The UNC-Wilmington Baseball team heads to Wake Forest for a three game weekend series. The Seahawks enter the series coming off a loss to NC State on Tuesday evening while Wake Forest is coming off an exciting walk-off victory also on Tuesday with Charlotte. The pitching match-ups are Wake Forest pitcher Brad Kledzik (0-1, 5.40 ERA) facing Ryan Doolittle (0-0, 3.68) on Friday. The Demon Deacons will send Eric Nielsen (1-0, 4.05 ERA) to the mound on Saturday to face Bradley Holt (1-1, 7.43 ERA). The series finale will have Wake Forest sending Garrett Bullock (1-0, 1.50 ERA) facing UNC-Wilmington’s Daniel Cropper (1-1, 5.51 ERA).

Wake Forest Series Notes
UNC-Wilmington Series Notes

The George Mason Patriots will take on the top ranked Clemson Tigers this weekend in a three game set. The pitching match up this weekend will be J.J. Pannell of George Mason facing P.J. Zocchi of Clemson on Friday evening. Saturday’s match up will be Matt Modica (GM) facing David Kopp (Clemson) and the final game of the series will be Ryan Brecko (GM) facing Ryan Hinson (Clemson). This should be an interesting series since George Mason always has a strong team and both teams are opening the season this weekend.

George Mason Game Notes
Clemson Game Notes
George Mason Season Preview

Florida State Head Coach Mike Martin is nearing a milestone of taking over the number 4 spot in collegiate baseball wins. If Mike Martin Sr. is able to sweep Hofstra and pick up the victory over Florida in their mid-week game, he will move into sole possession of fourth place. This has been a very good year for Mr. Martin because he was named to the ABCA on January 5th. The Tallahassee Democrat wrote a real good article about Martin reaching this milestone. It can be read here.

The FSU Seminoles will welcome Hofstra to Tallahassee this weekend for a three game set. Hofstra has played in one series this year and were swept by Auburn last weekend. The Seminoles enter the series at 6-0 with consecutive sweeps over Tennessee and UNC-Asheville.

FSU Series Notes
Hofstra Series Notes

The Maryland Terrapins will be heading down to Orlando, FL for a 3-game set with the University of Central Florida. The Terps are coming into the game with a 2-1 record after a loss to Winthrop and victories over Gardner-Webb and Creighton. The Golden Knights are entering the series with a 2-3 record on the young season. TCU took two out of three games last weekend. Friday and Saturday’s games will start at 4pm while Sunday’s will be start at 1pm.

UCF Game Notes
Maryland Game Notes

The USC Trojans and the Dirtbags of Long Beach State will meet in a weird 3 game set. USC will play at home on Friday and Sunday while LBSU will host the game on Saturday. USC is coming off an impressive victory over Cal Poly to get Chad Kreuter’s first career victory. The starter’s for this weekend series are as followed: Friday-Vance Worley (LBSU) vs Ryan Cook (USC), Saturday-Manny McElroy (LBSU) vs Brandon Buxbaum (USC), Sunday- Omar Arif (LBSU) vs Tommy Milone (USC). All these games should be interesting and fun. I will keep you readers informed about this series among others this weekend.

USC Game Notes
Long Beach State Game Notes
Press Telegram article about LBSU
LA Times article about Kreuter

Cal State Fullerton will open the season on Friday against Stanford. Fullerton is expected to start All-American pitcher Wes Roemer on Friday to face off against Stanford ace Nolan Gallagher. The Saturday match up is Jeff Kaplan facing off against Jeffrey Inman. The Sunday match up will be Jimmy Bleich taking the mound for the Cardinal while Sean Urena will make his first appearance as a Titan. Fullerton lost a ton of talent from last year’s team but at Fullerton you reload instead of rebuilding. Stanford should be ready this season to contend for the Pac 10 crown like usual.

Fullerton Game Notes
Stanford Game Notes
Scout.com article about the Cardinal

Both Florida State and Tennessee have posted game notes for the big series in Tallahassee this weekend. The Seminoles enter the series with many question marks with a pitching staff which is very low in experience. After Bryan Henry, The Noles are planning on starting Micheal Hyde who really was like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde last season and they are still TBA on a Sunday starter. They will also be without Luke Tucker who is still sitting on the sidelines with a sore pitching arm. The Vols are not without injuries either. They will be missing Julio Borbon who was expected to start in center field this season but will be out another 6-8 weeks with a broken ankle. He was one of the best players on the USA National team this summer.

Vols Game Notes
FSU Game Notes
SEBaseball article about the series

The Texas Longhorns will begin the season tomorrow in Round Rock TX against the San Diego Toreros. San Diego swept a series from Cal Poly to jump out to a 3-0 record in the early season. Guest Contributor Donald J. Boyles was nice enough to write a nine page preview on the Longhorns season which is linked below. I have also linked both schools game notes.

San Diego Game Notes
Texas Game Notes
Austin American-Statesman Article
Projected lineup from Austin American-Statesman
Texas Season Preview from Donald J. Boyles

The Georgia Southern Eagles are in Hawaii this weekend to play 3 games against the Warriors of Hawaii. The Eagles will be opening the season with this three game series while Hawaii took two out of three games from Santa Clara. The entire series can be heard for free here.

Georgia Southern Season Preview
Georgia Southern Day 1
Georgia Southern Day 2
Hawai’i Game Notes

The Winthrop Eagles are making the trip across the country to visit the UCLA Bruins. This is an interesting match-up since Winthrop has an attitude that they will play anyone anywhere. They have scheduled Rice in 2008 and USC in 2009 already. The Eagles finished second in the Big South Conference in 2006 with a 46-18 record. They received an at-large berth to the Chapel Hill Regional where they were eliminated. Winthrop returns one of the top pitchers in the country in Alex Wilson who compiled a record of 13-3 with a 3.78 ERA.

UCLA is coming off an NCAA appearance in the Malibu Regional in which they ended their season. The Bruins returning pitching is suspect as they start Tyson Brummett on Friday who went 6-7 with a 4.52 ERA. They follow that up with Paul Schmidt who had no record but a 2.25 ERA and they start freshman Gavin Brooks on Sunday.

Rivals.com Preview
UCLA Game Notes
Winthrop Game Notes

The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks are opening the season this weekend with the Red Raiders of Texas Tech. The Lumberjacks are entering the second season since they restarted the program. The program was dormant for 11 years but came back with 15 wins in the first season. Texas Tech is coming off a 31-26-1 season in 2006. They return a fab four of sophomores in Roger Kieschnick, Miles Morgan, Willie Rueda, and James Leverton. All four should be key players for the Red Raiders to improve on their season in 2007.

UPDATE: They have postponed Game 1 of the series until Saturday and Game 2 will take place on Sunday. Game 3 has been canceled. Full release here.

Texas Tech Game Notes
Stephen F. Austin Notes

The Dons of San Francisco will be visiting Fresno State this weekend to open the season for both schools. San Francisco made the NCAA tournament where they lost to Miami, then knocked off the hosts Nebraska, then bowed out to Manhattan.

Fresno State also made the NCAA tournament last season but made the Regional Championship game at Cal State Fullerton. They were not able to get by the Titans but won 45 games which was the highest total since the 1988 season.

The pitching match ups this weekend will be very interesting. Friday night San Francisco will be starting Aaron Poreda while the Bulldogs will counter with Brandon Miller. Saturday’s starters will be Jason Dufloth for the Dons and Fresno is planning to start Brandon Burke. The Dons in the final game have lined up Matt Baugh to face an unannounced pitcher.

San Francisco notes
Fresno State notes