By John Leonard of All Things Valley League

On a day when the best in the major leagues gathered to play a game in New York, a different group of highly touted players gathered in Luray, Virginia, for a different sort of All-Star doubleheader.

In an unprecedented matchup of three of the top summer league teams in the nation, the Vienna Senators of the Clark Griffith League traveled to Luray to play a doubleheader against the two best teams in the Valley League, the Waynesboro Generals and Luray Wranglers. Vienna is ranked #1 in the nation by PG Crosschecker, while Luray is #5, and Waynesboro is #11. Read the rest of this entry »

The College Baseball Blog will be making a few trips over the next few weeks highlighted by a visit to the Cape Cod League All-Star game in Chatham MA. We will also have reporters at the AFLAC All-American Game in Los Angeles and the Area Code Games in Long Beach CA. If you know of a game that we should attend over the next few months feel free to email me or we could use you as a guest reporter.

The College Baseball Blog made the trip down to Brockton MA to take in the First Annual Cape Cod Hall of Fame Classic between the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox and the Falmouth Commodores. The game was played at Campanelli Stadium which serves as the home of the independent league Brockton Rox.

The Red Sox were able to pick up a 5-4 victory over the Commodores holding off a ninth inning rally as the Commodores had the tying run on third base with two outs but UC-Riverside closer Joe Kelly was able to get Darrin Ruff to ground out to second to end the game. Read the rest of this entry »

The CBB made the trip to Lynn MA to check on the Team USA Trials that are taking place this week during a series of exhibition games against teams from the NECBL. Team USA entered the game against the North Shore Navigators with a 2-0 record with victories over the Keene Swamp Bats and Holyoke Sox. The Navigators entered with a 4-2 record. Read the rest of this entry »

We have put up our previews of the Friday-Sunday Super Regionals for the upcoming weekend. Mark Rafferty will be back at Fullerton this weekend when the Stanford Cardinal invade Goodwin Field. I will be providing you coverage from the comfort of my home as I will be watching a ton of the Super Regional coverage on ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPN U. The links to each Super Regional that starts on Friday is below. We will be putting up previews of the Saturday-Monday series on Friday. Read the rest of this entry »

Fullerton 5 UCLA 4

Fullerton decided to go with it’s Friday starter, Brian Wilson. UCLA decided to save ace Tim Murphy to possibly come in late in the game. The decision paid off for Fullerton, and UCLA will have to wait til next season to try and make it to Omaha.

Freshman pitcher Rob Rasmussen was coasting with the help of his defense, including Tim Murphy throwing out the speedy Christian Colon at third after a Brent Dean overthrow on a stolen base attempt. The good times didn’t last though as the Titans were able to put together a two out rally with a couple of 1^st and 3^rd singles by Christian Colon and Erik Komatsu. After a mound visit Rasmussen was able to get out of the inning on a Jared Clark popup to right. Read the rest of this entry »

Preliminary report from Bryan Young at the Tempe Regional FULL REPORT TO BE POSTED LATER

A tired Oklahoma Sooners team looks to be feeling the effects of an earlier 3:30 elimination game in the 100 degree heat. In their second game of the day Arizona State starter Josh Satow has thrown a shutout through seven innings including retiring 15 Sooners in a row after a first and third one out jam in the top of the first inning.

On the flip side the Arizona State offense has continued the onslaught of last night, scoring in just about every inning so far tonight. Case in point: ASU’s Kiel Roling just blasted a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh towards the Tempe Town Lake, as the ball left Packard Stadium over the left field fence in a hurry.

Unfortunately some distressing news to report. ASU Team Capatain Petey Paramore pulled up lame after limping out a RBI double in the bottom of the fourth inning. Early reports indicate a right quad strain. However, I just received a report that Petey was seen walking around the ASU clubhouse area without much of a limp.

Fullerton 4 Virginia 1

Cal State Fullerton was looking to rebound in this game after a weak performance against UCLA. Their offense caught fire early against Virginia start Pat McAnaney, and that was all they needed as Titan starter Corey Arbiso only gave up one run, throwing a complete game.

The action got started in the second inning when Pat McAnaney showed some uncharacteristic control issues, handing out free passes to the 6-7-8-9 hitters, beaning Dustin Garneau and Joe Scott. After Gary Brown scored on the bean ball and Josh Fellhauer went down on strikes, Christian Colon came through provided the offense yet again with an RBI single to left. McAnaney got Erik Komatsu to flyout to right, ending the threat with the bases loaded. Read the rest of this entry »

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia defeated Lipscomb 14-3 and Georgia Tech 8-0 to force a game 7 in the Athens regional Monday.

