Game 1: Bucknell 8 Army 5
Game 2: Bucknell 6 Army 3

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Bucknell baseball team finished off its series with Army on Sunday with a sweep of the second doubleheader of the weekend. The Bison took game one, 8-5, and rode a solid pitching performance by freshman Dylan Seeley (Shavertown, Pa./Wyoming Seminary) to a 3-1 victory in game two. With the pair of wins, the Bison are now 13-10-2 on the season, 3-1 in the Patriot League, while the Black Knights fall to 6-16 and 1-3.

In game one, Army’s Andy Ernesto scored the first run of the contest in the bottom of the first, coming home on an error after reaching with a single up the middle. Mike Greco then made it 2-0 with an RBI single that plated Cole White. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM PRESS RELEASES

Game 1: Holy Cross 1 Lehigh 0
Game 2: Holy Cross 5 Lehigh 4 (11 innings)

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Sophomore Matt Shapiro (Raynham, Mass.) threw his first collegiate shutout, giving up two hits while striking out five batters as the Holy Cross baseball team swept Lehigh in Patriot League play this afternoon by scores of 1-0 and 5-4 (11 innings). The Crusaders improve to 6-13 on the season (2-0 Patriot League) while Lehigh falls to 12-13 (0-2 Patriot League). Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

Bradenton, Fla. - Harvard and Lafayette split a Sunday doubleheader in games played at Manatee Community College. The Crimson, backed by a strong pitching performance, took game one by a score of 4-1 before the Leopards jumped out to a big lead in a 13-2 victory in the second game.

In the first game, Lafayette (6-4) jumped on top with a single run in the bottom of the second. Tom Ambrosole singled to left with one out and scored on a triple down the left field line by Justin Shepard when Harvard’s (1-6) relay throw to home hit Ambrosole in the back 25 feet from home plate. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CONFERENCE PRESS RELEASE
Center Valley, Pa. - Navy has been selected as the favorite to claim the 2008 Patriot League Baseball title in a preseason poll of the League’s head coaches and sports information directors.

The Midshipmen top the poll with 43 points and four first-place votes, just one point ahead of second-place Lafayette which also claims four first-place votes. Army takes third with 37 points, while Bucknell is in fourth place with 29 points. Both schools claim a pair of first-place votes. Lehigh (17 points) and Holy Cross (12) round out the preseason poll. Head coaches and sports information directors were not allowed to vote for their own teams. Read the rest of this entry »

Eric Sorensen continues his season previews with the Pac-10 and Patriot League. He has Arizona, Arizona State, and UCLA as the favorites. He puts the Oregon State as a contender after their back to back national championships. He puts California as a darkhorse behind the right arm of Tyson Ross. The full article is available here. The Patriot League favorites are the Navy Midshipmen under Paul Kostacopoulos. He puts Lafayette and Army as contenders with Lehigh as a darkhorse. The full article is available here.

We continue to bring you season preview for the 2008 season.

Wake Forest Season Preview
Yale Season Preview
Stanford Season Preview
Michigan State Season Preview Part 2: Pitchers and Catchers
Lafayette Season Preview
Navy Season Preview
Missouri Season Preview: Outfield
Miami (OH) Season Preview: Infielders
Rutgers Season Preview from Gotham Baseball Magazine

The CBB continues their series of articles previewing different conferences throughout the country. This week we check in on the Patriot League. Lafayette won the Patriot League title by sweeping Army in the Patriot League Championship series after Army knocked off Navy in the opening round of the Patriot League playoffs. Lafayette lost to Virginia 5-1 and Rutgers 11-10 in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. The 2008 season will be the first time that the Patriot League will allow four schools into their postseason tournament which will consist of a best out of three semifinal round followed by a championship series the next weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

The Lafayette Leopards have put out the 2008 schedule which is highlighted with a season opening series at VMI. They will make a trip to Bradenton Florida for their annual trip to Florida to play four games. They will open the Liberty Bell Classic on March 25th against the Penn Quakers and will play the winner of the St. Joe’s/Delaware matchup on April 1st. The Leopards will host Patriot League opponents Bucknell and Navy. They will head on the road to take on Holy Cross, Army, and Lehigh. The College Baseball Blog will be in attendance for at least one of the doubleheaders at Holy Cross. The full schedule for the Leopards is available here.

