Maryland has hired Vanderbilt assistant coach Erik Bakich as its new head baseball coach, a source close to the situation confirmed Saturday. The hire will be announced officially on Monday. Bakich replaces Terry Rupp, who resigned in late May.

Bakich is a rising star in college coaching circles, known for his exceptional talent as a recruiter, his sharp baseball mind, his gregarious personality and his tireless work ethic. As Vandy’s recruiting coordinator, he brought in the nation’s top-ranked class in 2005 (highlighed by third baseman Pedro Alvarez) and the No. 2 class in 2008 (highlighed by righthander Sonny Gray). Each of Bakich’s last four recruiting classes have ranked among the top 25 in the nation, and his efforts are a significant reason the Commodores have become regular contenders in the Southeastern Conference.

Bakich is the latest member of the Jack Leggett/Keith LeClair coaching tree to get a head job (other former Leggett assistants currently serving as head coaches include Vandy’s Tim Corbin, Florida’s Kevin O’Sullivan, Tennessee’s Todd Raleigh and Auburn’s John Pawlowski). He played for LeClair at East Carolina, graduating in 2000, and he started his coaching career as a volunteer under Leggett at Clemson in 2002. Bakich has his work cut out for him at Maryland, which needs significant facility upgrades and lacks winning tradition. But Vanderbilt was in a similar position when Bakich and Corbin arrived there after the 2002 season, and Bakich’s experience as a part of that turnaround should help him at Maryland.

Other finalists for the Maryland job included assistant coach (and former William & Mary head coach) Jim Farr, Indiana coach Tracy Smith and Radford coach Joe Raccuia, according to one source. But Bakich was an inspired choice if Maryland is serious about building a winning baseball program. This is not the first time he has received a head coaching offer at a Division I school, but he was waiting for the right job to come along before leaving a very good situation at Vanderbilt. For him to take the Maryland job, it must mean he is confident he can win there, and it likely signals that the administration is ready to ramp up its commitment to the program.

Strike One: Stock Report

With one week to go before the NCAA Tournament bracket is announced, many questions have been answered, but others remain. Here’s a look at how the races for national seeds, host sites and the final at-large bids are shaping up.

National Seeds

SAFE BETS: Texas, UC Irvine, Louisiana State, Arizona State, North Carolina, Cal State Fullerton

STOCK RISING: Clemson, Mississippi, Florida, Florida State, Oklahoma

STOCK FALLING: Georgia Tech, Rice

• Rice and Georgia Tech could have all but wrapped up national seeds with series wins this weekend, but instead the Owls dropped two of three at Alabama-Birmingham, and the Yellow Jackets lost two of three at Duke. Rice dropped to second place in Conference USA but might still be able to salvage a national seed with a CUSA tournament title. Clemson surged past Tech for the No. 3 seed in the ACC tournament and has won the head-to-head series against the Jackets. The Tigers finished a game behind Florida State in the ACC and lost the head-to-head series against the Seminoles, but that’s probably not enough to make up for Clemson’s edge in the Ratings Percentage Index (the Tigers rank seventh, according to warrennolan.com, while the Seminoles rank 15th) and strength of schedule (the Tigers rank eighth according to warrennolan.com, while the Seminoles rank 39th). Whichever of those three teams fares best in the ACC tournament figures to have the inside track at a national seed. [...] Continue Reading »

Strike One: Golden Spikes Spotlight on Stephen Strasburg

If Stephen Strasburg made his last ever start at Tony Gwynn Stadium on Friday, he left one heck of a final impression on the school-record 3,337 fans on hand to wish him a fond farewell.

San Diego State’s otherworldly junior righthander struck out 17 in a no-hitter against Air Force, allowing just two baserunners in a 5-0 win. Strasburg retired the first nine batters he faced (seven via strikeout) before issuing a leadoff walk in the fourth. The only other baserunner reached on another leadoff walk in the sixth. Aztecs pitching coach Rusty Filter told BA correspondent John Maffei that Strasburg ran his fastball up to 101 mph twice in the 117-pitch outing, and he reached 98 twice in the ninth.

"I was giving it everything I had left at the end," Strasburg said. [...] Continue Reading »

Strike One: Green Day

The first ticket to the 2009 NCAA Tournament was punched this weekend when Dartmouth topped Cornell in the best-of-three Ivy League Championship series. The Big Green won two out of three against the Big Red to reach regionals for the first time since 1987.

It was a measure of redemption for Dartmouth, which went 15-5 in the Ivy in 2008 and hosted the conference championship series, which it lost in wild fashion to Columbia. Big Green coach Bob Whalen said he could sense his team’s hunger down the stretch as it honed in on that elusive regional berth.

"If you’ve coached long enough like I have, every team is different, has a different personality," said Whalen, who’s in his 20th season. "There’s a certain maturity level about this group, not just because of last year. We’ve been to the Ivy championship five times since 2000. In the last 10 years, we’ve won more Ivy games than any school in either division. But at the same time, you’re in this to win championships, not just to collect wins." [...] Continue Reading »

Strike One: Cougars On The Prowl

Don’t try telling Donnie Marbut the Pacific-10 Conference is down in 2009.

Marbut’s Washington State Cougars have won back-to-back conference series against Arizona and at Southern California to move into second place in the Pac-10 at 10-5. Washington State is just 21-18 overall, but it ranks 43rd in the Ratings Percentage Index thanks to a schedule that ranks as the second-toughest in the nation, according to Boyd’s World. And Wazzu isn’t the only Pac-10 team with a highly rated schedule: Arizona State (No. 6), UCLA (No. 4), California (No. 5), Stanford (No. 11), Southern California (No. 18) and Arizona (No. 22) all have top-25 strength of schedule ratings.

