I know we don’t cover Minor League baseball in general but the 2008 USA Baseball Team was announced today with a bunch of players with collegiate experience in the last few seasons including one player who will be entering his junior season at San Diego State in the fall. The biggest name that is on the roster is Matt LaPorta and the biggest surprise to me is Stephen Strasburg from San Diego State. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Olympics, Arizona, CBB Column, Delaware, Florida, Loyola-Marymount, Michigan, Oregon State, Pratt (Kan) CC, San Diego State, Stanford, TCU, Team USA, Texas, Vanderbilt, Ventura (CA)

By Thomas Nelshoppen of The Baseball Zealot

Kentucky 12 Michigan 6

I had been warned in the past that the deeper you go into Michigan’s rotation, the suspect it gets. It was never more evident than in the Michigan-Kentucky game on Sunday. Kentucky scored 7 runs in their first inning and added two more in the second. Michigan starter Jeff DeCarlo gave up a hit, a wild pitch and two walks before getting yanked in favor of Ben Jenzen. Jenzen didn’t fare much better. He gave up three consecutive doubles to Collin Cowgill, Brian Spear and Chris Wade which quickly made it 5-1 Kentucky. Wildcat Troy Frazier topped off the first with a two-run homer. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Ann Arbor Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Arizona, Big Ten, Kentucky, Michigan, Pac 10, SEC

By: Thomas Nelshoppen of The Baseball Zealot
We start to see some players shine in day 2 at Ann Arbor. Players like Arizona’s C.J Ziegler and Kentucky’s Sawyer Carrol really came through for their teams. But first, some unfinished business between Michigan and Kentucky from the night before.

Michigan 7 Kentucky 5

Michigan and Kentucky had to attend to their suspended game from Friday night. Michigan came in with in a 5-1 lead thanks to Zach Putnam’s 5-inning performance the night before. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Ann Arbor Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Arizona, Big Ten, Eastern Michigan, Kentucky, MAC, Michigan, Pac 10, SEC

By Thomas Nelshoppen of The Baseball Zealot

Weather had played major tricks to us college baseball fans in the Midwest. There must have been a record number of postponements, cancellations and suspensions. Unfortunately, the rains came to Ann Arbor Friday evening and interfered with the Regional games. At least, Arizona and Eastern Michigan got their full game in so let’s start with them Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Ann Arbor Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Arizona, Big Ten, Eastern Michigan, Kentucky, MAC, Michigan, Pac 10, SEC

By: Thomas Nelshoppen of The Baseball Zealot
Last week at the Big Ten Tournament, Michigan’s bat boy was wearing a jersey with “692″ on the back of it. The reference was lost on me till later when I read that is the exact mileage from Ann Arbor to Omaha.

When you set your goals, set them high.

Michigan (45-12) will put that all to the test as they host a NCAA Regional Tournament at Fisher Stadium beginning this Friday. They received a #2 seed and in fact, are the only #2 seed hosting a regional tournament this year. They will begin the tourney by facing #3 seed Kentucky (42-17). #1 seed Arizona will take on #4 seed Eastern Michigan (25-32). Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Ann Arbor Regional, 2008 NCAA Tourney, Arizona, Big Ten, Eastern Michigan, Kentucky, MAC, Michigan, Pac 10, SEC

Aman Reaka and myself have been accumulating a bunch of questions from our readers over the past few weeks about the upcoming MLB draft. We have picked out the five best questions that have been sent to us and have answered them below. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, Big Ten, Bryant, CBB Column, CBB Interview, Division 2, Division 3, FSU, Michigan, MLB Draft, Pac 10, SEC, South Carolina, Tampa, Trinity Unversity, Wake Forest, Washington State

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA Division I Baseball Committee announced the 16 regional sites for the 62nd annual NCAA Division I Baseball Championship. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 NCAA Tourney, ACC, Arizona State, Big 12, Big South, Big Ten, Big West, Cal State Fullerton, Coastal Carolina, Conference USA, FSU, Georgia, Long Beach State, LSU, Miami (FL), Michigan, NC State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Pac 10, Rice, SEC, Stanford, Texas AM, UNC

By Thomas Nelshoppen of The Baseball Zealot
My Illini were knocked out of the Tournament yesterday but I thought I’d stick around and see how things ended up. The Tournament was down to three teams this morning and ever shrinking. The offensive-minded teams of Purdue and Indiana took on each other for the privilege of facing powerhouse and top seed Michigan later in the evening. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big Ten, Big Ten Tourney, Indiana, Michigan, Purdue

By Thomas Nelshoppen of The Baseball Zealot

Yesterday, we said goodbye to Ohio State but today, teams were dropping like flies from Big Ten Tournament competition. This started with the first game between Illinois and Indiana which was an elimination match between the two teams.

