In an age of endless football-driven conference realignment (most recently, Pittsburgh and Syracuse joining the Atlantic Coast Conference this weekend), it is refreshing when schools and conferences stop to consider their baseball programs. The Western Athletic Conference announced Monday that Cal State Bakersfield and Dallas Baptist will join the conference as baseball-only members starting with the 2012-13 academic year.

The additions will give the WAC a total of 10 teams for baseball, as the Roadrunners and Patriots will join Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, Sacramento State, San Jose State, Seattle, Texas-Arlington, Texas-San Antonio and Texas State in 2013. The additions of UTA, UTSA, DBU and Texas State in the Lone Star State, plus Seattle and CSUB on the West Coast, make the new-look WAC a strong mid-major baseball conference. The WAC remains spread out geographically, but at least it has schools clustered together in the Texas area.

“CSU Bakersfield and Dallas Baptist will be a good fit with the baseball teams in the WAC,” WAC commissioner Karl Benson said in a release. “We expect that they will match up well both competitively and geographically.” [...] Continue Reading »

Western Michigan assistant coach Brent Alwine is making progress after a serious car crash left him hospitalized for 18 days. Alwine was released from a Kalamazoo, Mich., hospital Tuesday and transferred to a rehabilitation center.

Alwine was critically injured when his car slammed into a semi-trailer on I-94 on Aug. 26.

"He almost died on the scene—they needed 60 staples to close his head," Western Michigan head coach Billy Gernon told BA today. "There's a lot of miracle stuff going on. He's already been back on his feet."

Alwine's wife, Brandi, wrote on Facebook that her husband is "once again doing great" and "has been talking with the (tracheotomy) all day," according to the (Fort Wayne, Ind.) News-Sentinel.

Alwine played second base for Gernon at IPFW until his graduation in 2006, then served two years on the Mastadons coaching staff. Gernon said WMU has some momentum with recruiting right now, and Alwine (the recruiting coordinator) deserves much of the credit.

We will continue to monitor Alwine's progress, and we wish him a full and speedy recovery.

Competitive equity is always a hot-button issue in college baseball, where variations in the quality of bats can have a significant impact on wins and losses. Not all bat technology is created equal, and while it is impossible to draw definitive conclusions about the quality of equipment by looking at statistics, it seems entirely plausible that teams with certain bat contracts could have a distinct competitive advantage over others. Offense was down across college baseball in 2011 due to the advent of the new BBCOR bat standards, but some manufacturers surely adapted better than others to the new standards.

With that in mind, here's some fascinating news from the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News that Nike is releasing Alabama—along with every other college under contract with Nike—from its obligation to use Nike bats in the upcoming season. The paper reports that the Tide requested that Nike allow it to use other manufacturers' bats following the 2011 season, but that the Tide will continue to use all other Nike apparel and field equipment.

"As an industry leader in the sport of baseball, our goal has always been to serve the athlete," Nike said in a statement sent to Baseball America on Tuesday. "We believe in our baseball bat technology and are committed to providing the most innovative footwear, apparel and equipment to athletes at all levels." [...] Continue Reading »