March 17 Baseball Notebook
March 17, 2008
Complete Release in PDF Format Marshall junior CF Nate Lape became the second Conference USA standout to earn National Player of the Week honors this week after leading the Thundering Herd to six straight wins last week. Marshall and the rest of Conference USA is getting ready to open league play this Friday.
HITTER OF THE WEEK NATE LAPE, MARSHALL Junior, CF, Huntington, N.Y. Lape led Marshall to a 6-0 week and its first six-game winning streak since the 2004 season by batting .542 (13 hits in 24 at-bats), including five home runs, three doubles and 11 RBI. Lape also scored 12 runs, stole a pair of bases, drew two walks and struck out only three times to help Marshall to a pair of three-game sweeps over Valparaiso and 2007 NCAA Regional participant VMI on the road. Lape was also named by Collegiate Baseball as one of its Louisville Slugger National Players of the Week. PITCHER OF THE WEEK SHOOTER HUNT, TULANE Junior, RHP, Wyckoff, N.J. Hunt struck out 10 batters in 8.0 innings to lead the Green Wave to a 3-0 victory over the Oakland on Friday. He allowed just two singles to a team that entered the weekend hitting .315. Hunt posted at least one-strikeout in each inning, including two-K stanzas in the fifth and eighth. He allowed just six base runners on Friday and allowed just two runners to get past second base, while helping himself out with a pickoff at first. Hunt has now recorded at least one strike out in 21 consecutive innings. C-USA NOTEBOOK
EAST CAROLINA The Pirates improved to 13-4 on the season after finishing 5-0 for the second consecutive week and has now won 12 games in a row, which is tied for the fourth-longest active streak in the nation. During the streak, the Pirates have outscored their opponents 120-53, are batting .345, have stolen 36-of-43 bases, have a team ERA of .355 with 98 strikeouts to just 39 walks and opposing hitters are batting .229. Junior SS Ryan Wood saw his hit streak snapped at 14 games in the series finale against Rhode Island. On the week, he belted three home runs, including two on Saturday against the Rams, the second time in his career he has smacked two homers in a game. He batted .292 on the week, driving in six runs, swiping two bases and slugged .667 with 16 total bases. During the Pirates 12-game winning streak, Wood is batting .377 with a team-best four home runs, 13 RBI, slugging .642, has an on-base percentage of .452 with nine stolen bases. Junior 2B Stephen Batts batted a team second-best .444 (8-for-18) during the Pirates perfect week. He smacked his first home run of the season and finished with two jacks and a team-best 10 RBI along with a team-high 18 total bases. In 13 of the Pirates 17 games played, ECU has pounded out at least 10 hits with a team-best 19 coming against ODU (March 4). The Pirates have posted double-digit hits in the last six games and 10 of the last 12. Freshman RHP Seth Maness improved to 3-0 on the year after working a career-high eight innings were he allowed two unearned runs on four hits with four strikeouts. The freshman allowed just two hits through the first seven innings. He faced 32 batters in eight frames and held Rhode Island to a .133 batting average. HOUSTON Houston won four of five for the second straight week and is now 12-6 on the season. Senior IF Bryan Pounds has extended his hitting streak to 18 games, dating back to last season. That streak is tied for the sixth-longest in school history. Pounds had four multiple-hit games last week to raise his season batting average to a team-high .435. He also leads the team in hits (27), home runs (4), RBI (19), slugging percentage (.710) and on-base percentage (.500). Redshirt sophomore Chris Wright had a career outing against Stephen F. Austin on March 11. The reliever pitched four innings out of the bullpen and recorded 12-straight outs along with a career-best eight strikeouts. Freshman reliever Barrett Bruce has made three appearances this season and earned the win all three times. In 7.0 innings pitched, Bruce has struck out 10 while holding opponent hitters to a .179 average, the best mark on the UH pitching staff. Junior RHP Wes Musick earned the Friday night win vs. San Francisco and is now 4-0 with a 1.52 ERA this season. UH tallied a season-high 18 hits in a win at Sam Houston State on March 12. The Coogs also tied a season best with 14 runs. Houston out-hit its opponents 56-41 last week and outscored foes 41-29. MARSHALL The Thundering Herd went 6-0 last week, marking the team's first six-game winning streak since the 2004 season. Marshall won three in a row over Valparaiso and then swept a three-game series at 2007 NCAA Regional participant VMI. Junior CF Nate Lape has some eye-popping