Indiana 14 Illinois 7

Despite the score, it was actually quite an exciting game. Indiana continued with trend of scoring early and often by putting 3 runs up on the board in the first inning. This was done by their simple strategy of a) get Jason Hervey on base and b) have Josh Phegley drive him in. For the game, Hervey was 3 for 4 with 4 runs scored and Phegley was 4 for 4 with 2 homers and 6 RBI. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big Ten, Big Ten Tourney, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Penn State, Purdue

By: Thomas Nelshoppen of The Baseball Zealot

On the second day, we had three games on the docket, so let’s get straight to the action.

Indiana 10 Ohio State 8

In the first game, both teams were facing elimination and tension was a bit high both on the field and in the stands. By the time I got to Fisher Stadium in the top of the first, Indiana had already scored two runs. By the time I found a seat, Jake Hale had balked and Ohio head coach was having a conversation with the ump. Before the first inning was over, four Hoosier runs were across and I thought this would be a wash. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big Ten, Big Ten Tourney, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES
CONWAY, S.C. - A sacrifice fly from freshman Scott Woodward (Markle, Ind./Norwell) in the seventh broke an 9-9 tie and a home run from junior David Sappelt (Saxapahaw, N.C./Southern Alamance) in the eighth gave the 20th-ranked Coastal Carolina University baseball team (15-2) a cushion in its 11-9 win over 25th-ranked Michigan (8-6) March 16. It was the seventh game of the Centex Homes Invitational at Watson Stadium/Vrooman Field. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big South, Big Ten, Coastal Carolina, Michigan

The main reason why we saw the Uniform Start Date was that the Big Ten Conference really used their leverage to implement the new rule to level the playing field across the nation. The Big Ten this past weekend picked up some embarrassing losses with Ohio State losing to Air Force and Maine. The Michigan Wolverines picked up a loss to GA Southern on Friday with another bad loss earlier in the year to Portland. Both of these teams are supposed to be competing for the conference title shouldn’t they be representing the conference better? Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Big Ten, CBB Column, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue

Our good buddy Brian DeCaussin of Big Ten Hardball has started his previews for the 2008 season. His site is the ultimate in Big Ten Baseball coverage as he focuses only on the Big Ten. We have linked to each preview that is currently up below.

Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan

Tags: 2008 Conference Preview, Big Ten, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan

CSTV continues their season previews with Eric Sorensen checking in on the Big Ten and the Big 12. Sorensen predicts that Michigan will win the Big Ten after a great run into the Super Regionals last season. He puts Minnesota and Ohio State as contenders with Penn State as the darkhorse. The full preview is available here. He also checks in on the Big 12 which is one of the top conferences in the country. He states that the Big 12 is wide open with the favorites being Texas, Missouri, and Texas A&M. He lists Baylor, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State as contenders with Kansas as a darkhorse. The full article is available here.

Tags: 2008 Conference Preview, 2008 Season Preview, Baylor, Big 12, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Texas, Texas AM

Rivals national baseball writer Kendall Rogers has put out his 2008 All-American Team which is led by Pedro Alvarez of Vanderbilt. Buster Posey of FSU is named to the first team catcher’s spot in only his second year behind the plate. Miami slugger Yonder Alonso beat out Justin Smoak for the first base position. Filling out the rest of the infield is 2B Blake Stouffer of Texas A&M, Ryan Flaherty and Pedro Alvarez of Vanderbilt. The outfield is Dominic de la Osa of Vanderbilt, Kyle Russell of Texas, and Tommy Baldridge of Coastal Carolina. Brett Wallace of Arizona State picks up the DH spot while Zach Putnam of Michigan is listed as the Utility player. The starting pitchers are Jacob Thompson of Virginia, Preston Guilmet of Arizona, Brian Matusz of San Diego and Lance Lynn of Ole Miss. The relief pitchers are led by switch-pitcher Pat Venditte of Creighton and Cole St. Clair of Rice. The full team with break downs on each player is available here.

Tags: 2008 Top Players, ACC, Arizona, Big 12, Big South, Big Ten, Coastal Carolina, Creighton, FSU, Miami (FL), Michigan, Missouri Valley, Ole Miss, Pac 10, SEC, Texas, University of San Diego, Vanderbilt, Virginia, West Coast Conference