FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

Cullowhee, N.C. - Senior J.C. Lyons rapped a game-winning single to left field with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning of a five-inning contest Thursday evening as the Gold Squad seized game one of the Western Carolina Catamount Baseball Fall World Series with a 3-2 extra inning victory.

Sophomore Matt Johns opened the second extra frame with a one-out double before advancing to third following a two-out intentional pass and a hit batsman. With the bases full, Lyons rifled a shot to left that dropped in for his lone base hit of the night allowing Johns to score the game winner for the Gold Squad, which wore the off-white, vintage uniforms.
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Tags: 2008 Fall Games, Southern Conference, Western Carolina

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina Catamount baseball team will wrap-up its annual fall drills with a three-game, intra-squad scrimmage set in the Fall World Series beginning Thursday (Nov. 6) and continuing Friday and Saturday.

Game times on Thursday and Friday are 4:15 pm, with first pitch in Saturday’s finale set for 11:15 am. All games are free and are open to the public.
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Tags: 2008 Fall Games, Southern Conference, Western Carolina

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

Western Carolina and second-year head coach Bobby Moranda today released their 2009 baseball schedule which features seven games against five teams that made the NCAA Baseball Championship tournament a season ago. The 55-game regular season schedule includes 28 home dates with a 30-game Southern Conference slate.

The season will culminate with the annual SoCon Baseball Tournament, May 20-24 at Fluor Field at the West End in Greenville, S.C., the home of the Greenville Drive, the Class A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. Opened in April of 2006, Fluor Field has similar dimensions as Fenway Park in Boston, including a 30-foot “Green Monster” in left field - seven feet shorter than its namesake.
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Tags: 2009 Schedules, Southern Conference, Western Carolina

Thomas Announces Incoming Class & Fall Schedule

FIU baseball head coach Turtle Thomas announced his 2008 incoming class on Wednesday, as well as a schedule of events for the fall.

“Our goal is to improve our program every year and that comes through the recruiting efforts of our staff,” said Thomas.
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Tags: Atlantic Sun, CAA, Conference USA, FIU, Georgia State, Kennesaw State, Marshall, Pac 10, Southern Conference, Sun Belt, UCLA, Western Carolina

PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Right-hander Andrew Carraway (Virginia) pitched the Hyannis Mets to two victories to capture Coca-Cola Pitcher of the Week honors in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the seven-day period ending June 21. Carraway worked the first 51/3 innings to beat Falmouth, 1-0, on Monday, and followed with a five-inning stint and a 4-1 decision over Wareham on Saturday. He did not allow a run in either start and he gave up just seven hits in the 101/3 innings he pitched. Against Falmouth, he struck out seven and did not walk a batter. He whiffed seven more batters against Wareham while issuing a single base on balls. The 6-2, 200-pound junior was picking up right where he left off with the Cavaliers this spring. In 15 appearances spanning 751/3 innings, he struck out 87 and walked only 12. As a sophomore in 2007, he compiled a 5-0 record and led the Cavs in innings pitched by a reliever with 42. Carraway spent the summer of 2007 pitching for the Newport Gulls of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, where he was 3-1 with a 2.19 ERA.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Versatile Nick Liles (Western Carolina) opened his first season in the Cape Cod Baseball League in a manner most players can only dream about. The 6-2, 175-pound infielder/outfielder split his time between right field and third base and ended the week with a league-leading .444 batting average. His outstanding performance resulted in his selection as Coca-Cola Player of the Week for the seven-day period ending June 21. Liles hit safely in every Yarmouth-Dennis game until going 0-for-2 Saturday night at Falmouth (although he was on base twice with walks in that game). He had four multiple-hit games last week, including a 3-for-6 effort against Harwich and a 2-for-4 performance at Wareham in which he also scored twice, drove in three runs and stole three bases as the Red Sox posted a come-from-behind 11-7 victory over the Gatemen. Liles starts the second full week of Cape League play as the league leader in batting average (tied at .444), hits (tied at 10), RBI (7) and stolen bases (6). Last summer, Liles hit .317 for the Florence (S.C.) RedWolves of the Coastal Plains League.

