The Balyor Ballpark- Photo Provided by Donald J Boyles

I made the trek up I-35 to Waco to catch the Texas/Baylor football game…err baseball game. It was a great fall day in Waco to get in a 14 inning scrimmage between two Big 12 opponent.

Skip Johnson started Chance Ruffin on the mound while Steve Smith countered with a Freshman Logan Verrett. In 3 innings of Work for Ruffin he gave up five hits and three runs while two of those runs were earned. Verrett on the other hand was very impressive in keeping the Longhorn hitters off balance. In 4 innings of work Verrett gave up up three hits, a walk and struck out two Longhorns.
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Courtesy of Reebok

The College Baseball Blog is committed to our readers by evaluating the latest Baseball technology. This continued last week as I was invited by Reebok to head down to their headquarters on Thursday to see the new Vector O-Bat that will be coming out in the beginning of November. This event was by invitation only for certain media across the country and the people at Reebok were nice enough to include us in the event. Read the rest of this entry »

2008 Fall Scrimmage- Photo Courtesy of Donald J Boyles

Augie and Company have already started on the “Road to Omaha”. Today’s intrasquad scrimmage was held at the Dell Diamond due to Dish Falk Field turf being replace with Field Turf. This is the third straight fall that Texas has had to use the Round Rock Express facility as the last two years Disch-Falk Field was being remodel.

The scrimmage took place in front of about 12-15 scouts. It was open to the public so, I took advantage of a fantastic late summer afternoon to go and watch some College Baseball.

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Left-Field Bleachers @ Wrigley

(Chicago, IL) - “Team One” wearing red Under Armour jerseys just attacked Jake Eliopoulos pitching for “Baseball Factory” from Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Ontario, Canada for three runs in the bottom of the 8^th inning. Read the rest of this entry »

Coppel Copperheads vs. McKinney Marshals- Picture by Donald J Boyles

The Texas Collegiate League Championship series came down to the top two teams in the league- the Coppell Copperheads and the McKinney Marshals. Coppell was the defending champions from a year ago and McKinney Marshals won it in ‘06. I was on hand for the games on Friday and Saturday. I was able to take pictures of both games. with a Link at the bottom of the article.

Coppell Copperheads is located NW of Dallas and NE of Fort Worth. They play all of their home games at the High School for the Coppell Cowboys. Coppell is one of the original 8 that started in the TCl back in the Summer of ‘04.

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EAST TEAM MAKES IMPROBABLE COMEBACK, WIN 4-2

For an East Team that consisted of so many great hitters in 2007 like Tim Beckham and Eric Hosmer, this 2008 East squad didn’t show much of anything at the plate for most of the game.  The West pitchers combined to hold the East to 1 hit over 8 innings.  Jacob Turner (St. Charles, MO) set the tempo by striking out 4 East batters over the first 2 innings, but a 9th inning rally by the East gave them the victory. Read the rest of this entry »

The 2008 Aflac All-American Game is coming up at Dodger Stadium on August 9th. The College Baseball Blog assistant editor Mark Rafferty will be in attendance providing insights into the top players for the 2009 MLB Draft and the top incoming freshmen for the 2010 college baseball season. The full press release of the Aflac All-American Game is available below. Read the rest of this entry »

The College Baseball Blog took in the Cape Cod All-Star game on Saturday night which was won by the Eastern All-Stars 8-6 in an exciting game. We take a look at the Eastern Division today with some thoughts on the pitchers that saw action in the All-Star game. Read the rest of this entry »

Courtesy of CodBall.com

The College Baseball Blog made the long trek down to Chatham to take in the Cape Cod All-Star game. The East Division in front of 8,629 fans used a seven run bottom of the eighth inning to erase a 6-1 deficit and pick up a 8-6 victory in the Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star game. The game was dominated by the team’s respective pitching staffs with each squad having a pitcher blow up in an inning. The Western squad scored the first run of the game in the 3rd inning with an A.J. Pollock (Notre Dame) opposite field homer while Rob Poythress (Georgia) returned the favor in the fifth inning by hitting a ball back in the same general area in right field. Both homers were just pop flys to right field but the strong wind heading out to right field brought the ball out of the ball park. Read the rest of this entry »

Entrance to Drillers Park-Picture taken by Donald J Boyles

Mike Lieberman the General manager of the East Texas Pump Jacks invited me out to Kilgore to get a first hand report of how the new team is doing in Kilgore, Texas.

If you are not familiar with Kilgore, Texas, Kilgore is nestled right in between Tyler(the Rose Capital of the World), and Longview. Kilgore at one time boasted a single downtown city block with the densest concentration of oil derricks in the world. In late summer 1931, as tumultuous conditions persisted in the burgeoning new “boomtown,” the state sent a star of its own, legendary Texas Ranger Manuel T. (Lone Wolf) Gonzaullas, to help restore order. And during World War II, oil from East Texas field literally helped “fuel” the efforts of the Allies. More than 80 oil derricks dot the Kilgore skyline today, all topped with lighted stars as reminders that our country’s Stars and Stripes waves free, due in large part to the contribution East Texas oil made to victory for our Allies.

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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 »

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 »