FROM PRESS RELEASES

Dallas Baptist 11 Northern Illinois 8

DALLAS, Texas - Northern Illinois and Dallas Baptists combined for 19 runs and 23 hits Thursday night before the home team prevailed 11-8 at Patriot Field. The Huskies (3-9) held a 7-5 advantage before the Patriots (10-4), who received votes in this week’s National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll, mounted a comeback keyed by a five-run seventh inning. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Dallas Baptist University, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Independents, MAC, Missouri Valley, Northern Illinois, Prairie View AM, Southern Illinois, Summit League, SWAC, University of San Diego, WAC, West Coast Conference, Western Illinois

FROM PRESS RELEASE

San Diego 6 Fullerton 2

FULLERTON, Calif. - The 21st-ranked University of San Diego baseball team scored four unanswered runs in picking up a 6-2 win over No. 16 Cal State Fullerton Tuesday evening in a non-conference game at Goodwin Field.

With the win, the Toreros improve to 8-7 overall and improve to 6-1 against ranked opponents this season. With the loss, the Titans fall to 8-5, suffered their first home loss of the season and saw their five-game winning streak come to an end. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, Atlantic Sun, Big West, CAA, Cal State Fullerton, Campbell, Delaware, Eastern Michigan, Kentucky, MAC, Maryland, Mountain West, Nevada, Northern Illinois, Prairie View AM, Saint Mary's, SEC, Southland Conference, SWAC, TCU, UNC-Wilmington, University of San Diego, UT-San Antonio, WAC, West Coast Conference

Baylor Bears Eliminate Prairie View A&M 9-2!

An adventure was the last thing Baylor baseball coach Steve Smith wanted on Saturday at the Houston Regional.

Smith sent junior Tim Matthews to the mound for his second start of the season, and Matthews delivered the uneventful outing the Bears had hoped for against Prairie View A&M in an elimination game.

Baylor defeated the Panthers, 9-2, at Rice’s Reckling Park to extend its season by at least one more day.

Matthews, who won his only other start this season when he pitched five innings in a 13-4 win over Texas State on April 24, allowed six hits and one earned run in seven innings on Saturday.

“Tim’s seven were just what the doctor ordered,” Smith said. “We’ve kind of laid it out to our players what our plans will be. Obviously, those plans are only as good as the players who are out there.

“Tim did his job. He took the ball, went out there and threw strikes and stayed out of big innings.”

Baylor (35-27) advances to play TCU today at 2 p.m. The Horned Frogs lost to top-seeded Rice, 6-3, on Saturday night. The TCU-Baylor winner will meet Rice at 8 tonight.

Baylor still needs three wins, including two over the winner’s bracket champion, to reach the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament.

Baylor’s offense clicked early in the game against Prairie View A&M, helping the Bears keep to the plan of conserving their bullpen.

Baylor leadoff hitter Ben Booker walked in the bottom of the first inning and scored on a ground ball by Chase Gerdes to put the Bears ahead, 1-0.

After adding a run on two hits in the second, the Bears took command with three runs on four hits in the third. Second baseman Shaver Hansen, who went 4-for-4, got his second hit to cap the third-inning rally by driving in Dustin Dickerson.

Hansen then produced another key hit in the fifth, a two-run double to left that scored Beamer Weems and Dickerson to extend the lead to 7-1.

“I thought the key hit for us was Shaver’s two-out double,” Smith said. “That did effect pitching decisions after that and I think we got through this game pitching-wise as well as we could hope.”

Smith said he went with Matthews in part because of the junior’s experience. Matthews started 11 games in 2006, culminating with the regional championship game against Rice at Reckling Park. But he gave up five runs in three innings and lost that game against the Owls.

He’ll have a better memory of Rice’s park after Saturday.

“Being able to come out and get the start, I was very appreciative of it,” Matthews said. “I needed to go out there and have a good game to save the bullpen.”

The Baylor offense did a better job of getting to Prairie View A&M than it did earlier this season.

The Bears needed a two-run home run from Matt Sodolak to overtake the Panthers (34-25) for a 4-2 victory on April 25.

“We came out with a little more of a ‘Let’s go right now’ approach,” Baylor catcher Matt Czimskey said.

Czimskey upped Baylor’s lead to 8-2 with a solo home run in the eighth. He went 2-for-5 and drove in three runs in the game.

Smith said he doesn’t know how he’ll use his remaining starting pitchers today.

The Bears could play two games today if they continue to win. Baylor freshman starter Kendal Volz (6-2) is yet to pitch in the regional, as are Wade Mackey (4-3), Randall Linebaugh (3-5) and Willie Kempf (2-2).

Only using two pitchers could help Baylor make a run at winning the Houston Regional.

“I think it was big, but we’ll find out tomorrow,” Smith said. “It takes guys who don’t normally go seven innings, but they do it. It can be done.”

Tags: Baylor, NCAA Tourney, Prairie View AM

By the midpoint of the regular season, Rice sophomore righthander Matt Langwell had done little to distinguish himself from any of the Owls’ low-profile pitchers.