"There’s a lot of work to be done, but any time you’re sitting second place in our conference five weeks in, you feel good," Marbut said. "I know the Pac-10 coaches think it’s a joke how everyone’s talking about how down the Pac-10 is. I see the Pac-10 as a strong league. Arizona State has been the best team, but everyone else has beat up on each other. I wish people would look at the strength of schedule—that’s why we don’t have these outlandish records. If our strength of schedule is 35 or 40 instead of sixth, maybe we’ve got five or six more wins and people are talking about how great of a team we are." [...] Continue Reading »

Strike One: ACC Impressions

I had a chance this weekend to get a look at the three remaining ACC contenders that I had yet to see this year. I decided to catch Florida State freshman lefthander Sean Gilmartin taking on North Carolina State on Friday, then Miami at North Carolina on Saturday, and Georgia Tech at Wake Forest on Sunday. Here are a few observations:

• Gilmartin was good, but he stood out more for his aggressiveness and toughness than his stuff. After allowing single runs in each of the first three innings, Gilmartin settled down, holding the Wolfpack scoreless over the next 3 2/3 frames. His fastball sat in the 85-87 range and topped out at 88, and his No. 2 pitch was a 70-73 curveball that got better as the game progressed. He also mixed in a few 74-76 mph changeups. He reminded me quite a bit of former FSU lefty Matt Fairel for his stuff and demeanor.

"We got good pitching from Sean—it wasn’t one of his best, but he made some quality pitches when he needed to," Florida State coach Mike Martin said. "He has shown good poise from Day One. He doesn’t get down on himself, he doesn’t fall in love with himself when things are going right. He’s got a good baseball mentality." [...] Continue Reading »

Strike One: Not In Kansas Anymore . . .

Good luck figuring out the Big 12. Of the five teams from the conference that started the year in ranked in the top 16, three are now in the top 10 (Baylor, Texas and Oklahoma). The other two (Texas A&M and Missouri) are out of the top 25, as is Oklahoma State, which has been ranked for much of this season.

But just because those teams have struggled doesn’t mean the Big 12 as a whole is hurt. On the contrary, the league is deeper than ever. The departures of Texas A&M and OSU from the rankings this week simply allowed Kansas State and Kansas to join the top 25. Those two teams have never been ranked at the same time before, because Kansas State has never been ranked, period. We touched on K-State’s surge in Weekend Preview three weeks ago, but let’s now focus the magnifying glass on the Jayhawks.

Kansas first made a splash on the national scene after sweeping a three-game series against Texas from March 20-22. The Jayhawks followed that weekend with series losses to the Aggies and Bears, but rebounded with another sweep this weekend against Oklahoma State. Kansas has amassed a 9-8 record against teams ranked in the BA top 25, and early-season trips to Arkansas (where the Jayhawks split two games) and Arizona State (where they won one out of three) helped prepare this team for conference play. [...] Continue Reading »

Strike One: Patriots Act

There was a changing of the guard this weekend in the Colonial Athletic Association. Defending league champion UNC Wilmington, the preseason CAA favorite, was swept in a three-game series at George Mason, and the Patriots now look like the team to beat in the CAA. Mason sits atop the league standings at 7-2, and its overall record is 24-5. The Patriots also have the nation’s longest home winning streak at 20 games, including a 15-0 mark at home this year.

"They may win the conference," said an American League scout who has seen the Patriots. "It all comes down to the tournament, obviously, but they may win the conference. I would say this: they’re a solid college team. From the upper Northeast to the Carolina border, there are not many teams better than them. They’ll win 40 games." [...] Continue Reading »

Strike One: Triangle Roundup

Wet weather Friday shuffled the college baseball schedule here in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area this weekend and allowed me to catch significant chunks of four Atlantic Coast Conference games in two days. Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State all were home on the same weekend, which doesn’t happen often, and I took advantage. Here are some observations:

• I started the weekend at Jack Coombs Field for the opener of the Duke-Wake Forest series Saturday at 11 a.m. Duke junior lefthander Christopher Manno was on his game against the Demon Deacons, allowing just one run on two hits while striking out eight and walking two over 6 1/3 innings. Manno wasn’t doing it with huge velocity—he worked mostly in the mid-80s—but his deceptive delivery and quality mid-70s curveball kept the Demon Deacons off balance. He carried a no-hitter into the sixth before Tyler Smith lined a single to right field. Duke scratched out two runs in the fifth and held on for a 3-1 win. [...] Continue Reading »

Strike One: LSU Offense Starting To Click

COLUMBIA, S.C.—Paul Mainieri was visibly frustrated with his team’s offensive struggles Friday night after Louisiana State mustered just four hits in a 7-3 loss to South Carolina. Later that night and Saturday morning, Mainieri thought hard about how to get his big bats back on track.

"If you go back and look at our stats, we are drawing a lot more bases on balls this year than I can ever remember one of my teams drawing," LSU’s third-year coach said. "Well, the flip-side of that is we’re not being as aggressive at the plate. (Friday) we drew nine walks, and only one of them scored. We had a game earlier this year where we had 11 walks, and not one of them scored. I had never heard of anything like that before. I told the kids before the game that we don’t want to walk. Let’s not walk any—let’s just go up and really swing the bats and see what can happen."

Sure enough, LSU slugged three home runs each of the next two games, winning 10-3 on Saturday and 11-3 on Sunday. The Tigers still drew five walks Saturday, but Mainieri said the difference was they weren’t stepping into the box looking to walk. [...] Continue Reading »