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Showing posts with label NCAA Division I Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NCAA Division I Baseball. Show all posts
The college baseball post season is underway as the MEAC is having its baseball tournament in sunny Daytona Beach, FL.
An automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament is on the line as the winner of the tournament will advance to the Big dance. Bethune Cookman has won this tournament five straight times and is again the favorite to win it all this year.
The Wildcats went 18-0 in the regular season in MEAC games. On Wednesday they continued to dominate with an 18-5 win over arch rival ....
Grambling State did both the expected and the unexpected in its Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament opener Wednesday morning at Fair Grounds Field. The Tigers, the West’s No. 2 seed, shut out Mississippi Valley, 4-0, but did something they did not do in their run to last season’s tournament championship game -- commit an error.
“In the first game,” said GSU coach James Cooper, whose team will face either Texas Southern or Alcorn State today at 3 p.m.. “One of the best things a guy can do after he makes a mistake is to get another ball exactly like it to get his confidence (back).”
With the way Richard Bautista pitched, GSU (23-24) never lacked for confidence. The sophomore right-hander tossed a complete-game, six-hitter to improve to 7-2.
SHREVEPORT, La. - Prairie View A&M went toe-to-toe with Jackson State in its Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball tournament opener but came undone in the seventh inning en route to a 6-3 loss Wednesday afternoon at Fair Grounds Field.
Jackson State, the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Division, scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to erase a one-run deficit and advance to the winner's bracket. Prairie View, seeded third in the Western Division, will face the loser of Wednesday night's matchup between Western top seed Southern and Eastern fourth seed Alabama State at noon Thursday.
The Panthers (24-20) took a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth on RBI singles by Giovanni Angel and Evan Richard. Prairie View starter Michael Listi made that lead hold up through the next two innings but ran into trouble in the seventh.
Shreveport, LA - Grambling baseball coach James Cooper knows first-hand just how good Shreveport has been to his school. After all, it was less than a year ago when Cooper's Tigers stormed through the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament to secure an NCAA regional berth.
The Tigers' chance at an encore begins today at 9 a.m. when they face Mississippi Valley State at Fair Grounds Field in the first game of the 2011 SWAC Tournament.
"Shreveport has been good to the university," Cooper said. "We had the Port City Classic when the football team came and played (Louisiana) Tech last fall and we were able to win a championship here last year. We feel it's going to be a home game since we're right down the road." The Tigers (22-23) enter this year's tournament in a much different frame of mind than in 2010.
Daytona Beach, FL - Bethune-Cookman has a lot at stake in the first-round game of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament at 2 p.m. today. When the Wildcats take the field at Jackie Robinson Ballpark vs. Florida A&M, they will begin their defense of a conference championship they have won five consecutive years.
The Cats' are going for their sixth straight MEAC title and 13th overall.
Bethune-Cookman finished the season 32-22 overall and 18-0 in conference. It is the Wildcats' second straight 18-0 season in conference and their third undefeated season since 2006 when they went 15-0. The Wildcats have only lost four conference games since 2006 and they currently have an NCAA record of 43-straight wins against conference opponents. The last time the Wildcats dropped a conference game was May 2, 2009, at home against Delaware State.
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- He had eight players and no uniforms. Mathematics, the rules of baseball and logic tell you that might not be the most ideal way to build a college baseball program.
"The uniforms had vanished in the middle of the night," said first-year Alabama A&M baseball coach Ed McCann of the situation he inherited. And, as for his office, "it was early-auction furniture. It looked like it came over on the Mayflower."
That Alabama A&M has a baseball team may be news to some. That is has a chance to reach the Southwest Athletic Conference tournament by winning two of three against Jackson State in the next two days may be more shocking news. Even, he will confess, to Ed McCann.
As Texas Southern coach Michael Robertson emerged from a postgame huddle Sunday at Lee-Hines Field, he carried three things — his trademark slow-motion stroll, two weekend victories under his belt and the kind of grin money can’t buy. This, Robertson concluded, had been a nice trip to Baton Rouge.
It wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t have to be. It simply served as affirmation that the Tigers can compete with, and defeat, any opponent they face in the upcoming Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament.
Sunday afternoon, TSU scored four runs in the sixth inning and got a standout performance from starting pitcher Abel Flores en route to a 5-3 victory — one that gave the Tigers two wins over Southern on the final weekend of conference play.
DAYTONA BEACH -- Senior Joey Munoz couldn't remember the last time Bethune-Cookman lost a baseball game to a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference rival. Fellow senior Chris Anselmo, a junior college transfer, has never experienced a MEAC loss.
The Wildcats won their 43rd consecutive game against MEAC competition and finished undefeated in the conference for the second straight season Sunday with a 9-4 victory over Delaware State at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.
"To say I'm proud of what these guys have accomplished doesn't even begin to tell the story," said B-CU coach Mervyl Melendez, whose squad improved to 32-20 and finished 18-0 in the conference for the second straight year.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Wildcats definitely came to play as they wrapped up both the Delaware State series in a sweep, and the MEAC regular season with another perfect 18-0 record, Sunday at Jackie Robinson Ballpark. Bethune-Cookman extended their current win streak against conference opponents to an NCAA all-time record of 43 games, while making it consecutive perfect seasons in MEAC play. The Wildcats used three big innings to push past the Hornets, coming away with the 9-4 victory on Senior Day.
Donning their pink-tinged uniforms in honor of the Mother’s Day holiday, the Wildcats celebrated their eight outgoing seniors in a ceremony prior to the game. In the spirit of the holiday, ceremonial first pitches were thrown out by the wives of Head Coach Mervyl Melendez and Associate Head Coach Jose Vazquez, Aixa Melendez and Janna Vazquez.
“We’re grateful for their contributions to this program,” Melendez said of his seniors, “there was a whole lot of dedication and time that they have put in to accomplish the things we have accomplished as a team. To say that I am thankful is an understatement.”
Baton Rouge, LA - During his customary postgame huddle with his Southern baseball team, longtime coach Roger Cador was animated Saturday afternoon — more animated than usual, which, for him, is quite a lot.
His voice boomed and echoed off the walls at Lee-Hines Field, where the Jaguars had just split a doubleheader with Texas Southern in their final regular-season Southwestern Athletic Conference series. Cador clenched and pumped his fists as he spoke. He was, if nothing else, passionate about the message he delivered, whatever it was.
But as he walked off the field, Cador said, Saturday wasn’t so bad.
Baton Rouge, LA - Hard work. It’s something every coach talks about, but something players more often learn by example.
Southern University senior first baseman Frazier Hall first began to grasp the concept of hard work watching his older brother Ben recover from brain tumor surgery a decade ago. Ben was 14 years old when a tumor was discovered in the left temporal lobe of his brain – the location that controls short-term memory.
The Hall family expected Ben to come out of brain surgery as a vegetable, sitting in wheelchair and eating from a tube for the rest of his life, not able to pursue his boyhood dreams of playing football.
“The family wouldn’t accept that so we countered that with absolute prayer and belief,” Hall said. Miraculously, Ben was not only...
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. -- Matt Wright went 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored and two RBIs, and Bethune-Cookman clinched the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 7-3 win over Maryland Eastern Shore on Sunday.
The Wildcats moved to 15-0 in the MEAC, 29-19 overall, and clinched the top seed for the conference tournament. UMES fell to 8-35 overall and 7-11 in the MEAC. Patrick Goelz (6-3) allowed two runs, neither earned, on six hits in seven innings. He fanned 11 and walked just one on his way to the victory.
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - The Wildcats battled out a pitcher’s duel through the early innings of Sunday’s finale with Maryland Eastern Shore. Beginning in the sixth, the B-CU offense picked up steam while the Wildcat defense held UMES off in the 7-3 win to sweep the Hawks and remain perfect in MEAC play, clinching the MEAC regular season crown and the number one seed for the conference tournament
Matt Wright opened up the scoring for the Wildcats in game three, as the left hander hit a high drifting solo homer beyond the right field fence to take the 1-0 lead. Brashad Johnson’s fifth inning triple to right field set up designated hitter Anthony Stokes’ groundout RBI to create a little more breathing room at 2-0, as Johnson crossed home on the play.