Langwell had started and relieved, producing results that were neither exceptional nor egregious. He was middling personified until he began displaying a mastery of the strike zone, at which point Rice coach Wayne Graham granted him additional responsibility.

Friday, Langwell showed how he earned Graham’s trust. With Prairie View A&M again aiming to play the role of postseason spoiler, Langwell worked seven shutout innings in a 5-0 victory at the Houston Regional at Reckling Park.

Rice Recap

Houston Chronicle.com

TCU 3 Baylor 2

TCU closer Sam Demel admitted he had little or nothing left.

The junior right-hander and the Horned Frogs were clinging to a one-run lead over Baylor in the opening game of the NCAA baseball regional at Rice’s Reckling Park, with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the ninth.

But Demel, pitching his third inning, struck out Baylor’s Ben Booker on a 3-and-2 changeup to preserve a 3-2 victory and send the Bears into the losers bracket.

“Going into the at-bat I was pretty much of out of gas,” said Demel, who had walked the previous batter on four pitches. “When I’m out of gas, my best pitch is the changeup. We went at him with all changeups.”

TCU (47-12) will face Rice, the regional’s No. 1 seed, at 6 p.m. today. Baylor (34-26) will play Prairie View A&M at 2 p.m..

TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle called on Demel (7-1) after starter Jake Arrieta, who pitched marvelously, walked Beamer Weems to open the seventh with TCU holding on to a 1-0 lead.

“We didn’t want to have to use Sam so much,” Schlossnagle said of Demel, who threw 54 pitches. “I fired my bullet early when we had the lead. Demel showed what kind of guts he’s had all year.”

Baylor tied the game in the seventh, when Weems scored on a groundout by Dustin Dickerson.

TCU, the No. 2 seed, grabbed the lead back when catcher Andrew Walker opened the bottom of the seventh with a homer off Baylor starter Jeff Mandel (7-8).

One out later Grapevine’s Bryan Kervin homered to right to give TCU a 3-1 lead.

Weems led off the ninth inning with a homer to slice TCU’s lead to one run. Czimskey walked and, after a fly out, pinch-hitter Matt Sodolak singled. Demel got Shaver Hansen to fly out, then walked Paul Miles to load the bases.

“I tried not to be nervous,” Kervin said. “But it was pretty intense.”

Baylor coach Steve Smith said Booker swung at ball four.

“That was a good at-bat,” Smith said. Demel “was going to win or lose it with his best pitch.”

TCU Recap

Baylor Recap

Tags: Baylor, Prairie View AM, Rice, TCU

The Field

(1) Rice [#2] (49-12)

The Owls were the preseason #1, but didn’t live up to those expectations early on. But Wayne Graham’s club has won 30 of their last 32, including a recent 20-game win streak. They�ve hit their stride at just the right time, and that means trouble. Rice is known for their pitching, but the bats that have made headlines lately. The Owls scored 60 runs in winning the Conference USA tournament, including 36 in the last two games against Memphis and East Carolina.

(2) TCU (46-12)

The Horned Frogs swept both Mountain West titles for the second year in a row, going 20-3 in league play, then sweeping through the MWC tournament in Las Vegas. TCU is solid at the plate (.316), in their rotation (top three starters are 27-6), and in the bullpen (starter-turned-closer Sam Demel has 13 saves).

(3) Baylor (34-25)

The Bears made a late-season move to get into the regionals, sweeping their last conference series vs. Kansas State, then knocking off Oklahoma State, Missouri, and Oklahoma in the Big 12 tourney before falling to Texas A&M in the final. This is the second straight year Steve Smith�s team will be at Rice.

(4) Prairie View (34-23)

The Panthers, like Baylor, return to Rice for the second straight year. They won the SWAC West Division title, and swept through the SWAC tournament, defeating Southern 8-7 for the title. The 2004 season is no doubt still fresh in many minds, when Texas Southern upset defending champ Rice in their opening game. And last year, the Panthers held a 5-3 lead going into the 8th inning, but the Owls came back to win 6-5.

Southerncollegesports.com

Tags: Baylor, NCAA Tourney, Prairie View AM, Rice, TCU

Because there are fewer than six degrees of separation between Rice coach Wayne Graham and New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra, it isn’t a wild assumption to believe Graham muttered, “It’s like déjà vu all over again” upon first glance at the Houston Regional field.

The NCAA baseball selection committee on Monday announced the pairings for the 64-team NCAA Tournament, and the four-team Houston Regional features three returnees from 2006: Rice (49-12), Baylor (34-25) and Prairie View (34-23).

The newcomer is TCU (46-12), which Rice has played six times in the past three seasons, including a three-game set at Reckling Park in 2005.

“It’s a solid regional,” said Graham, whose Owls are the No. 2 national seed and will host the Houston Regional at Reckling. (Vanderbilt is the tourney’s No. 1 seed.)

