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 »
June 6, 2008…What makes this day special? This day will always be remembered for a number of reasons. A moment of silence here please! On this day in 1944, the Battle of Normandy (D-Day) began, where 155,000 troops stormed the beaches in France. And don’t forget in 1968, the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles. Did you forget? What do you say we move on to lighter but, still historical news? That same fateful day in 1968, Dodgers Hall-of-Famer, Don Drysdale threw his 58th consecutive shutout inning to set a MLB record.
Let’s jump ahead 40 years to today! The start of the 2008 College Baseball Super Regionals.
The Fullerton Super Regional started out on a slow note, especially if you were stuck in the So Cal traffic. The parking lot was packed! Tailgaters from both Stanford and Fullerton littered the lot in their Cardinal and Orange gear, and cans of empty libations. Read the rest of this entry »
When Jeff Kaplan and Jeremy Bleich went head to head early in the season, the Stanford hitters got the best of Kaplan, knocking him out of the game after only an inning. Stanford went on to sweep Fullerton, but that, as coach Dave Serrano said, was a different Fullerton team, one still searching to find its identity. Fullerton turned its season around and played well enough to garner a #5 national seed, but lacked the same tenacity they showed in the second half of the season tonight as they fell to Stanford 4-3 in a lackluster offensive effort. Read the rest of this entry »
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) - Jon Gaston hit a three-run home run in the top of the 11th as No. 12 Arizona defeated No. 1 Miami 6-3 in the opening game of their Super Regional Friday night.
Gaston, a seventh-round draft choice by the Houston Astros earlier Friday, drove Miami reliever Carlos Gutierrez’s 1-1 pitch over the fence in right field for his 12th home run of the season.
Gutierrez (5-3) struck out the first two hitters in the 11th but hit Colt Sedbrook on an 0-2 pitch. Brad Glenn followed with a single before Gaston’s game-winning shot.
Jason Stoffel (4-2) pitched three scoreless innings and struck out five for the win.
Game two of the best of three series will be Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. and televised on ESPN.
The Arizona Wildcats will head across the country to take on the Miami (FL) Hurricanes in a Super Regional series in Coral Gables FL. The Wildcats enter the weekend with a 41-17 record and a 12-12 record in the highly competitive PAC-10 conference. The Hurricanes have a 50-8 record while going 23-5 in the ACC. Read the rest of this entry »
Both Stanford and Fullerton hosted regionals, but had to work their way out of the loser’s bracket to advance to the Super Regional stage.Cal State Fullerton was swept by Stanford the second weekend of the season. Here’s a recap of how each team fared in their regional, and what to look for this weekend. 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.
The College Baseball Blog contributor and bleedCrimson.net editor Sam Wasson spoke with New Mexico State head coach Rocky Ward about the upcoming Super Regional matchup between the WAC’s Fresno State and the #3 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Arizona State Sun Devils. Having faced the Bulldogs nine times during the regular season and having coached NMSU at Arizona State in the 2003 Regional, Coach Ward was able to provide some unique insight into the Super Regional matchup this weekend.
Sam Wasson: What are Fresno State’s chances against the #3 national seed Arizona State?
Rocky Ward: I think it’s good for them because they haven’t played them. Arizona State has a lot of tradition but they have as much year to year tradition against Fresno. They won’t know Fresno very well. I think that Fresno will have a pretty decent advantage from that standpoint. Sometimes when the teams don’t know each other very well the lower ranked team on paper has a little bit of an advantage because sometimes they have a little bit more motivation, they’re a little hungrier. It’s going to be the same type of things. When you’ve got a lower ranked opponent playing at a host’s facility game one is absolutely imperative. They have to win game one. If they win game one I think it makes it a 50/50 shot for them. Read the rest of this entry »
Fullerton decided to go with it’s Friday starter, Brian Wilson. UCLA decided to save ace Tim Murphy to possibly come in late in the game. The decision paid off for Fullerton, and UCLA will have to wait til next season to try and make it to Omaha.
Freshman pitcher Rob Rasmussen was coasting with the help of his defense, including Tim Murphy throwing out the speedy Christian Colon at third after a Brent Dean overthrow on a stolen base attempt.The good times didn’t last though as the Titans were able to put together a two out rally with a couple of 1st and 3rd singles by Christian Colon and Erik Komatsu.After a mound visit Rasmussen was able to get out of the inning on a Jared Clark popup to right. Read the rest of this entry »
STANFORD, Calif. - Sean Ratliff’s grand slam, his 20th home run of the season, capped off a six-run fifth inning that provided the Stanford baseball team the boost it needed to pull ahead of Pepperdine and hold it together for a 9-7 victory Monday over the Waves (38-21). The win sends the Cardinal (37-22-2) to the program’s seventh Super Regional appearance next weekend, where it will face the winner of Monday night’s Fullerton Regional final between UCLA and CS Fullerton. The scenario involving the location of next weekend’s Super Regional will be announced by the NCAA Monday night at 8 p.m. PT. Read the rest of this entry »
Gavin Brooks started off the season as UCLA’s #1 starter, and the Bruins thought he could rekindle some of last year’s magic. They we’re wrong, and after using up more of their bullpen than they wanted in this loss to Fullerton, the Bruins are forced into an elimination game in Fullerton, where their 2007 season ended in the Super Regionals.
The Titans offense was stifled for most of their 4-1 victory over Virginia earlier in the day by reliever Matt Packer, but they started a two out rally in the first after Erik Komatsu reached first on a hit by pitch. Komatsu was able to advance to third after Bruin lefty Gavin Brooks missed his first baseman on a pickoff throw.After a four pitch walk to Jared Clark, DH Brian Wilson singled to right, scoring Komatsu and advancing Clark into scoring position.The Titans loaded the bases on a walk to Gary Brown and looked to capitalize, but Joel Weeks lined a 2-2 pitch right to Brandon Crawford to end the inning on a drive that sounded like it broke Weeks’ bat.Brooks threw 32 pitches in the first inning, limiting his longevity. Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
(Tempe, AZ) - A dominant starting pitching performance by Josh Satow propelled No. 3 Arizona State to a 12-0 win over Oklahoma Sunday night in the championship game of the Tempe Regional in front of a crowd of 2,553 at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark. The win makes the Sun Devils 48-11 on the season, and they advance to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament where they will face either San Diego or Fresno State.
Satow allowed only three hits and one walk with five strikeouts over 7.1 innings to earn the win and improve to 9-3 on the season. Oklahoma had runners on the corners with one out in the first, but Satow got a foul out and a groundout to get out of the jam, and that began a stretch of 15 straight Sooner hitters retired.
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