We recently came across the 2009 tentative schedules for the Youngstown State Penguins and the Yale Bulldogs. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM CBB NEWS SOURCES

Game 1: Brown 2 Penn 1
Game 2: Penn 6 Brown 4

Philadelphia, PA - Senior pitcher Alex Silverman (Wilmington, NC) out-pitched Penn ace Todd Roth, with a little help from his closer, to help the Brown baseball team (7-11, 1-3 Ivy League) pick up its first Ivy League win in a split with Penn (7-9-1, 1-2-1 Ivy League) on Sunday at Meiklejohn Stadium. Silverman went 6.1 innings before giving way to senior closer Rob Hallberg (River Edge, NJ) for the final two outs in the Bears’ 2-1 game one win, before Penn’s five-run rally in the fifth inning of game two led to a 6-4 Quaker win for the split. Read the rest of this entry »

For the second time in a week, an Ivy League program defeated an SEC team this time the Yale Bulldogs went down to Columbia SC and defeated the number 4 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks. The Bulldogs used four pitchers in the game while allowing South Carolina to only five hits. Yale starter Stefan Schropp pitched the first five innings of the game allowing only three hits and one run. He was followed by Chris Walsh who struggled through 1.1 innings while giving up two hits and two runs. Read the rest of this entry »

We continue to bring you season preview for the 2008 season.

Wake Forest Season Preview
Yale Season Preview
Stanford Season Preview
Michigan State Season Preview Part 2: Pitchers and Catchers
Lafayette Season Preview
Navy Season Preview
Missouri Season Preview: Outfield
Miami (OH) Season Preview: Infielders
Rutgers Season Preview from Gotham Baseball Magazine

FROM PRESS RELEASE
NEW HAVEN, Conn.–The 2008 Yale baseball schedule was announced today. The 46-game slate includes 20 conference games and 15 home contests at Yale Field.

The season gets underway with a three-game series at George Washington on March 1-2. The Bulldogs and Colonials will square off in a doubleheader on March 1, then a single game the following day. Read the rest of this entry »

The CBB will be providing conference previews throughout the preseason. We start this week with the Ivy League. I know you would rather see us preview the ACC or SEC but I have a guilty pleasure for the Ivy League. It is very competitive baseball that is a must-see for a baseball junkie like myself. The Brown Bears won the Ivy League title with a two game sweep over the Penn Quakers. Brown ended up winning the Red Rolfe Division over Harvard by two games while Penn ended up winning the Lou Gehrig Division by only a single game over Princeton. Read the rest of this entry »

The College Baseball Blog is continuing their series of previews on the Top Players in the Country with our second edition of the Top Position Players for 2008.

Zach Putnam, Michigan

When Putnam signed with the Wolverines in November of 2005, he was immediately tabbed as an impact player. Rated the #3 High School player by Baseball American as a Senior, he presented an intriguing two-way prospect. In the two years since, he has emerged as just that. As a Freshman, he earned Freshman All-America honors on the hill, going 6-2 with a 2.51 ERA and a save. He struggled at the plate, but emerged as a hitting threat in the Outfield and at DH as a Sophomore. He hit .330 with 8 Homeruns and 59 RBI to complement an 8-5 record with a 3.87 ERA. He starred in the Corvallis Super-Regional, carrying a no-hitter into the ninth inning against eventual NCAA champion Oregon State. Putnam features excellent mechanics on the hill, with a fastball that sits in the low 90s, a slurvy slider and a changeup with excellent tail. At the plate, Putnam shows good contact (1:10 K:AB ratio) and solid power potential. Putnam projects to be the Big10’s top player and figures to join Nate Recknagel and Derek VanBuskirk in leading Coach Maloney’s Wolverines to a pre-season top 25 ranking.

