FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
JONESBORO (7/1/08) – Arkansas State University Director of Athletics Dr. Dean Lee announced Tuesday that Tommy Raffo has been named head coach of the Red Wolves baseball team.

“We are extremely pleased to hire a coach with the background and experience of competing at the highest level that Tommy Raffo brings,” said Lee. “We had an extremely strong pool of candidates for this position, and feel that Coach Raffo was unquestionably the best fit to take over the Arkansas State baseball program. Tommy is highly respected in the coaching field for his integrity and for his superior knowledge of the game.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Arkansas State, Coaching Changes, Sun Belt

FROM PRESS RELEASE
JONESBORO (6/16/08) - Arkansas State Head Baseball Coach Keith Kessinger has elected not to accept the contract offered by ASU and will not return next season as the Red Wolves head coach, ASU Director of Athletics Dr. Dean Lee announced Monday.

Kessinger is completing the final year of a three-year contract which was extended following the 2005 season. He was offered a one-year extension following the 2008 season. Kessinger came to Arkansas State prior to the 2003 season and compiled a 151-178-1 record over the last six years, including a 33-23 record in 2005, the fourth-most victories ever for an ASU baseball team. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Arkansas State, Coaching Changes, Sun Belt

Lance Baxter, Staunton Braves, LHP, So., Silverhill, Ala. (South Alabama)
Baxter fired a no-hitter in Staunton’s 2-0 victory over Waynesboro on Thursday, July 5. The University of South Alabama lefty faced just one batter over the minimum in his complete-game effort, allowing runners to reach on a walk and an error with one of them picked off. Baxter struck out seven while firing the league’s first no-hitter since Paul Burnside of Winchester threw a perfect game in his first Valley League appearance in June of 2006. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: CAA, FIU, George Mason, MAAC, Marist, Samford, South Alabama, Sun Belt, Valley Baseball League, Valley Baseball League Players of the Week

LSU 11, Southern Miss 4

From the middle of the diamond at a raucous Alex Box Stadium, Michael Hollander knew what was coming Sunday night against Southern Miss in the championship game of an NCAA regional tournament.

Heck, by that point of the game and at this point of LSU’s magical baseball season, everybody had a pretty good hunch what was looming with red-hot Blake Dean at the plate and the bases full of Tigers. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Baton Rouge Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Conference USA, LSU, New Orleans, SEC, Southern Miss, Sun Belt

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

TCU 10 Western Kentucky 5

STILLWATER, Okla. - With the game knotted at five, Bryan Holaday delivered a two-run bases loaded double and the No. 18 TCU Horned Frogs staved off elimination in a 10-5 victory over Western Kentucky Saturday afternoon. Trent Appleby was outstanding in relief, helping the Frogs recover from an early 4-0 deficit. Matt Vern gave TCU a lead it would never relinquish with a third-inning home run.

“Our team, we have this relaxed intensity in the dugout,” said catcher Bryan Holaday. “We don’t press. We don’t try to do too much and when it’s late in the game if we’re down or if we’re tied, we have enough confidence in our team, in our bats and in our pitching that we’ll be able to get the job done either way.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 NCAA Tourney, 2008 Stillwater Regional, Big 12, Missouri Valley, Mountain West, Oklahoma State, Sun Belt, TCU, Western Kentucky, Wichita State

New Orleans 18, Texas Southern 5

Johnny Giavotella was 3-for-3 with a home run and four runs scored, helping New Orleans eliminate Texas Southern from the NCAA tournament with an 18-5 victory Saturday in the Baton Rouge regional.

New Orleans (43-20) blew the game open in the bottom of the fifth, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six runs to take a 13-2 lead. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Baton Rouge Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Conference USA, LSU, New Orleans, SEC, Southern Miss, Sun Belt, SWAC, Texas Southern

GAME ONE - #2 WICHITA STATE VS. #3 TCU
The TCU Horned Frogs scored one run in the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th innings but it wasn’t enough as the Wichita State Shockers scored three runs in the 3rd, three runs in the 5th and two runs in the eighth to take an 8-5 opening round win.

Rob Musgrave picked up the win for the Shockers pitching a complete game for the win. Tyler Lockwood took the loss for the Horned Frogs surrenduring all eight Shocker runs in seven innings of work.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 NCAA Tourney, 2008 Stillwater Regional, Oklahoma State, TCU, Western Kentucky, Wichita State

Trey Sutton, Drew Carson and Michael Ewing each homered in a five-run seventh inning to lift Southern Miss to a 13-6 NCAA opening-game victory over New Orleans Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.