numbers through 14 games. He leads the conference in batting (.509), slugging percentage (1.075), total bases (57), runs scored (24) and home runs (8). He tops Marshall in doubles (6), RBI (20), walks (7) and on-base percentage (.562). While Lape earned C-USA and National Player of the Week honors, sophomore 1B Josh Valle also put up a huge week. He batted .500 (11-for-22) with two home runs, six RBI and six runs scored, hitting safely in all six games. Sophomore RHP Dan Straily earned two wins last week, defeating Valparaiso on Tuesday and VMI on Sunday for his first wins in a Herd uniform. In a combined 11.1 innings pitched, he allowed just one earned run on seven hits, while striking out 13 and walking six. Freshman RHP Arik Sikula, who earned a pair of saves last week, has a 1.08 ERA in eight appearances. Marshall has hit 23 home runs in the first 14 games of 2008 after hitting just 30 round-trippers in 53 games all of last season. MEMPHIS The Tigers were 2-2 last week, opening the week with a shutout victory at Arkansas State before going 1-2 vs. Southeast Missouri, with both losses coming by one run, including one in 14 innings. Memphis has dropped a league-high five one-run games this season. Tuesday's 3-0 win at Arkansas marked the first shutout by the Tigers since opening the 2006 season with a 2-0 blanking of Alabama. Memphis waited just four more days to post its next shutout, as freshman LHP Ryan Holland and sophomore RHP Garrett Hachtel combined to blank SEMO, fanning nine total batters, walking two and scattering six hits. Holland earned his first career win, while Hachtel notched his first career save. Tiger pitchers have struck out 142 batters and walked just 58 in 156 innings pitched. Friday's 14-inning game ranked as the third-longest in Memphis baseball history in terms of innings and second in time. Only the Tigers 5:00 tilt vs. Evansville in 1999 was longer in time and that game went 21 innings. Memphis also played a 16-inning game at Houston in 2006. RICE Rice head coach Wayne Graham won his 750th game at Rice on March 14. The Owls' head coach now has 752 wins in this, his 17th season at the helm of the program. Sophomore 3B Diego Seastrunk has hit safely in all 18 games this season. His hitting streak is actually 19 games dating back to the 2007 College World Series. Not only is Seastrunk working an active streak with a .423 batting average, he has 11 multi-hit games this season, including a career-high four hits on the road at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. All of Seastrunk's hits against TAMUCC that day were doubles. It was the first time a Rice player had knocked four doubles in a single game since all-America Brian Friday accomplished the feat in 2006. Junior Jared Gayhart also stepped up with a sensational week. The Owls two-way threat batted a composite .500 (9-of-18) with four RBI, six runs scored, a stolen base, a home run and two doubles for a .778 slugging percentage. He also drew four walks and was twice hit by a pitch for a .625 on-base percentage. Senior LHP Cole St.Clair returned to the Rice bullpen on Sunday and posted his best outing of the season. St.Clair held Winthrop in check for the final 5.2 innings of the game as Rice staged the comeback win. St.Clair scattered two hits with no walks while fanning seven in his longest outing of the year. He struck out his 200th career batter in that game and now has 205 with the Blue & Gray. Sophomore RHP Ryan Berry had a pair of solid outings last week in a start and relief appearance. For the week Berry worked 9.0 innings, allowing just two runs on eight hits and no walks while striking out seven. SOUTHERN MISS The Golden Eagles were 4-0 last week, opening with a road win at New Orleans before sandwiching wins over Cal State Northridge around a 5-0 shutout over Liberty to win the Coca-Cola Classic in Hattiesburg. Senior RHP David Clark was on the mound for the complete-game shutout over Liberty, striking out seven and allowing only two walks for his second win of the year. Senior RHP Barry Bowden and freshman RHP Todd McInnis each picked up their third victories of the season after both hurlers tossed seven innings of one-run ball. Senior IF Trey Sutton swung a hot bat last week, going 8-for-15 (.533) withy three multiple-hit games. He added a double, a triple and a home run while walking three times and scoring four runs. Junior college transfer Corey Stevens hit his first career home run to spark Friday's win over Cal State Northridge. He finished the weekend tournament 7-of-10 (.700) with a double, a homer and four RBI. In the four wins last week, Southern Miss pounded out 46 hits, including 15 for extra-bases. TULANE The Green Wave posted their first five-win