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Showing posts with label Southern University Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Southern University Baseball. Show all posts
Halfway through his college baseball career, Southern University catcher Clint Ourso realized he hadn’t gotten anywhere. A season at LSU-Eunice in 2009 finished with respectable numbers, but his sophomore campaign at New Orleans left a lot to be desired.
So when the UNO administration shifted the ground underneath its athletic department, announcing all programs would begin transitioning to NCAA Division III, Ourso saw an opportunity. “With two years left, I felt like I had to make a change,” said Ourso, whose junior season officially began Friday when he and his SU teammates began practice for the 2011 season.
The Urban Invitational is back for the 2011 season, and for the first time, three Historically Black Colleges and Universities will be showcased.
In its fourth year, the Invitational -- set up by Major League Baseball's first Urban Youth Academy, in Compton, Calif. -- will run from Feb. 25-27, with HBCUs Southern University (in Louisiana) and Bethune-Cookman (Daytona Beach, Fla.) returning, and Grambling State University (Louisiana) joining the fold. Also playing in the collegiate round-robin tournament is the University of California Irvine, a first-time participant.
The Invitational, presented by the U.S. Army, gives HBCUs a chance to play on a national stage, something that rarely happens. This year they'll get that exposure once again, as MLB Network will air both games on Day 2, which is a Saturday.
After 25 seasons of coaching baseball within the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Roger Cador has learned, again and again, that road trips within the league sometimes come with unique obstacles. After all, some of the SWAC’s smaller hometowns don’t offer much in the way of fine restaurants, comfortable hotels or even video-rental stores, much less an open movie theatre. This weekend, in fact, the Southern baseball team will spent four more innings in Pine Bluff, Ark., than it has in previous years.
And Cador is actually happy about it. The up-and-down Jaguars (5-8, 3-0 Western Division) visit Arkansas-Pine Bluff (2-10, 1-5) for three games, including a doubleheader that begins at noon today. Today will mark the second time the Jaguars play a two nine-inning games in a doubleheader — a new experience this season for SWAC teams. Before, conference series began with a pair of seven-inning games on Saturdays, then finished with one nine-inning game on Sunday. The SWAC changed its format during the offseason, opting for nine-inning doubleheaders on the first day.
Coach Mervyl Melendez and Bethune-Cookman ends MLB Urban League Invitational with only one win--over Southern, dropping games against Cal State Northridge and UCLA.
COMPTON, Calif. -- Ryan Gonzalez pitched six strong innings and Matt Wright homered and had five RBIs to lead Bethune Cookman to a 13-8 victory over Southern University on Sunday at the Major League Baseball Urban Classic. Gonzalez (1-0) gave up three runs on three hits and struck out six for the Wildcats (1-2). Joey Sharkey and Justin Dahl combined to pitch the final three innings to secure the win.
Wright's three-run homer, his second of the weekend, sparked an eight-run fifth inning that propelled B-CU to a 12-1 lead. Justin Hoyte had two hits, including a two-run triple in the Wildcats' four-run third inning. Ryan Durrence had three hits and Emmanuel Castro went deep for the Wildcats. "We needed to win this game after losing the first two," said Gonzalez, a sophomore form Arecibo, Puerto Rico. "My fastball and curveball were working well and I felt like I was attacking the zone. I was motivated today to help my team win."
This weekend marked the third consecutive season that B-CU has opened its campaign at the MLB Urban Classic on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The third annual three-day event, which also featured No. 23 ranked UCLA, Southern University and Cal-State Northridge, helps spotlight Historically Black Colleges and Universities by giving them national exposure.
After weeks of rotten luck and disjointed practice schedules, the Southern baseball team caught a break Saturday afternoon. Rain and snow vanished, the sky cleared and the sun showed up. In the parking lot outside Lee-Hines Field, with the constant ring of aluminum bats in the distance, pitchers stretched and laughed. Right-hander/class clown Seth Monaghan made goofy faces and goofier dance moves. Teammates talked trash. Minutes later, they took off for some running exercises.
With less than a week to go before the Jaguars’ season opener at UCLA, everything seemed in place. Except for the presence of a pitching coach. For the second straight year, Southern will attempt to win the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship without a full-time pitching coach — something longtime head coach Roger Cador had hoped for this summer when he agreed to a three-year contract that will pay him at least $125,000 per season. Two months after winning his 14th conference title, Cador — who begins his 26th season behind the wheel of the baseball program — interviewed twice with the University of New Orleans (Cador agreed to a new deal with SU, his alma mater, before UNO made an offer).
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SU Jaguars 2010 Baseball Schedule
DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME
FEBRUARY 19 Friday UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (Jackie Robinson Stadium) 8:00 P.M. 20 Saturday Cal State Northridge, Los Angeles, CA (MLB Urban Youth Academy) 4:00 P.M. 21 Sunday Bethune-Cookman, Los Angeles, CA (MLB Urban Youth Academy) 4:00 P.M. 24 Tuesday University of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, LA 6:00 P.M. 27 Friday Baton Rouge CC (Exhibition) Baton Rouge, LA (Pete Goldsby Field) 1:00 P.M.
MARCH 2 Tuesday University of Loyola, New Orleans, LA 6:00 P.M. 6 Saturday +Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA 1:00 P.M. 6 Saturday University of New Orleans, Thibodaux, LA 4:00 P.M. 7 Sunday Nicholls State University, Baton Rouge, LA 1:00 P.M. 9 Tuesday Southeastern Louisiana Univ., Baton Rouge, LA 6:00 P.M. 13 Saturday *+Prairie View A&M Univ., Baton Rouge, LA 12:00 NOON 14 Sunday *Prairie View A&M Univ., Baton Rouge, LA 1:00 P.M. 16 Tuesday Univ. of Louisiana-Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 6:00 P.M. 20 Saturday +Baton Rouge CC (Exhibition) Baton Rouge, LA 1:00 P.M. 21 Sunday Baton Rouge CC (Exhibition) Baton Rouge, LA (Pete Goldsgy Field) 1:00 P.M. 23 Tuesday Nicholls State University, Baton Rouge, LA 6:00 P.M. 27 Saturday *+Arkansas Pine Bluff Univ., Pine Bluff, AR 1:00 P.M. 28 Sunday *Arkansas Pine Bluff Univ., Pine Bluff, AR 1:00 P.M. 30 Tuesday Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA 6:00 P.M.
