the league’s top individual award, and was selected by the Florida Marlins with the 778th pick in the 26th round. From Big Ten Champion Michigan, senior Nate Recknagel was honored as Player of the Year and was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 19th round. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: CBB Column, MLB, MLB Draft

Although High Schoolers Tim Beckham, Eric Hosmer and Kyle Skipworth were chosen 1st (Tampa), 3rd (Royals) and 6th (Marlins), College platers dominated the top of the draft on Thursday.  Leading the way were a crop of powerful position players, including an inordinate number of 1st basemen and a distinct lack of pitchers. 

Of the first 27 players taken in the draft, 20 were from the college ranks.  Interestingly enough, 15 of the first 18 players selected were position players, a rare split in a first year player draft.  But this was a crop of talented bats, with 11 catchers, firstbasemen and third sackers of those first 18 picks. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: MLB Draft

Aman Reaka and myself have been accumulating a bunch of questions from our readers over the past few weeks about the upcoming MLB draft. We have picked out the five best questions that have been sent to us and have answered them below. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, Big Ten, Bryant, CBB Column, CBB Interview, Division 2, Division 3, FSU, Michigan, MLB Draft, Pac 10, SEC, South Carolina, Tampa, Trinity Unversity, Wake Forest, Washington State

I asked all our writers for their thoughts on what teams would make the College World Series in Omaha. Our writers have some interesting views of the Tournament with some people picking Dallas Baptist to make it to Omaha which would be a huge shocker for me. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 College World Series, 2008 NCAA Tourney, CBB Column, CWS Preview

By Willie Nicklaus

Thought this would be a good time to do a follow up on some of the freshmen who have been contributing to their respective teams, as the regular portion of the season has concluded and conference tourneys are ready to begin.

I like to use OPS percentage as a gauge as the equation includes power factors as well as on-base frequency. I have also included the HR and Extra-base hits frequencies to show a player propensity for delivering a big hit. With the conferences getting ready to do battle this week, we included the overall batting averages and also batting averages in conference play only. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2010 Top Players, ACC, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Big 12, Big East, Big South, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, CBB Column, Coastal Carolina, Conference USA, Florida, GT, Kent State, LSU, MAC, Middle Tennessee, Rice, SEC, Tennessee, Texas, University of San Diego, West Coast Conference, West Virginia

Texas went into this series with A&M looking to improve its RPI standing and it overall record. If you would have told me 4 weeks ago or even 2 weeks ago that Texas will come out of this series sweeping all 3 games I would have told you there is no chance at all. Texas got a great outing from Chance Ruffin on Friday night, then the pitching staff received the biggest boost when Austin Wood threw his first career complete game on Saturday night. Texas A&M went into this series just needing 1 win to clinch the BIG 12 regular season title outright, but standing in their way was 6′10″ Kenn Kasparek. Kenn was coming off a stretch where in his last three outing was beginning to look like Kenn of old. With the 14 day lay off between his last outing and today he was showing signs of rust. Kenn had just enough to keep the Aggie hitters off balance only allowing 5 hits and 3 runs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big 12, CBB Column, Texas, Texas AM

The Big 12 race is coming down to the last day. A&M is sitting on top with a league record 19-7 while OSU is in 2nd with a 18-8 record and Nebraska is in 3rd with a 17-8 record. All A&M has to do is to win 1 Game but standing in their way is their arch rival Texas. Texas has come out and took the first two games by identical score of 5-2. Texas has gotten timely hitting to go along with great defense and pitching. in Yesterdays game Austin Wood pitched his first career complete game.  Texas has shown that they are getting their pieces of the puzzle together just in time for tournament time.

Oklahoma State has taken the first two games from OU and is sitting in 2nd place needing a lost by A&M and to win on Sunday. OSU has the tie breaker over A&M and will be the #1 seed come Tournament time.

Nebraska went to the weekend series needing A&M to lose 2 games and to take care of Business against the Tigers of Missouri. Missouri came out swinging in game 1 and in game 2 to the score of 8-1 and 22-9.

The 4th and 5th place have been determine with Missouri the 4th seed and Texas the 5th seed. The top 3 and the bottom half of the conference will be worked out today.

The BIG 12 tournament will start on Wednesday from the Bricktown in Oklahoma City.

Texas Recap

Texas A&M Recap

Texas Tech Recap

Baylor Recap

Missouri Recap

Nebraska Recap

Oklahoma Recap

Oklahoma State Recap

Kansas Recap

Kansas State Recap

Tags: Baylor, Big 12, Big 12 Recap, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas AM, Texas Tech

With just two weeks of conference play remaining and no conference tournament, the Pac-10 championship is still within reach of several teams. Arizona State is currently in first place with a one game lead over Stanford, while Washington is another one game back in third place. Cal and Oregon State are tied for fourth place, however they both have only three conference games remaining while all other teams will still play six more.

This weekends most intriguing match up happens in Tempe, as Washington brings it’s league best 3.57 ERA to face the conference’s most offensive team Arizona State (.333 team batting average). Brett Wallace and Ike Davis (who is rumored to be returning to the starting line-up after missing the last ten games due to a rib injury) are the only two player in the league with batting averages over .400, while Jorden Merry is scheduled to head to the mound on Friday night for the Huskies with his 2.31 ERA and perfect 8-0 record on the line. Then on Sunday the leagues best strike out pitcher Nick Haughian will look to add to his 99 K’s while facing the nations second most disciplined team at the plate as ASU has 320 walks for the season.

