HOLYOKE, Mass. – Josh Fellhauser’s two-out RBI single capped a three-run sixth inning that propelled the 2008 USA Baseball National Trials Team to a 7-2 victory Friday night over the Holyoke Blue Sox of the New England Collegiate Baseball League at MacKenzie Stadium. The U.S. team improves to 2-0 during the trials portion of its competition. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big West, Cal State Fullerton, NECBL, Team USA

For college baseball players everywhere, the word “Omaha” rolls off the tongue like no other.

LSU’s proud army of baseball legacies knows that all too well.

They also know all about dog piles and victory laps around an old ball yard that has seen her share of celebrations.

With the memory of a stirring ninth-inning comeback the night before fresh in their minds and an emotionally charged start as the launching pad, the Tigers punched their ticket to Omaha and the College World Series in explosive and dominating style Monday night.

In the process of romping past shell-shocked Cal Irvine 21-7, LSU also composed the final chapter in the proud and nostalgic history of Alex Box Stadium. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Baton Rouge Super Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Big West, LSU, SEC, UC-Irvine

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — LSU scored five runs in the ninth inning, including Sean Ochinko’s go-ahead single, as the Tigers rallied to stave off elimination in their super regional series with a 9-7 win over UC Irvine on Sunday.

The deciding third game at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium is Monday night. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Baton Rouge Super Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Big West, LSU, SEC, UC-Irvine

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

Stanford 8 Cal-State Fullerton 5

Fullerton, Calif. - Jason Castro’s 3-run double in the sixth inning broke a 5-5 tie and carried Stanford to an 8-5 victory Saturday night over Cal State Fullerton for the championship of the NCAA Super Regional and a berth in the College World Series.

Austin Yount (6-3) allowed only two runs (one earned) in 5.1 innings of relief to get the victory, Stanford’s (39-22-2) fifth in five tries over the Titans (41-22) this season. Reliever Jason Dovel (3-4) was charged with the three decisive runs and took the loss before a sellout crowd of 3,415. Drew Storen got the final four outs for his eighth save and second in two nights. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Fullerton Super Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, CBB Visit, Pac 10, Stanford

LSU’s 23-game winning streak came to an end Saturday, as UC Irvine smacked the homestanding Tigers 11-5 in the first game of the final series ever at LSU’s Alex Box Stadium.

A Tony Asaro single plated two runs to give the Anteaters a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Going into the sixth, UC Irvine held a 3-1 edge and gets two aboard via the walk from a pair of Tiger pitchers. Sean Madigan then erases the Anteaters’ “small ball” image by depositing the ball over the right center fence to put Irvine up 6-1. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Baton Rouge Super Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Big West, LSU, SEC, UC-Irvine

June 6, 2008…What makes this day special? This day will always be remembered for a number of reasons. A moment of silence here please! On this day in 1944, the Battle of Normandy (D-Day) began, where 155,000 troops stormed the beaches in France. And don’t forget in 1968, the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles. Did you forget? What do you say we move on to lighter but, still historical news? That same fateful day in 1968, Dodgers Hall-of-Famer, Don Drysdale threw his 58th consecutive shutout inning to set a MLB record.

Let’s jump ahead 40 years to today! The start of the 2008 College Baseball Super Regionals.

The Fullerton Super Regional started out on a slow note, especially if you were stuck in the So Cal traffic. The parking lot was packed! Tailgaters from both Stanford and Fullerton littered the lot in their Cardinal and Orange gear, and cans of empty libations.
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Tags: Big West Recap, Cal State Fullerton, Pac 10, Stanford

Stanford 4 Fullerton 3

When Jeff Kaplan and Jeremy Bleich went head to head early in the season, the Stanford hitters got the best of Kaplan, knocking him out of the game after only an inning. Stanford went on to sweep Fullerton, but that, as coach Dave Serrano said, was a different Fullerton team, one still searching to find its identity. Fullerton turned its season around and played well enough to garner a #5 national seed, but lacked the same tenacity they showed in the second half of the season tonight as they fell to Stanford 4-3 in a lackluster offensive effort. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Fullerton Super Regional, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, CBB Visit, Pac 10, Stanford

Tigers to stick with strengths vs. UCI

By now, the point has been clearly pushed across.

