North Dakota head coach Jeff Dodson is transitioning Fighting Sioux baseball from Division II to Division I.

North Dakota head coach Jeff Dodson was hired on June 20, 2008 to transition the University of North Dakota to Division I baseball after the school had spent the previous fifty years competing at the Division II level. Coach Dodson spent the previous five seasons as an assistant coach at Southeast Missouri State, where he was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.  The College Baseball Blog had the opportunity to talk with Coach Dodson and ask him about the specific challenges he faces as a first time head coach and with the transition process, the 2009 baseball team and staff, and the future of Fighting Sioux baseball. Read the rest of this entry »

Big 12

Centenary 8, (#1) Texas A&M 4

Centenary overcame a three home run effort by the Texas A&M offense and scored three runs in the eighth inning to hand the top-ranked Aggies their first loss of the year, 8-4, Wednesday afternoon before 2,979 fans at Olsen Field.

A&M (5-1) trailed by three entering the sixth before a solo shot by Luke Anders and a two-run home run by Dylan Petrich one inning later would tie the game at four.
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The Okotoks Dawgs (AB) won their second straight Western Major Baseball League championship on August 16, winning three games out of four against the Swift Current (SK) Indians.

The final game, in Okotoks, drew a crowd of over 2,700; the Dawgs have a new ballpark, and have been drawing good crowds all year. The Dawgs continued to get excellent pitching during the final round. Mark Hardy (British Columbia) pitched a complete-game one-hitter in a 1-0 win. Jake Bottari (College of Idaho) held the Indians to one run in seven innings in another game.

Swift Current’s win was a 1-0 14-inning thriller. Sean Cooley (North Dakota; 8 1/3 innings, 6 hits) and Shawn Lee (Bellevue; 5 2/3 innings, 2 hits, eight strikeouts) combined for the shutout. Jeff Duda (Campbellsville) pitched twelve shutout innings for the Dawgs. Duda was 7-3, 1.88 ERA for the season.