FROM BIG SOUTH RELEASE
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – Coastal Carolina junior outfielder Rico Noel (Lawton, Okla.) has been named the Big South Conference’s Choice Hotels Player of the Week, and Chanticleers hurler Anthony Meo (Cranston, R.I.) has been named The Crons Brand Pitcher of the Week for games played May 10-16, it was announced today by the League office.
FROM BIG TEN RELEASE
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Kyle Knudson, Minnesota
Sr., C, Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove
Knudson earns Big Ten Player of the Week honors after leading Minnesota to a series sweep over Penn State, propelling the Golden Gophers into sole possession of first place in the Big Ten standings. The catcher batted .615, reached base at a .643 clip and slugged at a 1.308 average, combining for an OPS of 1.951. Knudson’s best game came on Sunday as he went 5-for-5 on his Senior Day, driving in three runs and scoring two with a home run and a triple. The Maple Grove, Minn., native totaled five runs scored and six RBI for the weekend, also knocking four extra-base hits, including a pair of long balls. The weekly accolade is the first of Knudson’s career and the second for a Minnesota hitter this season.
FROM IVY LEAGUE RELEASE
PRINCETON, N.J. — In what could very well be unprecedented, the 2010 Ivy season saw its champion win the title without a single representative on the All-Ivy first-team selections.
The Dartmouth Big Green (Rolfe Division) emerged in a three-game series against host Columbia (Gehrig Division) and will travel to the NCAA as the Ivy League representative. However, unlike a year ago when Bob Whalen’s club won its first championship in 22 years, the boys from Hanover won without any household names. It was a classic case that the sum of the Dartmouth team was stronger than its individual parts. If Dartmouth needed offense, timely hitting and intelligent base running emerged to manufacture runs. If they needed to keep the score low, the pitching staff responded. The combination of opportunistic offense and stout defense was effective, as the Big Green finished the regular season 26-17.
Assistant editor Mark Rafferty sent me a message asking if Bryce Harper was going to win the Golden Spikes award. My first response to him was that there was no way that a junior college player would win the Golden Spikes award. Come to find out, Alex Fernandez picked up the Golden Spikes award in 1990 out of Miami-Dade Community College.
Three of Sunday’s contests were decided by late game shots. The first, is from Cody Keefer of UCLA off of USC’s Chad Smith. UCLA was one out away from being shutout, when with 2 down in the Bottom of the 9th Keefer sent a 2-1 pitch deep to right for his second long ball of the season. The second video is from Kentucky and LSU, in which Kentucky’s Marcus Nidiffer hit a grand slam off of Tiger pitcher Matty Ott with one out in the 8th to give the Wildcats the runs needed to sweep LSU. The last video comes from John Hicks of Virginia who hit a walkoff homer to cap a weekend sweep over the North Carolina Tar Heels. (Check out the video by clicking here.)
FROM PATRIOT LEAGUE RELEASE
Center Valley, Pa. – Bucknell and Holy Cross grabbed the last two spots in the Patriot League Baseball Tournament, but they made the most of those positions by taking out the top two seeds in the finales of best-of-three semifinal series on Sunday. No. 4 Bucknell won at No. 1 Army, 11-7, while No. 3 Holy Cross shutout No. 2 Lehigh, 3-0, to complete series victories on the road.
The Bison and Crusaders will now meet in a three-game Patriot League Championship series played in Worcester. The game dates will be announced on Monday, but the series will shift from the original Saturday-Sunday schedule because of Bucknell’s commencement on Sunday morning.
Here is your SEC Recap for May 16th.
#6 Florida 9 Georgia 3
No. 4 Florida (37-12/20-7 SEC) completed its first sweep of Georgia (14-36/3-22 SEC) at McKethan Stadium since 2000 with a 9-3 victory on Sunday afternoon in front of 4,324 fans. The three-game attendance of 14,619 was the highest for a weekend series in school history. The Gators broke open a 2-1 contest by scoring seven runs with two down in the sixth to remain tied on top of the Southeastern Conference standings entering their final series of the regular season at No. 7 South Carolina (41-11/20-7 SEC).