Much like the first games of the series, UMES played tough defense and held B-CU’s hitters without any further runs through the fifth inning, but it’s difficult to keep B-CU down for long.
PINE BLUFF, Ark. — After losing the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Southern baseball team turned to junior right-hander Brian Foster with a chance to win the series. Foster, who won his first start of the season at Jackson State eight days earlier, responded.
Foster got Southern through seven innings in Saturday’s second game, then made way for closer Cody Hall in a 9-2 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff to take the three-game Southwestern Athletic Conference series. The win, combined with a pair of Grambling losses at Prairie View, gave Southern the Western Division championship.
Foster, who improved to 2-0 since moving from the bullpen to the starting rotation, helped the Jaguars get back on track after a 10-6 loss to the Golden Lions in Saturday’s first game.
PINE BLUFF, Ark. — The Southern baseball team didn’t get a sparkling effort from its pitching staff Friday. But the Jaguars got enough of what they needed — from reliever Daniel Garcia, from its solid defense and from its suddenly potent offense.
In the opener of a three-game Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division series, Southern erupted for 14 runs in the first four innings and held off Arkansas-Pine Bluff for a 15-10 victory. It was the first time the Jaguars scored 15 or more runs since March 12, when they opened a three-game road series at Prairie View with a 17-5 win.
It was also Southern’s first game with 10 or more runs since March 27, when the team defeated UAPB 10-7 to complete a three-game sweep in Baton Rouge. Frazier Hall, Wilmy Marrero and B.J. Rowry, the Nos. 3-5 hitters, combined to go 8-for-15 with seven RBIs.
DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- In a nationally televised match-up between the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference's first- and last-place teams, Bethune-Cookman stumbled early against cellar-dwelling Coppin State before roaring back to claim the win via the old skunk rule.
Friday's game at Jackie Robinson Ballpark was called on account of the NCAA's 10-run rule with B-CU up 16-6 after seven innings.
ESPNU cameras were watching as the Wildcats (23-19, 10-0), dressed in pink jerseys to promote breast cancer awareness, fell behind 4-0 in the first inning.
B-CU starter GabrielHernandez gave up four straight hits on his first 16 pitches against Coppin State (4-30, 1-8), allowing thre e runs to score. Wildcats coach Mervyl Melendez said Hernandez "pitches with a lot of passion" and after allowing one more hit in the inning to fall behind 4-0, Melendez said Hernandez got mad, "commanded his fastball" and turned things around.
Grambling head baseball coach James Cooper had a lot of holes to fill heading into this season as his team began the defense of its 2010 SWAC Tournament championship.
The Tigers had to replace their entire outfield, both corner infielders, a second baseman and a catcher. Only three of the top players from the championship run — shortstop Chris Wolfe and starting pitchers Adrian Turner and Richie Bautista — were back in 2011.
Yet the Tigers are playing better now than they were at this point last season, holding on to second place in the SWAC Western Division standings. GSU is 10-5 (17-17 overall) in league play, and has the same number of losses as first-place Southern (13-5).
Baseball coach Keith Shumate, who has led N.C. A&T to the MEAC championship game four of the last six seasons, resigned Tuesday effective July 31.
Shumate led the Aggies to a school-record 31 victories last season, and his 2005 team won the MEAC championship and a berth in the NCAA tournament. Shumate, now in his 15th season, has 294 victories and counting.
When Shumate took over in 1997, A&T was coming off a 4-45 season. Since then he has coached 17 All-MEAC first-teamers, 11 players who signed pro contracts, 5 major-league draft picks and 3 All-Americans.
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Injuries to the North Carolina A&T pitching staff and to its everyday lineup has made the game of baseball tough for the Aggies this season.
But on Sunday it was back to the good old days. Several North Carolina A&T batters had multiple-hit afternoons, and the Aggies didn't have to use a lot of arms to work numerous innings. The result was a 14-3 and 12-5 doubleheader sweep of Maryland Eastern Shore at War Memorial Stadium.