week since April 25-30, 2000, after taking a pair of midweek ballgames from Northwestern State and sweeping Oakland University over the weekend. Junior RHP Shooter Hunt has a 0.67 ERA and a .094 opponent batting average in four starts this season while striking out 37 and walking 12 in 27.0 innings of work. With at least one strikeout in each inning he pitched on Friday, Hunt has K'd at least one batter in 25 of his 27 innings, including a streak of 21 consecutive stanzas dating back to his Week 2 start against Pepperdine. The Green Wave bats broke out in a big way on Wednesday as Tulane hammered out a season-high 23 hits en route to an 18-11 victory over Northwestern State. In that game, freshman 3B Rob Segedin tied a Tulane record with six hits in as many at-bats. Not to be out-done, junior Anthony Scelfo went 5-for-6 with a double and a home run, junior centerfielder Aja Barto was 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI, and junior designated hitter Andrew Rodgers was 3-for-3 with two home runs and five RBI. With 3-0, 19-0 and 16-0 victories over Oakland, the Tulane pitching staff combined to shutout the Golden Grizzlies in all three games over the weekend. The shutouts marked the third time the Green Wave blanked a weekend opponent in all three games since 2004, as Tulane shut out Utah from Feb. 27-29, 2004, and Siena from March 16-18, 2007. UAB UAB wrapped up its season-long six-game road trip at Hawaii last Wednesday. The Blazers went 2-4 on the road swing, with the team's four losses being by a combined five runs. While the Blazers will be happy to return to Young Memorial Field to host Mississippi State on Tuesday, senior OF Phil Bell may prefer to stay on the road, as he is hitting .452 with two home runs and seven RBI in UAB¹s seven road games this season. Senior 1B Ryan Keedy has been nothing short of dominant this season. Boasting a .466 batting average with 17 RBI, 10 doubles, 10 walks and a home run, he has also been impressive on the defensive end, making just one error with 156 putouts and seven assists to boast a fielding percentage of .994. He is on a record setting pace to post the highest single-season doubles total in program history. Keedy already has 10 doubles this season through 15 games, putting him on a clip to hit about 37 doubles. The school record for doubles at UAB is 24, set by B.J. Huff in 1996 and Brian Jersey in 1994. UCF At 16-1, UCF is off to the best one-loss start in Conference USA history, topping the 2005 Tulane team that went on to the College World Series. The three straight wins over Siena over the weekend marked the fourth straight series sweep for the Knights, which they had not done since 2001. Currently on an eight-game winning streak, this is also the first time since 2001 that UCF has posted two separate winning streaks of eight games. Junior SS Eric Kallstrom hit .412 last week, with five of his seven hits going for extra-bases (two doubles, one triple and two home runs). He drove in eight runs and scored three times. Senior 2B Dwayne Bailey had 44 hits and 17 RBI last year. This season, he already has 34 hits and 15 RBI. Similarly, sophomore 1B Shane Brown posted 27 hits, four doubles and 12 RBI as a freshman. This year, he has 28 hits, eight doubles and 27 RBI. Sophomore LHP Mitch Houck picked up his first win of the year against Pittsburgh on March 11, striking out a career-high 12 batters in six innings. Head coach Jay Bergman's next victory will be his 1,200th at the Division I level. After defeating Siena 12-1 on Sunday, the Knights have registered double-digit runs in nine games this season. THE POLLS Baseball America (Mar. 17) Collegiate Baseball (Mar. 17) NCBWA (Mar. 17) THREE TEAMS RANKED THIS WEEK Conference USA has three teams ranked in this week's polls, as Rice and UCF are joined by East Carolina, which re-appeared in this week's listings. Rice has been ranked all season and is currently ranked as high as No. 13 (NCBWA). UCF, which is enjoying an 16-1 start, has moved up to No. 16 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Top 30 Poll. ECU appears at No. 26 in this week's Collegiate Baseball listing. Southern Miss and Tulane have also been ranked this season, meaning five of C-USA's nine teams have already broke into the national polls. Additionally, Houston is receivcing votes in this week's NCBWA poll. LAST WEEK'S STARS Other than the players of the week, here's a look at some of the top performances in Conference USA during the games of Mar. 10-16: HITTING ECU - HARRISON ELDRIDGE - hit .632 (12-for-19) with four RBI, one home run, seven runs scored, while also walking five times for a team-best .720 on-base%. He reached base in 18 of his 25 at-bats on the week (12 hits, five