The 2009 College Baseball Season

[MJ4H]

I've been considering starting this thread for a couple of weeks now. With conference play coming up soon and some pretty nice match-ups this weekend, might as well go ahead and do it.

So far this season, Arkansas has been the cardiac kids, winning half of their games in the final at-bat. Last night, Arkansas hit a 2 run homer in the bottom of the ninth with 2 outs to force extra innings and then won it in the bottom of the 10th with a squeeze play over California. Pretty good match-up, packed house, good weather, rest of the series should be great.

Only loss on the season was a Tuesday afternoon match with Kansas. That two-game series was split the next night with, not surprisingly, a walk-off homer for the Hogs.

8-1 on the season and looking good. Would love to see some updates from your favorite teams and conferences. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only CB fan on board.

[cartman]

Texas has gotten off to a nice start, and are 11-0 after beating Stanford last night 6-2. They play the Cardinal again today and tomorrow in Palo Alto, then head home to start Big 12 play on Wednesday against a Top 15 team in Baylor. They are currently #2 in the Baseball America poll, and #4 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.

[DeToxRox]

Michigan is doing alright, 8-2 so far. They're quickly becoming the best program in the North. Hopefully this is the year they finally head to Nebraska.

[StLee]

#1 LSU found their bats today after being shut down 3-1 yesterday by Illinois. Today LSU hit 7 HRs, including 3 grand slams to win it 22-10. Looks like football scores are back in college baseball!

[MJ4H]

Good heavens.

[MJ4H]

Arkansas took 2 of 3 from Cal this weekend by winning game three 13-3. Eibner broke it open with a grand slam in the 6th inning.

[JonInMiddleGA]

9th ranked Georgia Tech (9-1) got a pinch-hit three-run homer in the 8th to complete a sweep of Maryland with a 10-7 win, on the heels of yesterday's 24-3 rout.

[DeToxRox]

Michigan sits at 10-2 with a huge 3 game set @ Arizona this coming up weekend.

Sophmore OF Ryan LaMarre is mashing for the Wolverines, hitting .440 with 6 HR and 25 RBI in 12 games, while our Ace Chris Fetter has looked good, at 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA with 24 K - 3 BB in 8 IP.

[JonInMiddleGA]

2nd ranked UGAg sweeps Quinnipiac to remain unbeaten. An impressive two game mid-week series vs Lemoyne is next, followed by a trip to Alabama to open conference play.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Still too early to mean much afaic but ...

UCSON, Ariz. — The University of Georgia (12-0) has been ranked No. 1 for the first time this season in Collegiate Baseball newspaper's NCAA Division I baseball poll.

The Bulldogs' 12-0 start is the best in school history, surpassing the 9-0 start by the 1911 team. Georgia is hitting .364 as a team with 20 homers, 36 doubles and 18 stolen bases over 12 games. The pitching staff has a 2.42 ERA with 115 strikeouts and only 32 walks.

Louisiana St., ranked No. 1 the previous three polls, slipped to third after losing two of three games at home to Illinois.

POLL NOTES: Several other teams have been red-hot. Virginia entered the poll for the first time this season with a perfect 12-0 record. Three other teams also made their entrance into the poll with U.C. Santa Barbara (9-2), Illinois (7-2), and San Jose St. (9-0). Coastal Carolina has won nine straight while Cal. St. Fullerton has won eight in a row. Teams that fell out of the poll include Florida St. (1-4 last week), Clemson (2-3), Mississippi St. (1-3) and San Diego (1-3). When Florida St. dropped two of three at home to Boston College last weekend, it marked the first time in school history that the Seminoles have dropped an ACC series opener, a span covering 18 seasons.

  Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's

NCAA Div. I Poll (As of March 9, 2009)

www.baseballnews.com
Rank School (Record) 	Points 	Previous
  1. Georgia (12-0) 	496 	  2
  2. North Carolina (10-2) 	495 	  3
  3. Louisiana St. (10-2) 	492 	  1
  4. Texas (12-1) 	490 	  4
  5. Arizona St. (11-1) 	489 	  5
  6. Georgia Tech. (9-1) 	485 	  9
  7. Cal. St. Fullerton (9-2) 	482 	12
  8. Miami, Fla. (10-2) 	479 	10
  9. Texas A&M (11-3) 	477 	  8
10. Rice (8-4) 	472 	  7
11. Texas Christian (9-2) 	470 	11
12. Oklahoma St. (9-2) 	466 	13
13. Baylor (10-2) 	464 	14
14. Coastal Carolina (12-1) 	461 	16
15. Cal Poly (8-2) 	458 	17
16. U.C. Irvine (7-4) 	455 	15
17. South Carolina (8-1) 	450 	18
18. Virginia (12-0) 	447 	—
19. Florida (9-4) 	445 	20
20. Mississippi (7-3) 	441 	21
21. Illinois (7-2) 	437 	—
22. Pepperdine (9-3) 	436 	22
23. Lamar (12-2) 	435 	23
24. U.C. Santa Barbara (9-2) 	432 	—
25. San Jose St. (9-0) 	430 	—
26. East Carolina (8-2) 	429 	24
27. Oklahoma (12-3) 	427 	27
28. Michigan (10-2) 	426 	28
29. Kentucky (9-2) 	425 	29
30. Ohio St. (9-2) 	423 	25

[MJ4H]

Arkansas opens the SEC season right, sweeping Florida at home. 12-6, 8-4, 4-2 (weird sort of regressive symmetry in those scores).

suck it tebow!!

