Duncanville Deputies righthander Bryan Price (Rice) threw his way into the Texas Collegiate League record book last week by fanning 18 Coppell Copperheads over 7 2/3 innings. Price left the game with two outs in the eighth after giving up one earned run and scattering three hits. Price’s gem wasn’t good enough to earn a win, as the Deputies stranded 10 runners on base during the 2-1 loss. Price struck out the first nine Coppell hitters before Matt Curry (Howard) homered in the fourth, which was followed by an unearned Cooperheads run.

Price’s record of 18 strikeouts broke the previous mark of 15 set by Coppell’s Jess Todd (Arkansas) in 2006. The Rice product surpassed the previous mark in the sixth inning when he got Curry to swing and miss for his 16th strikeout. This was the second time this season that a TCL pitcher flirted with the previous record. Brazos Valley’s Casey Whitmer (Florida State) struck out 14 Coppell batters on June 26.

For the summer, Price is 0-2, 3.32 with 35 strikeouts in 22 innings.

WAREHAM, Mass.–A year after many scouts left the Cape Cod League all-star game disappointed by peculiar lineup management and a general lack of energy, the mood was quite a bit different this time around. A National League scout summed up the entire evening aptly while watching Luke Murton’s 22nd and final blast of the home run derby sail majestically over the left-field bleachers at Spillane Field: “Wow . . . wow.” [...] Continue Reading »

Three of the top pitchers available for the 2008 draft have left Team USA, leaving the college national team without three of its top four starting pitchers as it prepares for the World Port Tournament in the Netherlands.

Righthanders Jacob Thompson (Virginia), Lance Lynn (Mississippi) and lefthander Brian Matusz (San Diego) left the team to avoid heavy workloads, according to a Team USA release. Thompson, a first-team All-American for the Cavaliers this spring, threw 21 innings for Team USA, bringing him to 135 for the year. Matusz, a second-team All-American for the Toreros, had 143 combined innings on the year, and leaves as the Americans’ second-leading winner at 3-1, 1.33. Thompson, who pitched the gold-medal game against Cuba and took a loss in the Pan American Games last week, went 1-2, 1.27 this summer. The 6-foot-5, 260-pound Lynn was leading Team USA in innings pitched (25) but still had reached just 110 for the season. Lynn apparently had aggravated a groin issue he had during the spring.
National team director Eric Campbell said Matusz and Thompson were not injured, but had some “nagging stuff” and had consulted with their college coaches about their workloads. “It’s their decision, and I respect it,” Campbell said.

Their departures are another blow to a disappointing summer for the college national team, which lost 2-1 Wednesday against China after winning the first two games of that five-game series. Team USA already failed to win the Japan Series, its first-ever series loss to Japan on American soil, and won silver at the Pan Ams in Rio de Janeiro. Now three of the team’s five starters are leaving the team early.

“We really did compete well (in the Pan Ams),” Campbell said. “It was a temporary field, really a makeshift facility, and our schedule got pretty scrambled. For example, the grounds crew had no tarp, no drying agent . . . their equipment was basically five handmade wood rakes. The volunteers’ effort was outstanding and the people in Rio were wonderful, but it was a difficult situation. I was proud of how our kids handled it.”
To replace the trio, Team USA has added lefthander Eric Surkamp (N.C. State), righthander Scott Gorgen (UC Irvine) and 6-foot-2, 190-pound lefthander/outfielder Tyler Stovall of Hokes Bluff (Ala.) High. Stovall already was invited to join the junior national team, and geography was on his side, as he will be with the team for the rest of its series with China. Surkamp and Gorgen, a third-team All-American, will join holdovers Mike Minor (Vanderbilt) and Tyson Ross (California) in the American rotation in the Netherlands.

The Cape Cod Baseball League announced the 44 players that will be participating in the 45th annual all-star game on Saturday at Wareham’s Spillane Field. Baseball America’s lead college writer, Aaron Fitt, will be in attendance and will bring you the inside scoop in the Cape. Here are the rosters: [...] Continue Reading »

Southern California needs two new assistant coaches, after pitching coach/recruiting coordinator Dave Lawn became the head coach at local power Servite High and Bill Mosiello left after one season to become an assistant at Auburn.

Now, Chad Kreuter may have a replacement lined up for Lawn, a name from USC’s glorious past. Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune is reporting that Southern California will hire pitching guru Tom House to replace Lawn. Some details are still being worked out and nothing is official, but this hire would make quite a splash if it does indeed take place. It would have to be quite a financial commitment for the Trojans to lure House away from his lucrative private pitching instruction business.

