2/25/12

D1 Baseball - Friday Night Notes


·         There’s some pitchers starting to step up early and increase their value in the draft: 

o   Austin Maddox in three appearances this season out of the Florida bullpen: 1-0, two saves. 8.2 IP, 4 H, 0 BB, 0 R, 9 Ks 

o   South Carolina senior RHP, Michael Roth, threw seven no-hit innings. 

o   Marcus Stroman seems to be making the conversion to starter, finishing the night still in the 91-93 range. 

o   Line on Texas AM Michael Wacha Friday night: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 11 K (92 pitches/66 strikes). 

o   LSU Kevin Gausman – 7-IP, 0-R, 4-H, 7-K, 0-BB


·         Behind a dominating pitching performance from junior right-hander Calvin Drummond, and a 16 hit parade from the Torero offense, the University of San Diego baseball team (2-2) cruised to a 15-1 win over Kansas State University (2-3) Friday morning in a non-conference game at Cunningham Stadium.

I talked to Calvin after the game, who stressed “team” in his 2-0 record this season:

 “It is always great to start the season off well with two wins, but today it was much more important for our team to get on track. The first week or so of the season sets the tone for the rest of the season. We have a lot of new guys and we need to be confident going into games. We came in having lost a couple of games in a row so my focus today was to just come in with a ton of intensity and show our guys we can’t let that happen again because to be a championship contender, which is our goal, we can’t lose those kinds of games. In college baseball every game is extremely important; every game we are fighting for postseason seeding. Also, this weekend we have 4 games in 3 days so as a starting pitcher it’s my job to go deep in the game and not put too much stress on the bullpen, so I was happy I was able to go seven innings, even though it wasn’t pretty. My command wasn’t always there today but I was able to make some pitches in big situations. At times I was being too fine with my fastball that made my command a little erratic.  However I continued to battle with it early in the game and every time guys got on I knew I could get out of it with some of my other pitches. Late in the game I was able to settle in and challenge guys more, which helped me stay in the game. It’s always nice when our offense hits the way they did today too.”

·         Florida Gulf Coast University senior LHP Patrick Nathanson is out with a stress fracture in his left elbow. 

·         Second ranked South Carolina came one out away from a no-hitter and was backed by an offense that featured Christian Walker tallying two hits including a homer and five RBI as the Gamecocks defeated Elon 8-1 on Friday evening in game one of a three-game college baseball series. South Carolina improves to 4-0 on the year while the loss drops Elon to 4-1[i] 

·         DJ Baxendale turned in a quality start, giving up three runs in six innings, while six different Razorback hitters recorded two hits as No. 4 Arkansas defeated Valparaiso 7-3 in the series opener on Friday afternoon at Baum Stadium. Arkansas is now 6-0 on the season, while Valparaiso drops to 2-2 on the year.[ii] 

·         Junior righty Buck Farmer fanned a career-high 13 batters and the offense pounded out 15 hits as No. 10 Georgia Tech rolled past Ohio State, 12-4, Friday night in the opener of a three-game series at Russ Chandler Stadium. Sam Dove had three hits, while Chase Butler and Daniel Palka each homered for the Yellow Jackets (5-1), who led 9-1 after the fourth inning and never looked back in winning their fifth-straight game.[iii] 

·         Sophomore LHP Brian Ward (Milford, Conn.) tossed his second quality start in two tries and freshman center fielder Eric Yavarone (North Haven, Conn.) continued to roll at the plate as the University of Connecticut baseball team ran off with a 7-2 win over Xavier at the Cougar Invitational, hosted by the College of Charleston at Patriots Point, on Friday afternoon.  The Huskies evened their record at 2-2, while the Musketeers fell to 1-3.[iv] 

·         Ronnie Shaban had three hits, two RBI and earned the save on the mound to help Virginia Tech to a 7-4 victory over the West Virginia Mountaineers Friday afternoon in the first game of the Caravelle Resort’s Baseball at the Beach tournament at BB&T Coastal Field.[v] 

·         No. 6 North Carolina used the big inning to its advantage Friday night as the Tar Heels cruised to a 17-3 win over Wright State at Boshamer Stadium. Sophomore Kent Emanuel notched the win tossing six shutout innings to claim his second win of the year and ninth straight decision dating back to 2011[vi] 

·         The University of Maine baseball team opened the 2012 season with a 6-5 victory over #16 Clemson on Friday afternoon in Clemson, S.C. in front of 3,793 fans. Colin Gay (Franklin, Mass.) had a big two-run home run to initially put the Black Bears on the board. Fran Whitten (Westborough, Mass.) and Mike Connolly (Middleborough, Mass.) each had huge RBI singles in the top of the 8th as Maine scored two run to break a 4-4 tie.[vii] 

·         Behind a dominating pitching performance from junior right-hander Calvin Drummond, and a 16 hit parade from the Torero offense, the University of San Diego baseball team (2-2) cruised to a 15-1 win over Kansas State University (2-3) Friday morning in a non-conference game at Cunningham Stadium.  Drummond (2-0) picked up his second win of the season, as he allowed one run on six hits, while striking out eight batters in 7.0 innings of work. His counterpart, Matt Applegate (0-1), was saddled with the loss as he allowed five runs on six hits in 6.1 innings of work.[viii] 

·         Speed Checks: 

o   RHP Marcus Stroman – 93-94, 81-83 slider, 82 change, finished 91-93

o   Mississippi 2013 RHP Bobby Wahl – 89-93, 94

o   USF Kyle Zimmer – 96

o   Missouri Eric Anderson – 88-91

o   Stanford Mark Appel – 94-95

o   Baylor LHP Josh Turley – 85-87, 76-78 curve


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