[JonInMiddleGA]

GT manages to get in only 1 of the 3 games scheduled with BC due to rain. 3-0 for the week with wins over Kennesaw State, Mercer, and BC.

UGA has already dropped a doubleheader to Alabama yesterday & is clinging to a 10-8 lead in the 7th inning of the final game of the series.

[MJ4H]

Arkansas opens SEC play 5-0 for the first time ever after taking the first 2 games on the road at Auburn. Yesterday 3-2 today 10-6. Two really good games.

This team, for the first time since I've watched them, seems to have that timely hitting factor. 2 outs, down 1 run, runners on first and second? Base hit. Over and over. Clutch hitting, welcome.

[Izulde]

I haven't gotten to a Hogs baseball game yet, but I've been meaning to. Nice to finally have a good major-sport team this year.

[MJ4H]

We should try to hit one. They are a lot of fun. Best ballpark in the country, too.

[JonInMiddleGA]

GT makes it 12 straight last night with a come from behind 10-9 win over Va Tech by scoring 6 runs in the ninth.

[Thomkal]

Go Coastal Carolina. Thought they might struggle this season, especially with pitching, but they seem to have found replacements for the good ones that graduated. Had a long winning streak and beat their nemesis from last year already this season North Carolina and took two from Tennessee too.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

and took two from Tennessee too.

Not necessarily a big feat

Not really any question that CC is a better baseball program than UT right now.

[Thomkal]

yeah looks that way Jon, but always nice when a small school like Coastal gets a win against a big conference school program.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

yeah looks that way Jon, but always nice when a small school like Coastal gets a win against a big conference school program.

Understood, definitely not taking anything away from Coastal in that regard.
I just know which one of them I'd rather face than the other at this point, one of them is a much easier W than the other.

[MJ4H]

Arkanas completes the sweep of Auburn, winning 12-6 today. Only undefeated SEC team, now, at 6-0.

I saw Alabama blasting Ole Miss 18-0 in the 5th earlier. Yikes.

[SnDvls]

ASU sweeps Arizona with victories of 4-1, 7-3 and 23-9 for the woodshed beating and series sweep.

[Thomkal]

Coastal Carolina had a tough week last week, scheduled to play just about every day, some travel, and it showed at the end of the week when Big South rival Winthrop took 2 of 3 from them. So where to go for some nice R&R? Hawaii of course.

Got to go a couple days before a 4 game series vs Hawaii, and apparantly they were well rested for Game 1 because Cody Wheeler threw the first (full 9 inning) no-hitter in coach Gary Gilmore's term as head coach of the Chanticleers. It was the first time Hawaii had been held hitless since 1998, and first time at home since 1982.

[DeToxRox]

Michigan was swept by Arizona but bounced back to win their next five. They opened Big 10 play with a 4-3 W over Iowa yesterday.

[MJ4H]

Arkansas's series with Mississippi State will be struggling through the weather. Last night's game was stopped in the middle of the 5th inning with Arkansas leading 10-3 for rain. Today it is snowing. Supposed to resume at 2:05 this afternoon but there is a good chance that won't happen. Might have to finish game 1 tomorrow and then get in a 9 or 7 inning game two and that's it.

As far as the actual games, Arkansas is still getting timely hitting and good pitching, along with a healthy dose of just pounding it out of the park. Unless things go downhill fast, I expect the Razorbacks to remain undefeated in conference play through the weekend.

[cartman]

The Texas bats went silent last week, and they had a four game losing streak. They dropped from #1/#2 in the polls to #9 in both.

[JonInMiddleGA]

This week's #1 vs #3 rivalry game between Georgia & Georgia Tech was rained out. They'll meet at least two other times this year, once here in Athens & again at Turner Field toward the end of the season. Both teams were surprised in their other mid-week games, UGA losing at home to Wright State while GT lost at home to Georgia State.

Friday night's conference play saw Georgia pound Tennessee 12-6 and Georgia Tech hit five home runs en route to a 13-9 win at #2 Miami.

If not for the rainout, I wonder how often any team ends up scheduled to play both the #1 and #2 teams in the same week of the regular season, even moreso how often it happens that the team doing so is ranked #3?

[larrymcg421]

#3 Ga Tech at #2 Miami this weekend should be some good stuff. GA Tech took first game 13-9.

[MJ4H]

Well Arkansas and Miss. State battled through rain and snow to finish yesterday's game today and it just ended at 20-9. Awful conditions, pitches all over the place, errors left and right, but it is over. The weather should be better tomorrow, so they will play two 7-inning games at noon.