“We gave up one walk, that was positive,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “(Brian) Johnson had a quality start again, pitching into the sixth, and really battled when (Zach) Cone had the leadoff double. At that point it was a 2-1 game and (Jeff) Barfield came in and did a great job. I also thought (Anthony) DeSclafani was outstanding and that his stuff was good today. That’s encouraging.”
Here is your ACC Recap for May 16th.
#2 Virginia 5 #21 North Carolina 3
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – John Hicks (So., Sandy Hook, Va.) hit a three-run walk-off home run in the ninth inning as the top-ranked Virginia baseball team rallied to defeat No. 21 North Carolina, 5-3, Sunday afternoon at Davenport Field. Virginia won its 14th straight game and, in sweeping its first-ever three-game series from North Carolina, swept its third-consecutive ACC series.
Virginia drew a sellout crowd of 4,825 for the game – UVa’s sixth sellout of the season. For the weekend, a UVa record 13,294 fans attended the three-game series. With the win, UVa matched a program record with its 21st ACC victory of the year.
The College Baseball Blog will be hosting a Live Chat on Sunday, May 16th at 10:30pm. (NOTE THE CHANGE IN TIME). We will be discussing the past weekend of action around the college baseball world while taking questions from fans across the country. I will open the chat up around 8pm Eastern time and will start answering the questions around 10:30pm when I get out of work. Read the rest of this entry »
Here is your Patriot League Semifinal Recap for May 15th. Both series saw the teams split the doubleheader setting up a winner take all game 3 on Sunday.
Game 1: Bucknell 11 Army 9
Game 2: Army 6 Bucknell 4
WEST POINT, N.Y. - Clint Moore blasted a three-run home run and Kevin McKague followed with a solo shot to highlight a five-run rally in the eighth inning as top-seeded Army staved off elimination with a dramatic 6-4 victory over fourth-seeded Bucknell in game two of the Patriot League Tournament Semifinal Series, Saturday afternoon at gusty Doubleday Field. Bucknell outlasted the Black Knights 11-9 in the opener, forcing the regular season champion to the brink of elimination in the best-of-three semifinal series.
Here is your SEC Recap for May 15th.
#6 Florida 4 Georgia 3
Sophomore Ben McMahan (Windermere, Fla.) led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo homer as No. 4 Florida (36-12/19-7 SEC) upended Georgia (14-35/3-21 SEC), 4-3, on Saturday afternoon in front of 4,932 fans at McKethan Stadium. The Bulldogs had tied the game in the top of the inning on a two-out RBI single before the Gators answered with their second-straight walk-off victory to clinch their seventh-consecutive league series.
With Florida holding a 3-2 lead, junior Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.)registered the first two outs in the ninth before sophomore third basemanJerico Weitzel (Ridgway, Pa.) misplayed sophomore Carson Schilling’s grounder for an error. After sophomore Peter Verdin lined a single off Chapman’s leg for two runners aboard, sophomore Johnathan Taylor (3-for-5) tied the game with a clutch single into center field that plated Schilling. However, Verdin was caught in a run-down between second and third to end the inning.
FROM BIG TEN CONFERENCE RELEASE
ILLINOIS def. PURDUE, 7-0
Recap and Box Score
Freshman Kevin Johnson tossed a complete-game shutout to lead Illinois to a 7-0 victory over Purdue on Saturday to even the series at 1-1. Johnson allowed six hits and two walks with four strikeouts en route to his fifth win of the season. Calvin Gunter took the loss for the Boilermakers. Casey McMurray led the Illini offense, going 2-for-2 with a double, two runs, two RBI and a pair of walks. Willie Argo went 2-for-4 with a double, a homer and a stolen base. Tyler Spillner paced Purdue at the plate with a 3-for-5 performance.
2012 CBD All-American Teams Announced
Top 100 Countdown: 1. Mark Appel (Stanford)
Top 100 Countdown: 2. Mike Zunino (Florida)
Top 100 Countdown: 3. Deven Marrero (Arizona State)
Top 100 Countdown: 4. Michael Roth (South Carolina)