In case you haven’t heard, the red-hot LSU baseball team will not adapt its style simply because UC Irvine figures to play at a different tempo and with a different approach.

Tigers coach Paul Mainieri beat on the same drum again Wednesday, reiterating what he has said all week.

“Just because they play small ball doesn’t mean we’re going to combat that by playing small ball ourselves,” Mainieri said.

Maybe not. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Baton Rouge Super Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Big West, LSU, SEC

Fullerton Super Regional Preview

Stanford Regional Coverage

Fullerton Regional Coverage

Both Stanford and Fullerton hosted regionals, but had to work their way out of the loser’s bracket to advance to the Super Regional stage. Cal State Fullerton was swept by Stanford the second weekend of the season. Here’s a recap of how each team fared in their regional, and what to look for this weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Fullerton Super Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, Pac 10, Stanford

By Willie Nicklaus

With the NCAA regionals finished, I thought it was a good time to post my All-Freshman team for 2008. The high school Class of 2007 was a highly touted one, and they did not disappoint as contributors to their respective teams. Here they are with a little information about each. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2010 Top Players, ACC, Alabama, Auburn, Big 12, Big East, Big South, Big West, Cal, Cal State Fullerton, CBB Column, Coastal Carolina, Conference USA, Florida, GT, Kent State, MAC, Miami (FL), Middle Tennessee, Ole Miss, Rice, Santa Clara, SEC, Tennessee, Texas, UNC, University of San Diego, West Coast Conference, West Virginia

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 »

Tags: 2008 Fullerton Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, CBB Visit, Pac 10, UCLA

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

Stanford 9 Pepperdine 7

STANFORD, Calif. - Sean Ratliff’s grand slam, his 20th home run of the season, capped off a six-run fifth inning that provided the Stanford baseball team the boost it needed to pull ahead of Pepperdine and hold it together for a 9-7 victory Monday over the Waves (38-21). The win sends the Cardinal (37-22-2) to the program’s seventh Super Regional appearance next weekend, where it will face the winner of Monday night’s Fullerton Regional final between UCLA and CS Fullerton. The scenario involving the location of next weekend’s Super Regional will be announced by the NCAA Monday night at 8 p.m. PT. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 NCAA Tourney, 2008 Stanford Regional, Big West, Pac 10, Pepperdine, Stanford

Fullerton 11  UCLA 8

Gavin Brooks started off the season as UCLA’s #1 starter, and the Bruins thought he could rekindle some of last year’s magic.  They we’re wrong, and after using up more of their bullpen than they wanted in this loss to Fullerton, the Bruins are forced into an elimination game in Fullerton, where their 2007 season ended in the Super Regionals.

The Titans offense was stifled for most of their 4-1 victory over Virginia earlier in the day by reliever Matt Packer, but they started a two out rally in the first after Erik Komatsu reached first on a hit by pitch. Komatsu was able to advance to third after Bruin lefty Gavin Brooks missed his first baseman on a pickoff throw. After a four pitch walk to Jared Clark, DH Brian Wilson singled to right, scoring Komatsu and advancing Clark into scoring position. The Titans loaded the bases on a walk to Gary Brown and looked to capitalize, but Joel Weeks lined a 2-2 pitch right to Brandon Crawford to end the inning on a drive that sounded like it broke Weeks’ bat. Brooks threw 32 pitches in the first inning, limiting his longevity. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Fullerton Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, Pac 10, UCLA

GAME ONE - #1 STANFORD VS. #4 UC-DAVIS
Top ranked Stanford used a five run ninth inning to stave off elimination in the Palo Alto Regional. The Cardinal found themselves down 4-3 heading into the top of the ninth but a five run inning propelled the Cardinal into the championship game against 2-seed Pepperdine.

Box Score (PDF)

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Tags: 2008 NCAA Tourney, 2008 Stanford Regional, Pepperdine, Stanford, UC-Davis

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 »

Tags: 2008 Fullerton Regional, ACC, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, CBB Visit, UVA