[StLee]

Watching the LSU-Ole Miss game right now. Blake Dean just hit an ultra rare 3-RBI single. Super speeder and former football wideout Jared Mitchell was running on a 3-2, 2-out pitch, and made it all away around on a poke single through the right side. I don't know how often 3-RBI singles happen, but I would bet it's not something most people have seen.

[JonInMiddleGA]

#3 Georgia Tech loses the series opener at home to #5 UNC by a 4-2 final.
#1 Georgia trails #5 LSU (diff. poll?) 8-1 in the ninth.

[MJ4H]

Arkansas opens the series at South Carolina with a 6-4 win to go to 9-1 in the SEC.

[Thomkal]

Coastal Carolina lost the remaiining three games against Hawaii sadly, as well as their leadoff hitter for a while, but have rebounded nicely with a couple tough one run wins against UNC-Wilmington, and then opening a series against division foe Gardner-Webb with a win where they hit six home runs.

[MJ4H]

Arkansas wins the series at South Carolina, 6-4 on Friday, losing 9-1 Saturday, and coming back today from 4-0 down after the 1st inning and winning 7-4.

Our Sunday starter Smyly has had two consecutive outings where he hasn't made it out of the first inning. He will likely be replaced in the rotation by Eibner or Bolsinger, who came in today and pitched the last 5 or so innings and completely shut down the Gamecocks.

Arkansas is still a clear first place overall in the SEC at 10-2 with a big mid-week series vs. #3 Arizona State coming up.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Walk off grand slam in the 11th rallies GT over UNC last night to even the series but an 8-run 2nd inning doomed the Jackets today, 13-10 loss dropping 2/3 at home.

LSU took 2/3 from #1 Georgia in Athens.

[MJ4H]

Arkansas ranked #1 in the latest collegiate baseball poll:

NCAA DIV I POLL - Current - Collegiate Baseball Newspaper

Awesome.

and that poll has Arizona State at #2. Arizona State plays two midweek games at Arkansas this week. Should be fun. I might have to find a way to get to at least one of these now.

[MJ4H]

#1 vs. #2 game 1 (according to one poll anyway) about to start. Arizona State at Arkansas.

[cartman]

I'm surprised at the number of losses teams already have. Usually heading into the CWS there are several teams that are 35-5, 40-6 or other records like that.

[Tigercat]

Parity is huge in college baseball this year, and there are no great teams so far.

I think IF, and it may/may not be a big if, LSU hitting ever heats up to the talent potential, we are the clear best team in the nation. And that is something I would have never said at this point in the season about any other LSU baseball team. We have hit well below our potential so far as a team, and we are still #2 or #4 in the nation in all the polls.

[MJ4H]

Arkansas wins game 7-3. Great game. Game 2 tomorrow.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Arkansas wins game 7-3. Great game. Game 2 tomorrow.

About when you think the game will run tomorrow?

[SnDvls]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

#1 vs. #2 game 1 (according to one poll anyway) about to start. Arizona State at Arkansas.

it's billed as #1 vs #1 since ASU is #1 in almost every other poll.

Great game #1 was hopefully we pull out game #2 for a split.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by Izulde

About when you think the game will run tomorrow?

First pitch is 6:30 I believe. I think we will be trying to make it to at least one of the games this weekend against Vandy if you are interested.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by SnDvls

it's billed as #1 vs #1 since ASU is #1 in almost every other poll.

Great game #1 was hopefully we pull out game #2 for a split.

Definitely a good chance of it. We are probably staffing it tonight.

[MJ4H]

After 4 innings, it is Arizona State 6, Arkansas 5. Great game to watch so far. ASU jumped out 6-1 and 4 runs in the 4th by Arkansas to get back into it.

[MJ4H]

School record 11,014 in attendance tonight. Previous record was in the 10s I believe. 8-7 Arkansas lead in bottom of the 8th right now. One of the most exciting games I can remember watching.

[MJ4H]

Game ends 8-7. Electric crowd, very happy with that sweep.

[Tigercat]

Arky should be #1 if they win their weekend series. I am planning to try and make it up there for the LSU Arkansas series later in the season. Will be nice to see a game up there without that horrid Astroturf y'all used to have! That field + Aluminum bats used to give up the flukiest singles I have ever seen in my life.

[Thomkal]

And the winning streak continues for Coastal Carolina. Travelled up to Winston-Salem to play Wake Forest and after scoring 11 runs in the fourth inning they had a 15-2 lead. Easy win you say? Nope they had to hang on to win 16-13. Still given their strength of schedule and conference they play in, a good win for their tournament hopes.

[MJ4H]

Arkansas is in the process of ruining the chance to be ranked in the top 5 next week in most polls by getting swept by Vanderbilt, and in convincing fashion. Vanderbilt has taken the first two games 9-10 and 13-6. Really, two embarrassingly bad performances this weekend. Might not even get to play game 3 because of weather, but if it is played, it will take a lot better play than this to salvage 1 of 3.