Marquis Riley, Xavier Macklin, Luke Tendler and Dairio Little all homered on Sunday. Little had had three RBIs in the second game, while Little had two. Carvell Copeland went 3-for-4 with three runs scored. N.C. A&T put the second game away with an eight-run fifth inning.
HAMPTON, VA. – After trading wins with the Lady Pirates in their Saturday doubleheader, the Howard softball team dropped the weekend series to their MEAC rival after falling 4-2 on Sunday. Overall, the Lady Bison (13-23, 4-5 MEAC) went 1-2 over the weekend.
Howard crossed home plate first giving the Bison the quick 1-0 lead in the first. Rebecca Kirshner sent a shot to right field to bring home Lorae Robison who scored from second. The Lady Bison responded with a RBI double to tie the game at one all.
Following a scoreless second inning, Howard gave up three runs in the bottom of the third, pushing the Lady Pirates (12-26, 5-4 MEAC) ahead 4-1. The Lady Bison were unable to produce a run until the seventh inning when Andascha Moore scored on Emily Johnson's groundout to shortstop. The run would not be enough to cut Hampton's 4-2 lead, giving the Lady Pirates the series, 2-1.
Robinson, Johnson and Ciera Gordon led the Lady Bison with two hits, each went 2-for-3 at the plate.
Starting off the game on the mound was Samantha Gatson. In the opening three innings Gatson allowed five hits and three earned runs and fell to a 5-6 record on the season. Johnson also made an appearance in the circle and went on to strike out five and allowed one hit. Johnson pitched the final three innings and kept Hampton scoreless for the remainder of the game.
The Lady Bison softball team will host MEAC opponent Morgan State on April 30 and Maryland Eastern Shore on May 7 for the final regular season games of the year. On May 12 the team will make their way to Daytona, Fla. for the MEAC Championship Tournament.
Four high school baseball players from around Hillsborough County signed their national letters-of-intent Thursday night. The players, members of the Team Xtreme travel baseball team, gathered at the Westchase Beef O' Brady's.
Middleton's Eric Comstock signed his letter-of-intent to play at Eastern Michigan University. He was joined by Einar Muniz (Jefferson, Bethune-Cookman University), Mike Estevez (Jefferson, Bethune-Cookman) and Sean Cramer (Armwood, Polk State College). Strawberry Crest's Jordan Keys, who was also there and a member of Team X, will sign his letter-of-intent April 21 to play baseball at St. Pete College.
BCU Incoming: Big County Prep Interviews B-CU Tampa Bay Area Signees
You might recall that two weeks ago, on a strange night at Lee-Hines Field, Southern and Southeastern Louisiana met in a midweek college baseball game that had a little bit of everything.
Except a happy ending.
SLU’s Trey Martin stole home in the third inning. SU pitcher Belfred “T.J.” Pryer had what might have been his best outing of the season, holding the Lions to one run in seven innings. The Jaguars had a one-run lead in the eighth-inning, and SLU had a rally in the works. Then lightning delayed the game. Actually, as it turned out, lightning finished the game.
When umpires Anthony DeRousselle and Ryan Broussard told both teams to return, SU coach Roger Cador chose instead to forfeit, citing his players’ safety.
HAMMOND, LA – The Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team returns to action on Tuesday when it plays host to in-state rival Southern University at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. The game can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9) and on the internet at www.LionSports.net.
Southeastern (22-11) has won seven of its last nine games that began with a 9-0 win by forfeit over Southern (19-11) on March 29. The Lions took two of three games in Southland Conference play last weekend at UT Arlington and will face league leader Texas State in a three-game series beginning Friday in San Marcos, Texas.
Junior Justin Boudreaux leads Southeastern at the plate with a .373 average with six home runs and 30 RBI. Brock Hebert (.367-1-20), Jonathan Pace (.357-1-22) and Jeff Harkensee (.331-7-39) are next in hitting for the Lions, who are averaging .293 at the plate with 19 home runs and 212 runs scored.