USM (41-20) won its opening game in the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year, downing Troy 14-1 a year ago in the Oxford Regional. The Golden Eagles advance in the winner’s bracket to face No. 7 national seed LSU in a 6 p.m. Saturday contest. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Baton Rouge Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Conference USA, New Orleans, Southern Miss

The LSU Tigers finished the season on a massive 20 game winning streak. They have a 43-16 record and 18-11 in the SEC this year. The number 2 seed in the Regional is Southern Miss who has a 40-20 record with a Conference USA record of 15-9. New Orleans picked up the three seed with a season record of 42-19 and 18-11 in the Sun Belt. The final team in the regional is Texas Southern who won the SWAC Tourney to get in with a 16-32 record while being 7-17 in the conference. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Baton Rouge Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Conference USA, LSU, New Orleans, SEC, Southern Miss, Sun Belt, SWAC, Texas Southern

The Stillwater Regional includes Oklahoma State, Wichita State, Texas Christian and Western Kentucky.

Oklahoma State finished second in the Big 12 Conference regular-season standings and will bring a 42-16 overall record into the tournament. Joining the Cowboys in Stillwater are second-seeded Wichita State, which owns a 44-15 record, along with third-seeded Texas Christian (43-17) and fourth-seeded Western Kentucky (32-25).
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Tags: 2008 Stillwater Regional, Oklahoma State, TCU, Western Kentucky, Wichita State

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES
(DURHAM, N.C.) – USA Baseball announced today the names of the 50 semifinalists for the 2008 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award (GSA). This year will mark the 31st consecutive year that the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award has been presented to the nation’s premier amateur baseball player. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: National Awards, National Player of the Year

Fresno State at Long Beach State
Fresno State ventured to Long Beach, CA to take on the Long Beach State Dirtbags in a non-conference game. The Bulldogs fell 2-1 on Tuesday night. The Bulldogs and Dirtbags combined to use 15 pitchers in the game with no pitcher recording more than three innings of work. The Dogs recorded five hits but scored their only run in the top of the ninth. The Dirtbags scored in the second and the deciding run in the fourth. The Bulldogs fall to 28-24 overall while LBSU improves to 28-17.

Fresno State Recap
Long Beach State Recap

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Tags: Fresno State, Long Beach State, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Saint Mary's, San Jose St., WAC

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

Dallas Baptist 4 at #6 Texas A&M 5

Texas A&M became the nation’s first Division I baseball team to reach the 40-win plateau as the fifth-ranked Aggies rallied for a 5-4 victory over Dallas Baptist Saturday afternoon before… (more)

Dallas Baptist Recap

Louisiana-Lafayette 3 at #9 Nebraska 4

Louisiana-Lafayette 3 at #9 Nebraska 4

Nebraska Recap

Louisiana-Lafayette Recap

Utah Valley State 3 at #10 Oklahoma State 6

Utah Valley State 4 at #10 Oklahoma State 9

OSU Recap

Utah Valley State Recap

Kansas State 7 at #14 Missouri 11

Missouri Recap

KSU Recap

Oklahoma 10 at Kansas 13

Kansas Recap

OU Recap

Tags: Dallas Baptist University, Kansas, Kansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas AM, Utah Valley State

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

Kentucky 9 Marshall 6

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Sawyer Carroll’s five-RBI performance boosted the No. 16 Kentucky baseball team to a nine-run rally, soaring from a 6-0 deficit and notching a 9-6 win over the red-hot Marshall Thundering Herd - its 23rd non-conference win in the past 24 games - on Wednesday evening at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

After starting every game of his college career - a span of 98 consecutive games - Carroll was scratched from the starting lineup in order to take a final exam, in Italian. Carroll, a National Player of the Year award candidate, completed his final exam around 7 p.m. ET as Kentucky made it through the first 1 ½ innings. By 7:15 p.m., Carroll was standing in the batters box as a pinch hitter, finishing the night 1-for-3 with a career-high five RBI. On the year Carroll, who leads the Southeastern Conference with a .431 average, has totaled 63 RBI in just 45 games, good for a tie for fifth place all-time on the single-season UK record books. A year ago, Carroll finished with 56 RBI in UK’s 54 games. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big East, Big Ten, Conference USA, Eastern Michigan, Kentucky, Louisville, MAC, Marshall, Mountain West, Ohio State, SEC, Southland Conference, Sun Belt, TCU, UT-Arlington, Western Kentucky

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

FIU 6 Miami (FL) 3

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.fiusports.com) – It had been four years since FIU had beaten Miami at Mark Light Field and an eternity since it beat the nation’s No. 1 team. That all changed Wednesday night with a 6-3 win for the Golden Panthers (14-29) against top-ranked Miami (33-5) in front of 2,483 on the Hurricanes’ home field.

FIU led throughout the game and held Miami hitless for five-straight innings after starter Eric Horstmann gave up a pair of singles in the first. The Golden Panthers built a 4-0 lead before Miami bounced back for three runs in the seventh. UM carried the momentum into the eighth, loading the bases with two outs against reliever James Lajiness. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, ACC Recap, Big South, CAA, Clemson, Coastal Carolina, Davidson, Duke, FIU, High Point, Maryland, Miami (FL), NC State, Presbyterian College, Southern Conference, Sun Belt, Towson, UNC, UNC-Greensboro, UVA, Wake Forest, William and Mary