Biloxi’s B.A. Vollmuth figures to play a key role in Southern Miss’ bid to make a seventh consecutive appearance in an NCAA baseball regional next season.

The Golden Eagles finished 42-22 in 2008. They lost plenty of firepower in first baseman Trey Sutton, outfielder Drew Carson and third baseman Chris Matesich. Relief pitcher Tyler Conn, the nation’s leader in saves, also has moved on. Read the rest of this entry »

Tim Beckham from Griffin Ga will be the number 1 pick in the MLB 2008 Draft today at 2 pm by the Tampa Bay Rays. This goes against many experts including ESPN’s Keith Law that expected Florida State catcher Buster Posey to be selected in the top spot. I think this selection is better since Beckham has a bigger upside then Posey and could be a real special player. This development will hurt the Southern Cal program as Beckham was expected to be a threat in the Trojans program over the next few years. The full MLB.com article is available here.

As we have reported throughout the last few months, the new rules regarding scholarship money will go into effect next year with up to thirty players on the team receiving compensation with a minimum scholarship of 25 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CBB SOURCES
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois coach Dan Hartleb announced the addition of four student-athletes to Illinois’ incoming class of 2008 Wednesday. Willie Argo, of Davenport, Iowa, Bill Charvat, of Elk Grove Village, Ill., Mike Santa Maria, of Des Plaines, Ill., and Will Strack, of Sycamore, Ill., will join the Illini in the fall of 2008. The Fighting Illini Class of 2008 now consists of four pitchers, two infielders, one catcher and one outfielder. Read the rest of this entry »

Perfect Game has put out their top Recruiting Classes for the 2009 season with Arizona State University ranked in the Top spot. The top recruit for the Sun Devils is Eric Hosmer as he is one of eleven players ranked in the Top 200 in the country to sign with Pat Murphy’s squad. The Georgia Bulldogs are listed in the runner’s up spot as they have signed 20 players with Michael Palazzone as the top recruit in the class. North Carolina comes in with another strong class after their second consecutive CWS championship series appearance. Read the rest of this entry »

At the International Power Showcase, which took place at Tropicana Field, Maryland Terp signee Zach Helgeson came out on top, cracking 16 total homeruns and 8 in the final round. Vanderbilt signee Matt Marquis hit the most homeruns overall, at 17.

The IPS website, found here, includes video on several of the performers.

The Oregon Daily Emerald has published an article discussing some of the challenges George Horton is facing at the University of Oregon. He has decided to go after some high caliber recruits who will likely be drafted on Day 1 of the MLB draft and might never see the Eugene campus. The full article is available here.

FROM USC PRESS RELEASE

LOS ANGELES — Student Sports (studentsportsbaseball.com) has released its recruiting rankings for the 2009 season with the USC program slotted at third on the nation’s Top 25 classes. Head coach Chad Kreuter and first-year recruiting coordinator Doyle Wilson signed 10 players during the early signing period, including highly-touted shortstop Tim Beckham out of Georgia. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM PRESS RELEASE
TAMPA, Fla. – Second-year head coach Lelo Prado announced Friday that the University of South Florida baseball staff has signed 11 recruits to National Letters of Intent for the 2008-09 academic year.

Prado’s second recruiting class at USF is made up of five pitchers, four infielders and two outfielders.

The class of 2008-09 includes: Adrian Nieto, (C), American Heritage High School, Hialeah, Fla.; Anthony Ferrara, (LHP), Riverview High School, Riverview, Fla.; Kyle Parker, (LHP), Newsome High School, Lithia, Fla.; Sam Mende (SS), Clearwater Central Catholic High School, Clearwater, Fla.; Alex Mendez (LHP/OF), Bishop Moore High School, Orlando, Fla.; Jay Taylor (OF), Seminole High School, Seminole, Fla.; Sean Buckley (RHP/1B), King High School, Tampa, Fla.; Corey Thomas (RHP/SS), Middleton High School, Tampa, Fla.; Peter Brotons (2B), Christopher Columbus High School/Daytona Beach Community College, Miami, Fla.; Adrian Puig (RHP), Miami Gulliver Prep, Homestead, Fla.; Matt Reed (LHP), West Stanley High School, Albemarle, N.C.