Tags: ACC, Cape Cod League, Southern Conference, UVA, Western Carolina

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

UNC 17 Charlotte 0

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - No. 2 North Carolina pounded out a season-high 22 hits and had five pitchers combine on a four-hit shutout in a 17-0 win over Charlotte Tuesday at Robert and Mariam Hayes Stadium. The Tar Heels (35-7) became the first team in the nation to reach the 35-win mark and extended their season-best winning streak to 10 games with the victory. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: ACC, ACC Recap, Atlantic Sun, Big East, Big South, Boston College, CAA, Charlotte, Clemson, Duke, Elon, Georgetown, GT, Harvard, Ivy League, Maryland, Mercer, Old Dominion, Radford, Southern Conference, UNC, UNC-Greensboro, UVA, VT, Wake Forest, Western Carolina

We will be providing Daily Recaps on Conference USA throughout the season. All the recaps are excerpts from the Press Releases. Click on the respective schools link at the bottom of the recap for the full release.

Southern Miss 6 Lipscomb 3

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss hitters started cold but rallied to overcome a early 3-0 deficit to win 6-3 Saturday evening in front of 3,322 fans at Pete Taylor Park. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Atlantic Sun, Big Ten, Big West, Conference USA, Conference USA Recap, East Carolina, FAMU, Horizon League, Houston, Lipscomb, Marshall, MEAC, Memphis, Ohio State, Pacific, SEC, South Carolina, Southern Conference, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB, UIC, Western Carolina

We will be providing Daily Recaps on Conference USA throughout the season. All the recaps are from the school’s press releases.

Central Florida 17, Florida A&M 1

ORLANDO, Fla. (www.ucfathletics.com) - A festive crowd of 1,282 ventured to Opening Day at Jay Bergman Field Friday and had a lot to cheer about as UCF routed Florida A&M, 17-1. The Knights’ 17 runs tied a school record for most in a season-opener, as they also Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Atlantic Sun, Ball State, Big East, Big West, Conference USA, Conference USA Recap, FAMU, Houston, Lipscomb, Long Beach State, MAC, Marshall, Memphis, Pacific, Rice, Seton Hall, Southern Conference, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB, UCF, UIC, Western Carolina

FROM CONFERENCE PRESS RELEASE
College of Charleston, 2007 Southern Conference regular-season co-champion, is the favorite to win the 2008 crown according to a vote of the league’s coaches. The Cougars picked up five of a possible 10 first place votes and finished with a total of 86 votes. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2008 Preseason Poll, Appalachian State, College of Charleston, Davidson, Elon, Furman, Southern Conference, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, Western Carolina, Wofford

CSTV Editor Doug Kroll checks in with his weekly article about some of the off-season coaching moves.  The biggest move was George Horton heading to Oregon to restart the Duck program. This set off a chain reaction as UC-Irvine head coach Dave Serrano went to Fullerton while former USC coach Mike Gillespie came out of retirement to take over the UC-Irvine job. He also talks about Kevin O’Sullivan who took over Florida after being an assistant with Clemson, Turtle Thomas went down to Florida International from Arizona State where he was a longtime assistant, and finally with Todd Raliegh taking over Tennessee after being the head coach at Western Carolina. The full article is available here.

Tags: ACC, Arizona State, Big West, Clemson, CSTV, Doug Kroll, FIU, Florida, Oregon, SEC, Southern Conference, Tennessee, UC-Irvine, Western Carolina

The College Baseball Blog took some time off for the Holiday so we are catching up on some the schedules that we missed that were released over the last week. Some of the big time programs that have released a schedule are Kansas led by Ritch Price expects to compete for the 2008 Big 12 title and Notre Dame who looks to return to prominence under second year head coach Dave Schrage. The links to schedules are available below.