APRIL 3 Saturday *+Texas Southern University Baton Rouge, LA 12:00 NOON 4 Sunday *Texas Southern University Baton Rouge, LA 1:00 P.M. 6 Tuesday University of New Orleans Baton Rouge, LA 6:30 P.M. 10 Saturday *+Grambling State Univ. Baton Rouge, LA 12:00 NOON 11 Sunday *Grambling State Univ. Baton Rouge, LA 1:00 P.M. 13 Tuesday University of Loyola Baton Rouge, LA 6:00 P.M. 17 Saturday *+Prairie View A&M Univ. Prairie View, TX 1:00P.M. 18 Sunday *Prairie View A&M Univ. Prairie View, TX 1:00P.M. 20 Tuesday Delgado CC (Exhibition) Baton Rouge, LA 6:00 P.M. 21 Wednesday FAMU, Baton Rouge, LA 6:00 P.M. 22 Thursday FAMU, Baton Rouge, LA 3:00 P.M. 24 Saturday Jackson State University Baton Rouge, LA 1:00 P.M. 25 Sunday Jackson State University Jackson, MS 1:00 P.M. 27 Tuesday Southeastern Louisiana Hammond, LA 6:00 P.M.
MAY 1 Saturday *+Arkansas Pine Bluff Univ. Baton Rouge, LA 12:00 NOON 2 Sunday *Arkansas Pine Bluff Univ. Baton Rouge, LA 1:00 P.M. 5 Wednesday Alcorn State University Lorman, MS 6:00 P.M. 8 Saturday *+Texas Southern University Houston, TX 1:00 P.M. 9 Sunday *Texas Southern University Houston, TX 1:00 P.M. 11 Tuesday Univ. of Louisiana Lafayette Baton Rouge, LA 6:00 P.M. 15 Saturday *+Grambling State Univ. Grambling, LA 1:00 P.M. 16 Sunday *Grambling State Univ. Grambling, LA 1:00 P.M. 18 Tuesday Alcorn State University Baton Rouge, LA 6:00 P.M. 26-29 Wed.-Sun. SWAC Tournament Shreveport, LA TBA
Bold = Home Games * = Conference Games + = Double Header Games All game times are Central
Esparto, California star headed to Division I Southern University on baseball scholarship
Sometimes, finding a Division I baseball scholarship can be a long, arduous process. Other times, it can be as lucky as stumbling upon an ESPN broadcast. Possessing a left arm that throws in the high 80's also helps. In late April, Suavae Cook signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball at Southern University, but months earlier it hardly seemed possible.
On Feb. 29, a Friday night, Esparto High School baseball coach Dennis Huitt was watching ESPN's telecast of the Urban Invitational at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. During the broadcast of UCLA's game against Southern University - a historically black school in Baton Rouge, La. - analyst Tim Kurjian mused about the lack of African American baseball players at the Major League level.
During the next night's telecast, when Southern played USC, the broadcasters were talking up Southern coach Roger Cador, who has won 13 SWAC Coach of the Year awards, and how in his 23 years as the Jaguars coach they had won 13 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles, when it struck a chord with Huitt.
Archive Photo: Jaguars head coach Roger Cador (left).
The Prairie View-Southern University baseball game unfolded as just the kind of go-for-broke donnybrook that was expected, so let’s get right to the crucial sequence where Southern won the game 14-9 Saturday at Lee-Hines Field.
With amazing defense to close the fourth inning. And with two big, first-pitch hits in a four-run fifth. That span of about 20 minutes lifted SU (28-16) into today’s 1 p.m. bracket championship game at the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament.
Photo: Southern University catcher Michael Thomas tags out LSU runner at home plate.
Though the Southern baseball schedule is awfully busy, as the Jaguars get ready to play an unusual, four-game, out-of-division weekend set, this is also the last time SU can rest some players.
That’s important, because SU’s roster continues to nurse a host of injuries as the Jaguars keep an eye on being strong for the second round of divisional play and then the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament in May.
Southern (10-11) hosts Chicago State (3-22) at 6 p.m. today and stages a doubleheader of two nine-inning games Saturday, first playing Eastern Division leader Jackson State (18-12) at noon and then Chicago State at 4 p.m., at Lee-Hines Field.
Bitterly cold wind blew across Alex Box Stadium, but at times the most powerful force Tuesday night was the left arm of LSU pitcher Ryan Verdugo. Making his Division I debut, Verdugo struck out nine batters in five innings and held Southern to one of its three hits as LSU defeated the Jaguars 6-1.
His coach, Paul Mainieri, called him the story of the game. “He went out there and took command of the game early,” Mainieri said. LSU led 5-0 after two innings but had only three hits and one run after that.
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LSU plays at 6:30 p.m. today at home vs. Mississippi Valley State (4-1). The Valley lost to LSU in their first ever meeting last season 4-1. The Delta Devils defeated Arkansas-Monticello 13-11 on Tuesday. Southern didn't play to bad considering it was their first game of the season. The Jaguars move on to play at #1 ranked UCLA on Friday in a weekend tournament.
This is the way Division I sports should be played--competitively! Go MVSU and SU!!
