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Monday, March 29, 2010

National Classic

The schedule has been finalized for the National Classic that begins on April 5 in Orange County. Baseball teams participating in the National Classic next week in Orange County will only use wood bats. The decision was made after tournament organizers polled coaches following a suggestion by Marin Catholic to use wood bats.

Marin Catholic switched from aluminum to wood because of a serious injury suffered by pitcher Gunnar Sandberg, who was struck in the head by a line drive. The school will be providing 15 wood bats for each team, according to an e-mail sent by Steve Gullotti, the tournament organizer. Marin County Athletic Director Rick Winter said he will be transporting more than 200 wood bats to be distributed to teams.

Action begins on April 5. Perhaps the best opening matchup has Valencia West Ranch playing Orange Lutheran at 1p.m. at El Dorado. The championship game is set for April 8 at 7 p.m. at Cal State Fullerton.

An update on the condition of Sandberg can be found at
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gunnarsandberg/

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Millikan vs Lakewood

The only undefeated team in the area, top-ranked Lakewood (10-0) will host Millikan (3-5) on Wednesday and then on Friday night, the Lancers will face off with No. 2 Wilson at Blair Field at 6:30.

It's likely that Lakewood's Jeff Yamaguchi (2-0) will go head-to-head with the Moore League's reigning MVP, Josh Frye, on Wednesday, before sophomore Shane Watson (4-0) takes on the Bruins' Chase DeJong or Stefan Miladinovich. Watson, who was 9-0 on the Lakewood freshman team and is 13-0 in his career, hasn't allowed an earned run thus far in 18 innings in 2010.

Poly and Millikan will meet in Friday's first of two Moore League games at Blair Field at 3:30. Likely starter for the Rams will be Matt Clampitt. Big week for the Moore League.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

UCLA

At some point you run out of adjectives to describe the Bruins' 13-0 start to the season. I think I've read hot, fast, quick, blazing, flying, awesome, fantastic, tremendous and incredible. Truthfully, you can't praise the team and coaching staff enough for what they've accomplished to this point. Everything you could have wanted from the team, they have done and their recent jump up all five rankings indicates that people are taking notice.

Going beyond their perfect record (Arizona St. is the only other team in the country still undefeated), the Bruins have won games at home and done it away from Jackie Robinson Stadium. They have handed #18 Vanderbilt team their only loss of the season and Sunday's defeat of #16 Oklahoma was just the Sooners' second loss of the year. UCLA's 2.00 team ERA is second in the country and their .188 batting average against is best in the nation, as is their 173 strikeouts. The Bruins lead the Pac-10 in every major pitching category, including walks despite their high strikeout total. The Bruins also rank in the top three in the conference in every major hitting category except for doubles and triples and they lead the Pac-10 in home runs with
18.

The team has done just about everything and yet, there are skeptics. The last few years of UCLA baseball has been an exhibition in underachievement. Time and time again the Bruins have fallen short of expectations, never more so than in 2008 when the Bruins struggled to make the postseason after entering the season #1 in some polls. As a result, observers are being ultra-cautious with this year's team and will make UCLA prove they are an elite team two, three and 20 times over before they acknowledge that this year's team is not a UCLA team of the past. Well, the Bruins chance to prove themselves is quickly approaching and if they can prove themselves in early April, all skeptics will disappear. Go Bruins!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Baseball: CIF-SS finals will be in Lake Elsinore

With Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium unavailable, the Southern Section baseball finals for its top divisions will be held June 5 at the The Diamond, home of the Padres' Class-A affiliate, the Lake Elsinore Storm. The Diamond seats over 6,000 and has a capacity of up to 8,000 for baseball. The Division 5-7 finals will take place at UC Riverside on June 4.

The Dodgers are playing at home that weekend, while Angel Stadium will be setting up for U2 concerts on June 6 and 7.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

LB State Game Moved Back

The time of today's game against Washington has been moved from 5:30 p.m. to noon in an attempt to beat an anticipated rainstorm expected to hit Southern California ... Drew Gagnon (1-1, 2.31) starts today and Branden Pinder (0-2, 7.27) Sunday (1 p.m.)

Thie weekend series has a local flavor in that Washington head coach Lindsay Meggs was the head coach at Long Beach City College for three years (1991-93), going 75-51-1 and winning three league titles before moving on to Chico State, where he won two NCAA D-II titles. He was the coach at Indiana State for three years before being hired by the Huskies.

His pitching coach, Greeg Moore is connected to Long Beach as well. As a player, Moore began his career as a pitcher at Long Beach City College before transferring to USF. A right-handed pitcher and catcher, he won the team's most inspirational player award in back-to-back years and the award is now named after him. He was also named to the WCC All-Academic team in 2001. Moore comes to the UW after eight seasons as an assistant at the University of San Francisco.

Friday, March 5, 2010

CWS games to start later for World Cup

College World Series fans could have the World Cup to thank for some possible late nights at Rosenblatt Stadium in June.

In order to accommodate ESPN's coverage of the soccer tournament in South Africa, the CWS will revise start times for games on three days of the double-elimination portion of the baseball tournament. It also plans to start the two or three games of the championship finals a half hour later.

The CWS has had start times of 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. in recent years for days when two games are scheduled. The start times will remain unchanged for the first two days of the tournament but will switch to 3:30 p.m. for the first games on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. The second games on those days will begin at 8 p.m.

The start times for the championship finals games will be 6:30 p.m., 30 minutes later than in previous seasons. So, we will just have to wait and see, who will be playing later than usual. Go Bruins!