It’s the year for long-time assistant coaches to become head coaches, finally. From Kevin O’Sullivan (Florida) to Jim Toman (Liberty) and the archetype of all assistant coaches/recruiting coordinators, Turtle Thomas (Florida International), athletic directors have shown less fear than usual in giving assistant coaches a chance to take over programs of their own. The latest is Western Carolina, “Cradle of Coaches,” which officially named Bobby Moranda its new head coach Monday. The official press conference will be Thursday. [...] Continue Reading »

The Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times is reporting Western Carolina will hire Georgia Tech associate head coach Bobby Moranda to be its next head coach today. Moranda, who has spent the past six seasons with the Yellow Jackets following successful stints at Wake Forest and Virginia, looks like a worthy successor to Todd Raleigh, who left for the head job at Tennessee in June.

The Pacific-10 Conference will be back at full strength in 2009. Oregon, which discontinued its baseball program after the 1981 season, announced it will again field baseball in the 2008-2009 academic year.

School officials confirmed to the Associated Press that a story in the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard reporting that the school was adding baseball and competitive women’s cheer and dropping wrestling was correct. [...] Continue Reading »

In a summer where high-profile assistant coaches Kevin O’Sullivan, Jim Toman and Turtle Thomas have finally gotten their shots to become head coaches, there have been a couple cases of head coaches voluntarily going the other direction. First, Dallas Baptist head coach Eric Newman left to become Nebraska’s pitching coach. Then this week, Northwestern State coach Mitch Gaspard left the Demons to become the recruiting coordinator at Alabama. Gaspard will once again work under Jim Wells, for whom he served as an assistant at Northwestern State in 1993-94 and at Alabama from 1995-2001. [...] Continue Reading »

Proposals to restrict text messaging by coaches to potential recruits and to dramatically change the way financial aid is distributed to Division I baseball players, both of which were approved by the NCAA Division I Board of Directors in April, will be reconsidered by the Board at its Aug. 9 meeting. [...] Continue Reading »

Brazos Valley righthander Clint Helms (Louisiana Tech) became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the four-year history of the Texas Collegiate League on Tuesday night. Helms struck out three and walked four in a seven-inning no-hitter, the second half of the Bombers’ doubleheader sweep of Coppell. Helms, who redshirted his freshman season for Louisiana Tech this spring, improved to 1-2, 5.09 in 23 innings for Brazos Valley.

(Individual stats through games of July 5)

Bourne Braves

OF Ben Guez, William & Mary: .319/.417/.420, 22 H, 17 RBI, 7 SB, 12 BB
3B Kevin Hoef, Iowa: .396/.508/.434, 21 H, 4 RBI, 5 SB, 8 HBP
OF Brian Pruitt, Stetson: .333/.393/.521, 16 H, 2 HR, 17 RBIs
RHP T.J. Hose, East Carolina: 3-0, 0.56, 16 K, 16 IP

• Pruitt and Hose collected player and pitcher of the week awards for week three. In four games this week, Pruitt recorded seven hits, including two doubles and two home runs, for a .412 batting average. He also scored three runs while compiling a .474 on-base percentage and .882 slugging percentage for the week. Hose pitched eight innings of shutout ball while striking out eight batters in his two appearances for the week. [...] Continue Reading »

Oregon State fans are getting awfully cocky, and I must admit, I don’t mind. It strikes me as funny that after I omitted the Beavers from my “Eight for ’08″ College World Series predictions, I have been bombarded with e-mails telling me, “Haven’t you learned better than to bet against the Beavers by now?” I think it’s great–it’s a reflection of how far this program has come that its fans simply expect to be in Omaha every year. And I think the Beavers will be very competitive again in 2008, but I think it would be a mistake to overlook how difficult it will be to replace Mitch Canham and Darwin Barney, the heart and soul of three CWS teams over the last three years. Come 2009, though, you’ve got to think the Beavers will be in great shape to play for another national championship, thanks to an elite recruiting class that could include impact pitchers such as Greg Peavey, Tanner Robles and maybe even first-rounder Tim Alderson.

Much of the credit for OSU’s strong foundation must go to longtime pitching coach/recruiting coordinator Dan Spencer, who left the Beavers today to accept an associate head coaching position at his alma mater, Texas Tech. [...] Continue Reading »