Dustin Ackley (UNC)

Dustin Ackley is a 6′1 184 pound sophomore outfielder/first basemen. He had one of the best seasons in the history of college baseball for a freshman. He finished the season with a .402 average while starting all 73 games in 2007. Ackley picked up consensus national freshman of the year award from Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, and Rivals.com. Dustin should be able to lead the Tar Heels back to Omaha as they try to make their third straight appearance in the CWS Championship series.

Allan Dykstra (Wake Forest)

Allan Dykstra is entering his junior season after having two stellar seasons with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Dykstra stands at 6-5 225 pounds and hits from the left side. Dykstra has had impressive power numbers in his first two seasons hitting 15 homers as a freshman and 18 as a sophomore. He has also spend his first two summers in the Cape Cod League where he starred for the Chatham A’s. In the CCBL, He hit .308 with five homers and 31 RBI in forty games. The CBB took in a game in 2007 when Dykstra went 2-8 in a 17 inning loss to Boston College. Dykstra came up in many key situations but could not deliver any key hits to take control of the game. A full report on this game is available here. Wake Forest should be able to make a run into the top four of the ACC behind Dykstra’s bat in the middle of the order.

Dennis Raben (Miami FL)

Dennis Raben enters his junior season looking to bring the Miami Hurricanes back to the promise land after a disappointing 2007. Raben is a 6-3 220 pound outfielder who also chips in occasionally as a pitcher. Raben had a solid 2007 season as he hit .280 with 12 homers. He picked up many awards this summer including being named the third best prospect in the Cape Cod League by Perfect Game Crosschecker. He hit .298 with six homers against the top pitching in the country. Some scouts expect Raben to move to first base after college because of his side. He can’t play first base at Miami because Yonder Alonso is already taking that spot and is one of the best players in the nation.

Ryan Lavarnway (Yale)

Ryan is a 6′3 210 pound catcher from Yale who might be the best player in the Northeast. He led the nation in batting average (.467) and slugging percentage (.873) during the 2007 season. He broke the Ivy League hitting streak record with a 25 game streak which carried over from the final 2 games of the 2006 seasons which was carried over in the first 23 games of the season. The CBB saw Lavarnway in a doubleheader at Harvard where he showed a strong bat but needs some work behind the plate as he was having problems making throws down to second base including some going into the outfield. Full Report on the doubleheader is available here. This is a player to watch in 2008 that might not be on everyone’s radar. The CBB will see the Yale Bulldogs this spring against Harvard, Brown, or Penn.

Thanks to NYDore for helping out with some of the previews.

Doug Kroll of CSTV checks in with an article about the top catchers in the nation. He talks about Buster Posey of FSU being the top backstop in the nation. Posey is entering his junior season but only his second season behind the plate. The CBB will be checking out Posey this season when the Seminoles visit BC on April 11th-13th. Petey Paramore of Arizona State is listed in the second spot and should put up huge numbers in 2008 on one of the top offensive teams. Rounding out the top five is Tim Federowicz of UNC, Phil Disher of South Carolina, and Doug Hogan of Clemson. I am surprised that Ryan Lavarnway of Yale was not anywhere in his top five or on the players to watch list. The full article is available here.

The Yale Bulldogs have released their 2008 schedule. They will open the season on March 1st when they start a three game set against George Washington. They will then head out on a 15 day road trip where they will play 15 games against seven different opponents including perennial national power South Carolina on March 11th and 12th. The Bulldogs will play conference opponents Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, and Brown at Yale Field. The Bulldogs have conference road games against Penn, Columbia, Brown, and Dartmouth. Yale will play interstate rival UConn in Storrs on March 26th and Quinnipiac in Hamden on April 2nd. The full schedule for the Bulldogs is available here.

The Quinnipiac Bobcats knocked off the Yale Bulldogs over the weekend by a score of 5-2. The Bobcats took advantage of a key Bulldog error in the bottom of the third which gave the Bobcats an early 2-0 lead. The Bobcats would extend the lead to get the 5-2 victory. In the consolation game, Southern Connecticut State knocked off New Haven 8-2. A full recap is available here.

Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC has released their 2008 schedule. The 2008 season will be the first year that the College has competed in Division 1 and will join the Big South Conference in 2009. They will open the season at UNC Asheville on February 22nd for a three game set. Some of the other highlights on the schedule is a visit from Yale for two games and heading to Tennessee, taking on Clemson in Greenville SC, and taking part in the Coastal Carolina Tournament where they will take on Michigan, Ball State, and the hosts Coastal Carolina. The full schedule is available here.

The Yale Athletic Department has a press release on the success of some Bulldogs this summer. Ryan Lavarnway hit .313 this summer with the Manchester Silkworms (NECBL). Lavarnway was up for several national player of the year awards during the 2007 season. He is expected to be drafted in 2008 according to several MLB scouts in the top 10 rounds. The article also discusses Steve Gilman who played with the Glacier Pilots of the Alaskan League, Chris Walsh for the Monroe Channelcats in the Southern Collegiate League, and Brian Irving who stayed around home by playing in the West Haven Twilight League. The full article is available by clicking here.

The College Baseball Blog had the chance to visit Cambridge MA on Saturday to take in some Ivy League Baseball action between the Harvard Crimson and Yale Bulldogs. The Crimson took both games of the doubleheader.

In Game 1, They received a very solid pitching performance from freshman Max Perlman who pitched a complete game allowing only three hits and a home run to Justin Ankney who crushed the first pitch of the sixth inning over the right field fence. The Crimson took advantage of five errors by the Bulldog defense including one by Dan Soltman and Ryan Lavarnway.

In Game 2, Shawn Haviland started for the Crimson and gave them eight shutout innings while only giving up seven hits. Jake Bruton pitched a perfect ninth to close out the doubleheader sweep. The Crimson offense was led by Matt Vance who went 2-4 with 3 RBIs. Yale starter Chris Wietlispach only lasted four innings while giving up all six runs (three earned) on five hits and three walks. The Yale defense did not back him up at all as Dan Soltman and Ryan Lavarnway each committed two errors in the nightcap.

The CBB was impressed with the level of pitching from the Harvard Crimson. They were able to throw a freshman in game 1 of the doubleheader and he was unhittable. The Bulldogs were off balance throughout the game. Steffan Wilson who plays third base for Harvard is a definite MLB prospect as he has all the tools scouts are looking for in an athlete. He made an excellent play on defense in which he charged a ball and threw out the runner by about three steps. The Harvard coaching staff also took advantage of many situations which arose in the game. They used a double steal (1st and 2nd) with two outs and an 0-2 count on the hitter which ended up getting the Crimson an extra run.

The College Baseball Blog might head down to Brown next weekend to see the battle for the Red Rolfe Division lead.

Harvard Recap
Yale Recap

The College Baseball Blog will be making the trip down to Kingston RI to check in on the Charlotte 49ers and Rhode Island Rams on Saturday. The 49ers enter the weekend ranked as the 25th team in the country by the NCBWA. The 49ers have an overall record of 26-6 and 8-1 in the Atlantic 10. The 49ers weekend starters all have ERA’s under 2.66.

Charlotte Game Notes
URI Game Notes

The CBB will try to head to Cambridge on Sunday (weather permitting) to take in the Harvard-Yale doubleheader which is a key Red Rolfe Division showdown in the Ivy League Conference. The Crimson have a 5-3 record in the conference while Yale is 3-5. Both teams are looking to pick up some key wins hoping to get into the Ivy League Championship series at the end of the year.

Harvard Game Notes

Theron Minium picked up his first career victory for The Ohio State University in a 11-3 victory over Yale. He pitched six innings while only allowing two runs. The Buckeyes scored runs in each of the first four innings to build a 6-0 lead. They were able to hold on to it for the final scoreline of 11-3. Ohio State has Tuesday off before facing Yale again on Wednesday. Yale will play Jacksonville State on Tuesday before playing the Buckeyes in the rematch.

Ohio State Recap
Yale Recap