walks, one hit by pitch) and struck out just once. Collected at least two hits in all five games, pounding out four against VCU. HOU - BRYAN POUNDS - extended his hitting streak to 18 games by batting .455 (10-for-22) last week. He had four multiple-hit games, doubled, had four RBI, scored six runs and stole two bases. RICE - DIEGO SEASTRUNK - batted a composite .524, collecting 11 hits in 21 at bats with five doubles for a .762 slugging percentage. For the week, he drove in six runs and he scored five times. Also drew a walk, had a sacrifice fly and executed a sacrifice bunt. USM - TREY SUTTON - was 8-fo-15 (.533) in four USM wins last week with a .933 slugging percentage and a .632 on-base percentage. Had a double, triple and home run, driving in two runs and scoring four times. TLN - ANDREW RODGERS - hit .474 (9-for-19) with a .947 slugging percentage on the strength of three home runs. He drove in eight runs and scored 10 times, including five times against Northwestern State. Had a pair of three-hit games. UCF - DWAYNE BAILEY - was 11-for-21 (.524) in five wins last week, extending his hitting streak to eight games. He scored eight runs, drove in six and stole three bases. Had four multiple-hit games and scored multiple runs in three contests. PITCHING ECU - SETH MANESS - worked a career-high eight innings and allowed two unearned runs on four hits with four strikeouts. The freshman gave up just two hits through the first seven innings and held Rhode Island to a .133 batting average. HOU - WES MUSICK - won his fourth straight game, defeating San Francisco on Friday. He allowed just two earned runs in a team season-high eight innings, while striking out seven and walking three. MAR - ANDREW BLAIN - threw seven scoreless innings allowing three runs in the fifth in a 4-3 win over VMI. In eight total innings pitched, he surrendered six hits and struck out four, while walking two. MEM - BRACH DAVIS - in his first start of the year, he threw seven shutout innings at Arkansas State, allowing only two hits. He struck out a career-high five and walked one. He retired 10 in a row at one point. RICE - RYAN BERRY - went 1-0 with a 2.00 ERA in two appearances last week. He earned the win over Winthrop on Saturday and he fired an inning of relief at TAMUCC on Wednesday. In a combined 9.0 innings of work, he allowed just two runs on eight hits with no walks. He struck out seven in the two appearances. USM - DAVID CLARK - threw a complete-game shutout over Liberty, striking out seven and allowing two walks and seven hits. He faced only six batters over the minimum in recording his second career complete game shutout. UCF - MITCH HEROLD - tied a career high with seven innings pitched against Siena on Sunday, striking out eight and walking just one. He did not allow a run and scattered eight hits. PSEUDO-RPI REPORT 24. Tulane 43. Rice 53. East Carolina 65. UCF 56. Southern Miss 71. Houston 173. Marshall 218. Memphis 239. UAB
Throughout the 2008 season, we'll track some of the top individual performances around Conference USA: MULTIPLE HOME RUNS IN A GAME 2 Seth Henry, TLN (16) vs. Oakland (0) 3-16 2 Ryan Wood, ECU (7) vs. Rhode Island (2) 3-15 2 Nate Lape, MAR (12) vs. Valparaiso (6) 3-12 2 Andrew Rodgers, TLN (18) vs. NW St. (11) 3-12 2 Nate Lape, MAR (9) vs. Valparaiso (4) 3-11 2 Bryan Pounds, HOU (7) vs. Texas (8) 3-2 2 Chris Duffy, UCF (10) vs. Missouri (9) 2-25 COMPLETE-GAMES David Clark, USM (5) vs. Liberty (0) 3-15 Justin Bristow, ECU (6) vs. Monmouth (0) 3-2 Barry Bowden, Southern Miss (6) at La.-Lafayette (0) 2-29 Mitch Kloskowski, UAB (4) vs. Brown (1) 2-29 10 OR MORE STRIKEOUTS 12 Mitch Houck, UCF (8) vs. Pittsburgh (2) 3-11 11 Shooter Hunt, TLN (2) vs. UC Irvine (0) 3-7 10 Shooter Hunt, TLN (3) vs. Oakland (0) 3-14 10 Seth Maness, East Carolina (10) vs. Pittsburgh (5) 3-8 10 Barry Bowden, Southern Miss (6) at La.-Lafayette (0) 2-29 PSEUDO-RPI REPORT 24. Tulane 43. Rice 53. East Carolina 65. UCF 56. Southern Miss 71. Houston 173. Marshall 218. Memphis 239. UAB GREAT START At 16-1, UCF is off to the best one-loss start in Conference USA history. Here's a look at the top five: Best C-USA Starts (With one loss) 16-1 UCF 2008 14-1 Tulane 2005 13-1 UAB 2003 13-1 East Carolina 2002 12-1 Cincinnati 2000 11-1 Southern Miss 2004 11-1 Charlotte 2000 BIG PRODUCTION Here's a look at the games in which a C-USA team has scored 15 or more runs this season: 20 East Carolina 20, Old Dominion 13 Mar. 4 19 Tulane 19, Oakland 0 Mar. 15 19 UCF 19, Siena 15 Mar. 15 18 Tulane 18, Northwestern State 11 Mar. 12 17 UCF 17, Florida A&M 2 Feb. 24 17 UCF 17, Florida A&M 1 Feb. 22 16 Tulane 16, Oakland 0 Mar. 16 16 UCF 16, Florida A&M 2 Feb. 22
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