In the first game against Lipscomb, right fielder Matt Olson went 5-for-6 and shortstop Gordon Beckham went 4-for-6, and first baseman Rich Poythress added 5 RBIs. Nathan Moreau earned the victory for the Bulldogs, improving to 4-2 on the season. The Lipscomb Bisons completed their season with a 33-30 record. Read the rest of this entry »

(Tempe, AZ) – Who Is Mike Jones? The Arizona State version of Mike Jones is now the answer to a trivia question. A three run home run over the right field wall in the sixth inning complimented a couple of great catches in center field on Saturday night. But the question is, name several Arizona State athletes who have hit both a home run and caught a touchdown pass for the Sun Devils? [Thanks for the question TerryLee]

Aaron Baker looked great for Oklahoma with two home runs on the night. However the entire rest of the Sooners roster were only half as effective as Baker, with just the one other run between them all.

Unfortunately Carl Spackler has no “Cinderella story” left here in Tempe. After an inspirational performance on Friday night the Stony Brook Seawolves were eliminated during the day game. Head coach Matt Senk was quoted stating “Arizona State and Vanderbilt are tremendous teams and it was an honor to compete against them.” Well coach Senk, it was an honor to watch your team play. Your players and fans represented the America East conference well. Not Masters champions this year, but maybe you can pull off the miracle next year. [Caddyshack 1980]

Read the rest of this entry »

UCLA 11 Fullerton 4

Interview w/Cal State Fullerton President Dr. Milton A. Gordon

Whether or not Jeff Kaplan’s eye was still bothering him, something was definitely off for him tonight at Goodwin Field. Kaplan faced a total of 19 batters over 3 innings, giving up 6 earned while striking out 4.

After Bruin starter Charles Brewer sent the Titan leadoff batters down in order to start the game, the UCLA offense got started when All Pac-10 2B Alden Carrithers was beaned by Titan starter Jeff Kaplan. Kaplan thought he had finished off the inning when with two strikes on Bruin cleanup hitter Casey Hearther, he started back to the dugout on what he and most of the Cal State Fullerton faithful thought was strike 3. Two pitches later, Hearther hit a hanging breaking ball out of the park to right field, giving UCLA the early 2-0 lead. Kaplan then struck out SS Brandon Crawford to end the inning, with Titan fans still yelling at home plate umpire Darrell Arnold over the potential strike three call.

Read the rest of this entry »

UVA 8 Rider 2

Andrew Carraway dominated this game from the beginning allowing only two runs on five hits over over seven innings while striking out 10.

Coach Brian O’Connor was very happy with Andrew Carraway’s performance tonight: “Carraway I felt was in command of the game from the start, unfortunately he ran out of gas a little at the end, but he did exactly what we needed him to do, and that’s pitch deep into the ball game in an elimination game and save the bullpen.”

The offense really got going for Virginia in the fourth inning with a leadoff single by catcher Franco Valdes to center. Center field John Barr followed with a double down the left field line that could have been stopped by third baseman Mason Heyne. Tyler Cannon then grounded to third, and instead of going home with the throw to contain Valdes, Heyne threw to first to get Cannon out, while Valdes scored. With Rider being in a win or go home situation, they could have used a more aggressive performance from Heyne. Read the rest of this entry »

(Tempe, AZ) - Brett Wallace was huge for Arizona State, but Stony Brook would not give up in a thrilling game that bounced back and forth all night Friday.

3,425 baseball fans enjoyed a great game on a marvelous night that featured five lead changes before a thrilling end to a Stony Brook rally wrapped up the game for Arizona State in the ninth.

Freshman Matt Newman started the game and looked good for ASU, but after putting down the first five Stony Brook batters in order, the Seawolves put together a two out rally in the second to tie the game.   In the third Stony Brook kept at it took the lead and made ASU go to the bullpen first. 

However 12 walks by Stony Brook pitchers gave ASU too many opportunities.  Combine that with 11 hits including a blast off the bat of Brett Wallace that cleared not only the fence in right field but also likely the median on Rural Road on its trajectory out of the park.  ASU looked good offensively but Stony Brook hung all night and never looked out of the game.

Read the rest of this entry »

The College Baseball Blog took in Game 1 on Monday between Bryant University and Franklin Pierce in Rindge NH at the home of the Franklin Pierce Ravens. The game featured the Bryant Bulldogs coming through the loser’s bracket thus they had to beat Franklin Pierce in two straight games to get the spot in the NCAA Division 2 College World Series. The Ravens started lefthander Tom Cote while Bryant started Kevin Cobb. Read the rest of this entry »

The College Baseball Blog is up in Rindge NH for the Division 2 Northeast Regional at Franklin Pierce University. We have an elimination game between Bryant University against Dowling College. Bryant will send David O’Brien to the mound as he sports a 6-1 record with a 2.04 ERA while Dowling will counter with Gabriel Duran who is 4-2 with a 4.50 ERA. Read the rest of this entry »