The Lafayette Athletic Department is renovating many fields at the Metzgar Fields Athletic Complex. The Baseball program is getting the most benefit in these renovations with an expansion of the dugouts, more seating, and a better locker room for the team. The full release is available here.

The Naval Academy and Head Coach Paul Kostacopoulos have released their 2008 schedule. They will open in the Service Academy Spring Classic where they will face Air Force twice and Arkansas State in a single game. They will open the Patriot League portion of the schedule when they head to Lafayette on March 29th and 30th. The Midshipmen will also visit Bucknell and Lehigh (two games) in Patriot League action. They will host Holy Cross, Army, and Lehigh (two games) in Patriot League showdowns. The league has changed the playoff system for 2008 in which four teams will make the postseason. The top seed will host a best of three series against the fourth seed and the second seed will host the third seed in the best of three series. The two winners will match up in the next weekend with the winning deciding the Patriot League championship. The press release is available here and the full schedule is available here.

Rutgers 11 Lafayette 10

Rutgers scored four runs in the top of the eighth on homers from Frank Meade and Dave Williams which were two run homers. Lafayette tried to rally with a single run in the eighth and two runs in the bottom of the ninth but were not able to tie up the game. Rutgers will play Oregon State on Sunday in the loser’s bracket. Lafayette ends the season with a 33-20 record.

Rutgers Recap
Lafayette Recap

UVA 7 Oregon State 4

The Virginia Cavaliers outlasted Oregon State in 13 innings as they advance to the championship game in the Charlottesville Regional on Saturday. Casey Lambert pitched 6.2 innings in relief while giving up only 1 run on five hits. Brandon Guyer and Brandon Marsh got into a collosion in the game and their status is unavailable at the time of this post. Oregon State will play Rutgers on Sunday while Virginia will play the winner in the championship game of the regional.

UVA Recap
Oregon State Recap

Virginia 5 Lafayette 1

The Virginia Cavaliers opened up their run to Omaha with a 5-1 victory over Lafayette. Sean Doolittle gave the Cavaliers 7.2 innings while giving up 1 run on nine hits. Brandon Guyer hit a key three run homer in the first inning to set the pace for the Cavs offense. Virginia will play defending national champion Oregon State on Saturday while Lafayette will play Rutgers on Saturday in an elimination game.

UVA Recap
Lafayette Recap

Oregon State 5 Rutgers 1

Joe Paterson let up one run in six innings as he led the defending national champion Beavers to a 5-1 victory over Rutgers. John Wallace led the offense with 2 RBI. Oregon State will take on Virginia on Saturday while Rutgers will play Lafayette.

Oregon State Recap
Rutgers Recap

The University of Virginia will be hosting for the second consecutive year in Charlottesville Virginia. They will be joined by Rutgers, Oregon State, and Lafayette.

Virginia

The Virginia Cavaliers (43-14) enter this weekend after winning two out of three games in the ACC Tournament. They did not qualify for the ACC Championship as they lost the head to head tiebreaker with North Carolina. They are led by a very strong pitching staff in Jacob Thompson and Sean Doolittle. Thompson has an overall record of 11-0 with an ERA of 1.35. (The CBB had the chance to see him pitch and a full report on him is available here.) Sean Doolittle is one of the top two-way players in the country as he has a record of 7-3 with a 2.57 ERA while batting .318 with 52 RBI. The Virginia offense is led by Brandon Guyer (.369) and David Adams (.368). They receive some bad news about two weeks ago when leadoff hitter and batting average leader Greg Miclat had surgery on a torn labrum and is out for the season. Virginia opens the tournament against Lafayette at 4 pm Friday.

Virginia Tourney Notes

Rutgers

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights made an impressive run through the Big East Tournament by coming through the loser’s bracket before taking out UConn in the conference championship game by a 7-6 scoreline. Rutgers is led by All-American candidate Todd Frazier who is hitting .379 with 22 home runs and 64 RBI. He has also stolen 25 bases in 29 attempts. Dave Williams is the leading hitter on the team with a .408 batting average in 57 games. Steve Healing leads the pitching staff with a 10-3 overall record and an ERA of 3.56. Rutgers opens the tournament against defending champion Oregon State at 8 pm on Friday.