“I’m very happy with our first two recruiting classes here at USF,” said Prado. “I would have never thought I would be able to get these types of players right off the bat. We’re making great strides and Bryant (Ward) and Lazer (Collazo) have done a great job recruiting these guys.” Read the rest of this entry »

FROM PRESS RELEASE
HARRISONBURG, Va., Nov. 29, 2007 – James Madison University baseball head coach Joe “Spanky” McFarland announced the signing of three high school athletes and a junior college player who will join the Dukes for the 2008-09 school year.

“We’ve had two highly-ranked recruiting classes in a row,” commented McFarland, who is entering his 11th season with the Dukes. “This class is small, but we’re trying to fill in some key holes from what’s left of the last two classes. We needed to add a catcher, and of course you need pitching every year. Plus there’s always a chance we lose a few guys in the draft and we have to prepare for that. As far as hitting, the catcher is a left-handed hitter and the outfielder is a switch hitter so that helps us out. Basically, we’re just trying to fill in the pieces to the puzzle to add to the last two classes.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Baseball program have announced that they have picked up seven players for the 2009 season. The first signee is Daniel Bowman out of Turner Ashby High School in Bridgewater VA where he has played three years of varsity baseball. He had a strong 2007 season where he hit .491 average with eight homers and 35 RBI as he led the team to their second straight state championship. Steve Davis also committed to the Coastal Carolina program. He hails out of Steubenville High School in Steubenville Ohio. He had a .395 average with 25 runs scored and 21 stolen bases in his junior season. Brad Goldberg is the second player from Ohio in this class. He hails from Beachwood High School in Beachwood Ohio. He is a right handed pitcher who went 5-1 with 64 strikeouts. He also hit a solid .450 with 35 RBI but is not expected to see time in the field. Coastal Carolina also picked up a commitment from Anthony Meo from Cranston West High School in Cranston RI. Meo had a perfect junior season which saw him go 9-0 with a 0.77 ERA. The Chanticleers then went down to Palm Beach Gardens Florida to pick up a commitment from Taylor Motter. He only hit .397 with 10 RBI against tough competition in Florida. TJ Swank of Crystal Lake Illinois also committed to the program. He had a disappointing 2007 season which saw him miss six starts but had a 3-2 record with a 1.10 ERA. In his sophomore year, he picked up All-Conference and All-Area awards after going 8-3 with a 1.04 ERA. The last signee was Tommy Winegardner from Riverdale Baptist High School in Maryland. He was named the MVP of the Maryland Private School Championship game in 2007 after helping Riverdale Baptist to their 3rd straight championship. He has been named to the Under Armour All-American the last two seasons and is pre-season All-State. The full release on the signed players is available here.

These players should be able to make a positive impact on one of the rising programs in the country. Coastal Carolina will open the 2008 season on February 22nd against Maryland in the IMIChotels.com INN-vational. The full season schedule is available here.

The Notre Dame baseball program, on the heels of signing a current freshman group that was rated the nation’s fourth-best recruiting class, recently completed the signing of eight more highly-regarded high school seniors to national letters of intent, during the 2007 early signing period. The class, which will join the Irish starting in the fall of 2008, features four lefthanded pitchers - Dustin Ispas (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.), two-way standout Steve Sabatino (Lockport, Ill.), Ryan Richter (South Bend, Ind.) and Joe Spano (Verona, N.J.) - plus righthander Will Hudgins (Richmond, Va.), the switch-hitting outfield duo of Alex Robinson (Dallas, Texas) and Leighton Cooper (Fort Washington, Md.), and infielder Tommy Chase (Cohasset, Mass.). Sabatino, who will be a position-player candidate at first base and in the outfield, bats from the left side and will help give his class quality hitting ability from both sides of the plate.

For the full article follow the LINK.

The College Baseball Blog tries their best to see every press release around the country but sometimes things slip through the cracks. We missed a few releases on 2009 recruits which are linked below.

Georgia Tech
Bethune-Cookman
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Arizona State
Ohio
Indiana
Wake Forest
Kent State