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The CBB recently had an opportunity to take in the Missouri-Kansas series over this past weekend. We focused on the strong Missouri team which includes one of the top pitchers in the country for 2008 in Aaron Crow and one of the top 2009 pitching prospects in Kyle Gibson. We also checked in on some of the other top players on the squad who might make an impact in the coming future.

Aaron Crow JR 6′3, 195 RHP
Crow is one of the top players in the country and I believe him to be the best pitcher in the country (Brian Matusz of San Diego gets a close 2nd). Crow has 2 very strong pitches he relies on. His fastball and his slider. His fastball is in the lower to mid 90’s with good late movement. He has great command of it and throws it on both sides of the plate and will use it up in the zone. His control is extremely good. Having control and command of a mid 90’s moving fastball is a sick thing to have as a pitcher. He couldn’t do it all with just a fastball however. His second pitch is a slider in the mid 80’s. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Top Players, 2009 Top Players, Big 12, CBB Column, CBB Visit, Kansas, Missouri, MLB Draft

The Patriot League Conference Tournament starts up this weekend with Holy Cross heading to Navy and Army hosting Bucknell in best two out of three series to decide which team will advance to the conference championship series next weekend. Navy ended up taking three out of four games this season against Holy Cross while Army lost three out of four games against Bucknell. We previewed the Patriot League in our preseason season previews which can be read here. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Army, Bucknell, CBB Column, Holy Cross, Navy, Patriot League

Samuel Wasson is the Co-Founder and Editor of BleedCrimson.net and covers New Mexico State University athletics. He comes to the CBB as our expert on the WAC.

SERIES OF THE WEEK: SACRAMENTO STATE AT HAWAI’I (Les Murakami Stadium)

Why It’s Important: Hawai`i and Sacramento State are separated by just a half a game in the WAC standings, with UH three games behind Fresno State for first place and Sacramento State 3.5 games back. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: CBB Column, Fresno State, Hawaii, Louisiana Tech, Nevada, New Mexico St., Sacramento St., San Jose St., Series Preview, WAC

Florida State at Clemson

The Florida State Seminoles head to Clemson SC for a Saturday-Monday series against the Clemson Tigers. The Seminoles enter with a 37-7 overall record while being 19-5 in the ACC. The Seminoles have been one of the better hitting teams in the country with a team batting average of .346. All-American catcher candidate Buster Posey is the top hitter on the team with a .470 average and a team leading 13 homers on the year. Matt Fairel has been the ace of the staff with an 8-1 record with a 2.81 ERA. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, ACC Weekend Preview, Big South, Boston College, Campbell, CBB Column, Clemson, Coastal Carolina, FSU, GT, High Point, Independents, Maryland, Miami (FL), NC State, Presbyterian College, Saint Mary's, Southern Conference, VT, West Coast Conference

Results of the NAIA Coaches’ Poll for April 30, 2008. Comments below.

Rank	Apr. 23	School (Region)	Record	Total Points
1	1	Lubbock Christian (TX) (VI)	45-2	499
2	2	Lewis-Clark State (ID) (I)	44-4	480
3	3	Lee (TN) (XIII)	53-7	488
4	4	Oklahoma City University (VI)	48-7	440
5	5	Azusa Pacific (CA) (II)	40-8	429
6	7	U. of the Cumberlands (KY) (XI)	43-11	374
7	8	Embry-Riddle (FL) (XIV)	38-13	369
8	6	University of Mobile (AB) (XIII)	40-12	358
9	T9	Spring Arbor University (MI) (VIII)	29-5	348
10	12	Fresno Pacific University (CA) (II)	34-11	299
11	T9	Tennessee Wesleyan College (XII)	37-15	289
12	11	Wayland Baptist (TX) (VI)	41-12	288
13	13	University of St. Francis (IL) (VII)	40-8	274
14	15	Bellevue (NE) (IV)	41-11	255
15	14	Union College (KY) (XII)	37-12	218
16	18	Auburn-Montgomery (AL) (XIII)	41-19	191
17	16	Trevecca Nazarene (TN) (XI)	33-12	180
18	19	Texas Wesleyan (VI)	37-12	137
19	17	Biola University (CA) (II)	33-16	117
20	21	LSU-Shreveport (XIII)	41-14	115
21	22	Avila (MO) (V)	32-11	112
22	20	Malone College (OH) (IX)	33-11	77
23	23	Warner Southern (FL) (XIV)	33-22	71
24	25	Madonna (MI) (VIII)	32-12	43
25	24	Southern Polytechnic (GA) (XIII)	38-15	20

First-place votes: Lubbock Christian 19. Lewis-Clark State 1

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Azusa Pacific, CBB Column, Embry-Riddle, Fresno Pacific, Lewis-Clark State, Lubbock Christian, Spring Arbor, Tennessee Wesleyan, U. of Mobile, U. of the Cumberlands, Wayland Baptist