Kansas
Notre Dame
Western Carolina
St. John’s
Cincinnati
Memphis

Tags: Big 12, Big East, Cincinnati, Conference USA, Kansas, Memphis, Notre Dame, Southern Conference, St. John's, Western Carolina

Bobby Moranda has started up fall practice with his Western Carolina squad. He is entering his first season as the head coach of the Catamount program. He was with the Georgia Tech program for six seasons under Danny Hall. Asheville Citizen-Times writer Tyler Norris Goode checked in on Fall practice recently where he recognized a change in philosophy. The full article is available here.

Tags: Western Carolina

FROM VALLEY BASEBALL LEAGUE
Baseball website PGcrosschecker.com recently compiled its list of the top 20 players in the Valley Baseball League. The list was compiled by Allan Simpson with input from the league’s managers and scouts.

Similar to the recently released Baseball America list, PG Crosschecker identified Winchester’s Luke Greinke as the league’s top prospect. He was also the league MVP. He was followed by Covington outfielder Jason Kipnis, but then six of the next seven players listed were pitchers.

Simpson noted that league officials felt that the 2007 season saw a jump in overall talent around the league, in particular in the pitching department. The numbers appear to support that assertion. In 2007, league pitchers as a whole had a 3.70 earned run average while hitters had a .247 batting average as a league. In 2006, hitters posted a .258 average while pitchers compiled a 3.88 ERA, and the year before saw a .257 batting average and 3.97 ERA as a league.

While Waynesboro finished first in the regular season and won the Jim Lineweaver Cup as league champions, the Generals placed just three players in the top 20 and none higher than #11. In fact, many of the top prospects come from the lower half of the standings. Simpson noted that was a sign of the league’s improved depth.

PGCrosschecker.com Valley League Top 20 Prospects

1. Luke Greinke, UT, Winchester (Auburn)

2. Jason Kipnis, OF, Covington (Arizona State)

3. Zac Blakney, RHP, Fauquier (Montevallo)

4. Shayne Moody, SS, Woodstock (Charlotte)

5. Ashur Tolliver, LHP, Harrisonburg (Arkansas-Little Rock)

6. Donald Jordat, RHP, Luray (Miami-Dade C.C.)

7. Rob Gilliam, RHP, Luray (UNC Greensboro)

8. Tim Sexton, RHP, Staunton (Miami-Dade C.C.)

9. Josh Judy, RHP, Haymarket (Indiana Tech)

10. Tyler Kuhn, SS/2B, Luray (West Virginia)

11. Pat Irvine, C/OF, Waynesboro (Elon)

12. Garrett Parker, RHP, Harrisonburg (Oklahoma City)

13. Bobby Hernandez, RHP, Staunton (Barry)

14. Josh Eidell, RHP, Woodstock (Villanova)

15. Elih Villanueva, RHP, Luray (Florida State)

16. Jeremy Cruz, 1B, Luray (Stetson)

17. Chris Masters, LHP, New Market (Western Carolina)

18. Brandon Sizemore, 2B, Waynesboro (Charleston)

19. Kurt Davidson, C/1B, Waynesboro (Akron)

20. Dustin Umberger, RHP, Luray (Liberty)

Full scouting reports from the summer on each player are available here. A subscription is required to view the insider-level reports.

 

Tags: ACC, Akron, Auburn, Barry, Charlotte, College of Charleston, Elon, FSU, Liberty, Perfect Game, Stetson, UNC-Greensboro, Valley Baseball League, Villanova, West Virginia, Western Carolina

Nick Mingione and David Haverstick have recently been added to Bobby Moranda’s staff at Western Carolina. Nick Mingione comes from Kentucky where he served as a volunteer assistant coach for two season. David Haverstick comes from Savannah College of Art and Design where he served as the pitching coach for five seasons. He will continue in the role with the Catamounts. The full release is available here.

Tags: Western Carolina

Western Carolina has officially announced that Bobby Moranda will be the new head coach of the baseball program. He comes to the school from Georgia Tech where he was the associate head and pitching coach to Danny Hall for six seasons. He also spent time at Wake Forest in a similar position while starting his coaching career as an assistant with Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.

Full Release

Tags: Coaching Changes, Southern Conference, Western Carolina