Rutgers Tourney Notes

Oregon State

The Oregon State Beavers are the defending champions and will head to Charlottesville after finishing in sixth place in the PAC-10. They have an overall record of 38-17 but were under .500 in the PAC 10 at a 10-14 mark. Mitch Canham is one of the top catchers in the country who will likely be drafted in the top five rounds in the upcoming draft. He leads the team in hitting with a .346 average and in homers with nine. The Oregon State pitching staff is led by Mike Stutes who has a 9-4 record and has struck out 101 hitters in 102.2 innings. Oregon State opens against Rutgers at 8 pm on Friday.

Oregon State Tourney Notes

Lafayette

The Lafayette Leopards (33-18) enter the weekend with the automatic bid from the Patriot League after sweeping the Army in the Championship series. Lafayette split with Ivy League Champion Brown last week in preparation for the NCAA Regionals. Lafayette is led by pitchers Kevin Reese and Matt Kamine. Reese is 7-1 with a 2.70 ERA in nine starts including four complete games. Kamine is 7-4 with a 2.72 ERA. The Leopards offense is led by James Conrad who has a .351 average with 48 stolen bases in 52 attempts. Jeff Butler has a .350 average also so he is also a player to watch.

Lafayette Tourney Notes

The CBB predicts Virginia to advance through the regional and the sleeper team in the regional is Rutgers with a potent lineup.

The Lafayette Leopards picked up the Patriot League title over the weekend when they took their first two games of the Patriot League Championship series over Army by scores of 8-3 on Saturday and 7-3 on Sunday. In Game 1, Mike Raible led the Leopards with four RBI on a homer and a triple. Lafayette starting pitcher Matt Kamine (7-3) got the victory by giving up three runs in 6.0 innings of work. In Game 2, Tom Hayes went 4-5 while Leopards starter Kevin Reese (7-1) went 8.1 strong innings as he held the Cadets to three runs on nine hits.

Lafayette Game 2 Recap
Lafayette Game 1 Recap
Army Game 2 Recap
Army Game 1 Recap
Patriot League Series Recap

The Lafayette Leopards knocked off the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 7-3 in the Liberty Bell Classic final on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park. Dave Drechsel led the Leopards by going 3-4 with four RBIs and three runs scored. He was only a triple shy of the cycle. Brian Cope pitched 5.1 innings while only letting up one unearned run to bring his record up to 2-1 on the season. Lehigh starter Billy Alec was lit up in the only inning he pitched which was the first by giving up four runs on three hits. Lafayette will be back in action Wednesday when they play Monmouth. Lehigh will head to Rider on Wednesday also.

Lafayette Recap
Lehigh Recap
Morning Call Recap

The Lafayette Leopards and Lehigh Mountain Hawks both picked up victories in the semifinals of the Liberty Bell Classic to qualify for the final on April 10th at Citizens Bank Park home of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Lafayette used a ten hit attack to knock off the Penn Quakers by a score of 10-2. The Leopards got a strong start from Brad Woodfield who went six innings while giving up two unearned runs. Jeff Butler led the offense by going 3-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. Kevin Leasure also had a strong game by going 2-3 and two RBIs. The Quakers top hitter for the game was Williams Gordon who went 2-3. The Quakers starter Robbie Seymour gave up eight runs on six hits and two walks in 4.1 innings. Penn will be back in action on Wednesday at 6pm when they visit Lehigh. Lafayette will head to NJIT for a 6pm game also.

Lafayette Recap
Penn Recap

The Lehigh Mountain Hawks got ten runs in the first inning to cruise to a 14-4 victory over Temple to advance to the Liberty Bell Classic final next Tuesday at Citizen Bank Park. Joe Ercolano and Liam O’Connor each scored two runs in the first inning to lead the Hawks to the ten run inning. Lehigh starter Joe Matteo pitched four scoreless innings to get his first win of the year against three losses. Temple starter Rob Chamra only lasted 1/3 of an inning while letting up nine runs (one earned) to put his record at 0-2 for the season. Temple will be back in action Friday when they head to Dayton while Lehigh will face Penn at Limeport Stadium.

Lehigh Recap
Temple Recap