“We played them all. TCU has great talent, and Baylor is on the upswing after finishing second in the Big 12 tournament. Prairie View has everybody back. They present a problem. They seem to play extremely well against us.”

Outside of the lack of creativity on the part of the committee, few could quarrel with the bracketing of the regional.

CHRONICLE: Complete story

Tags: Baylor, NCAA Tourney, Prairie View AM, Rice, TCU

Tulane 16, LSU 9

All nine Green Wave hitters tallied at least two hits, including a 4-for-6 showing by sophomore right fielder Warren McFadden, as the Tulane University baseball team defeated arch-rival LSU, 16-9, Tuesday evening at Zephyr Field.

Tulane (23-8) jumped out to a 10-0 lead after three innings, and held a comfortable 13-3 advantage going into the top of the seventh. In that stanza, however, the Tigers (17-13-1) clawed their way back into the ballgame as left fielder Ryan Schimpf capped a six-run stanza with a three-run homer to right. Rookie right-hander Preston Claiborne came out of the pen to put the fire out and the Green Wave held on to complete the regular-season sweep of LSU for the third time since 2001.

Tulane Recap

Southern Miss 13, Nicholls State 5

Southern Miss’ Trey Cuevas and Michael Ewing each finished with three hits and four RBIs to lead the Golden Eagles to a 13-5 victory over Nicholls State, tonight, at Pete Taylor Park/Hill Denson Field in front of 2,467 in attendance.

Cuevas finished with a single in the first inning, a grand slam in the second inning and a single in the fourth inning. Michael Ewing had a triple to center field in the second inning, a walk in the third inning, a sacrifice fly to center in the fourth inning, a three-run homer to right field in the sixth inning and a single through the right side in the seventh inning.

Jared Cavenaugh (2-0) earned his second win of the season, pitching six innings, giving up five runs, four earned, on six hits, walking two and striking out seven batters. JR Ballinger pitched two innings, giving up one hit and striking out one, and Ben Wade pitched the ninth inning and had a strikeout.

Southern Miss Recap

Baylor 12, Houston 6

Baylor scored nine runs over the final four innings on the way to a 12-6 win against the University of Houston baseball team Tuesday during a non-conference game at Baylor Ballpark.

The Bears took advantage of a hit and error to score two runs in the sixth inning and grab the lead for good and then broke the game open with four runs off three hits and another Cougar miscue one inning later to split the regular-season series against the Cougars. UH enjoyed a 4-2 win over the Bears on Feb. 9 during the first day of the Houston College Classic at Minute Maid Park.

Baylor added three more run in the eighth inning during its final at bat for the final margin of victory.

Houston Recap

Rice 5, Prairie View A&M 4

Junior left fielder Jordan Dodson delivered the game-winning hit with one out in the bottom of the ninth-inning to cap a late two-run rally and propel the eighth-ranked Rice baseball team to a 5-4 victory over upset-minded Prairie View Tuesday evening at Reckling Park in Houston.

Dodson’s ninth inning game-winner was on the heals of an emotional boost in the top of the eighth inning when junior reliever Cole St.Clair made his long-awaited debut for the 2007 season. The left-hander fired a solid shutout inning that halted the first Prairie View rally after the Panthers cut the Rice lead to a single run, 3-2. St.Clair entered the game with one run already in, a man in scoring position and nobody out. The consensus preseason all-America selection got a fly out, which was enough to advance the runner to third, and he hit the next batter. With men on the corners, St.Clair quickly made up for the hit batsman by picking the runner off first base. He then batted down a line-shot back to the mound, which he managed to corral and flip to first to end the inning.

Rice Recap

Louisville 17, Marshall 1

The Marshall University baseball team suffered a 17-1 setback to Louisville at Jim Patterson Stadium on Tuesday on the strength of eight Cardinal home runs, three of which came in a 10-run third inning. The game was called in the top of the sixth inning due to thunderstorms.

Louisville fell behind 1-0 on a Brendan Murphy (Chattanooga, Tenn.) RBI groundout in the first inning that scored Thundering Herd leadoff man Mason Chapman (Barboursville, W.Va.). The Cardinals then wasted no time getting their offense going, hitting two home runs in the bottom of the first to take a 3-1 lead. Justin McClanahan hit a two-run shot off starter Ryan Kiel (Los Gatos, Calif.), then two batters later Chris Dominguez hit a solo homer.

Marshall Recap

Thanks to Raymond Reeves for forwarding me all this information. He is much help with Conference USA coverage.

Tags: Baylor, Houston, Louisville, LSU, Marshall, Nicholls State, Prairie View AM, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulane

Bethune-Cookman has been named the top team in the nation in by BlackCollegeBaseball.com. They are the defending champions of the MEAC conference where they went 30-27. They tied Prairie View A&M in 2006 in the final poll. The top ranked team in the lower division poll is West Virginia State who went 45-9-1 in 2006.

Tags: Bethune Cookman, HBCU, Prairie View AM