March 31, 2010

Lineup Card

Lineup Card is a feature highlighting notes from around college baseball.

March 22-31, 2010

Nebraska pitcher Mike Nesseth will miss the rest of the 2010 season with an elbow injury. Nesseth is 1-2 with a 6.43 ERA in 10 appearances. He is 10-7 with six saves in 57 career outings, with 136 strikeouts in 116.1 innings.

Thanks to Tami Cutler in the Wichita State Athletic Media Relations Office, we have attendance figures for Division I through Sunday, March 28. LSU is averaging 10,611 fans after 20 home dates, followed by Arkansas (6,919), Ole Miss (6,446), Texas (6,273) and South Carolina (6,083). Minnesota climbed to No. 10 (3,493) with its crowd of 36,056 on Saturday at Target Field. click here for attendance figures

Top games for Tuesday include No. 3 Georgia Tech at Georgia State, No. 6 Florida State vs. No. 9 Florida in Jacksonville, Oral Roberts at No. 7 Texas, Mississippi State vs. No. 11 Ole Miss in Pearl, UT Arlington at No. 14 TCU, The Citadel at No. 17 South Carolina, Bethune-Cookman at UCF, Elon at East Carolina, FGCU at Oklahoma State, Kentucky at Cincinnati, Wichita State at Kansas State, Fresno State at California and the first round of the Liberty Bell Classic with Lafayette at Delaware, Lehigh at Temple, Saint Joseph’s at Penn and Villanova at La Salle.

Two of Tuesday’s games will be televised. The Florida-Florida State contest will be shown on Sun Sports starting at 7 p.m. ET. UT Arlington at TCU will be broadcast on The Mt. beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Three players at Richmond, junior Andrew Lowry and freshmen Jake Mayers and Blake Geiger, have been suspended following felony charges of burglary and grand larceny. click here for Richmond Times-Dispatch story

In the first game at Target Field in Minneapolis this past Saturday, Louisiana Tech defeated Minnesota 9-1 in front of 36,056 fans, the second-largest crowd in collegiate baseball history. The largest was at Petco Field in San Diego, when 40,106 fans watched San Diego State against Houston on March 11, 2004.

Fred Jordan, head coach at The Citadel, tied Chal Port on Sunday with 641 career victories as the Bulldogs topped Appalachian State, 6-3, to complete a Southern Conference sweep. The Citadel plays at South Carolina on Tuesday and entertains Charleston Southern on Wednesday.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers will open Target Field on Saturday at 1 p.m. against Louisiana Tech. Former Golden Gopher Terry Steinbach will throw out the first pitch. Tickets will be $2 and all seating will be general admission. Attendance will be capped at 25,000. Proceeds will benefit the Minnesota Twins Community Fund. The Twins will have a pair of exhibition games against the St. Louis Cardinals next weekend before playing their first regular-season game in their new home on Monday, April 12, against the Boston Red Sox.

With the anticipation of bad weather on Sunday, several teams will play doubleheaders on Saturday to conclude their series: No. 8 Clemson at No. 1 Virginia, No. 4 LSU at Tennessee, Connecticut at No. 11 Louisville, Long Beach State at No. 13 Oregon State, Kentucky at Vanderbilt, South Alabama at Middle Tennessee, ULM at Western Kentucky, Southern Miss at UAB, Wake Forest at Virginia Tech, Rice at Memphis, Ball State at Ohio, Creighton at Southern Illinois, Kent State at Toledo and Southern Utah at Portland.

Raymond Copenhaver made his 113th appearance on the mound for The Citadel on Wednesday, setting a school record. He passed the previous mark of 112 by Tom Martin (1995-98). The senior has averaged 34 appearances the past three seasons and had taken the hill 11 times in 2010. 

UT Arlington became the first school to record 400 Southland Conference victories with a 7-0 win in the second game against UTSA this past weekend. The Mavericks are 401-392 (.506) in 41 years of Southland competition. Lamar has the second-most Southland wins with 388.

The 2010 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team will play the Japanese Collegiate All-Stars on July 21 at 7 p.m. CT at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. The game will precede the FISU World Championships in Tokyo. Warren Morris, a member of Team USA in 1995 and 1996, will be an honorary captain. Morris hit a game-winning home run for LSU against Miami (Fla.) in the title game of the 1996 College World Series.

Tuesday’s top games include Elon at No. 8 Clemson, Rice at No. 9 Texas, Texas State at No. 10 TCU, No. 16 Arkansas at McNeese State, No. 18 Ole Miss vs. Southern Miss in Pearl, Miss., No. 19 South Carolina at Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina at The Citadel, Wichita State at Oral Roberts and New Mexico at Arizona.

Two of Tuesday’s games will be televised regionally. South Carolina at Georgia Southern will be broadcast on Comcast Sports Southeast at 7 p.m. ET. Texas State at TCU will be shown on The Mtn. at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The College Baseball Foundation has released its initial Brooks Wallace Award Watch List. The award recognized the top shortstop in the nation. A pair of 2009 finalists, Christian Colon of Cal State Fullerton and Jedd Gyorko of West Virginia, headlines the list. click here for release and full list

The College Baseball Foundation has revealed its first Pitcher of the Year Watch List. One 2009 finalist, Deck McGuire of Georgia Tech, headlines the list. There are nine pitchers from the Pac-10 on the list. click here for release and full list

Each week until Selection Monday, the Omaha World-Herald will list its Omaha Eight: teams on track for the College World Series. click here for this week’s group

There are 95 nominees for the College World Series Legends Team, which will be recognized this year at the final College World Series at Rosenblatt Stadium. To vote, log on to ncaa.com/cws.

(photo courtesy of UTA Media Relations Office)