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LJS: Husker reliever Hohensee injures arm
Nebraska pitcher Jake Hohensee, who enjoyed a strong effort out of the bullpen this past weekend, will be sidelined indefinitely with an arm injury, Husker coach Darin Erstad said Tuesday.
The issue is with his forearm and elbow, the coach said.
"The MRI is still being read," Erstad told reporters before practice at the Hawks Championship Center. "We'll see where it's at. But he won't be available anytime in the near future."
A graduate of Lincoln East, Hohensee took over for starter Chance Sinclair in the sixth inning Friday night and tossed 2 1/3 innings of no-hit relief, with a career-high five strikeouts, as Nebraska defeated UNLV 2-0 in the Huskers' season opener. The Runnin' Rebels won the last two games of the series.
Hohensee pitched again Sunday, throwing about 30 pitches, and felt pain in the final few pitches.
"The forearm locked up on him, and we're just going to take it day by day," Erstad said.
Erstad called the injury a "forearm strain," although there hasn't been an official diagnosis.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Hohensee, a sophomore right-hander, was expected to be a key part of Nebraska's bullpen. He pitched in two games in May in the NCAA Stillwater Regional, tossing a perfect inning of relief against Cal State Fullerton. Last February, he topped off a 9-2 win against top-ranked Oregon State by throwing a scoreless ninth inning.
He finished the 2014 season 0-3 with a 5.08 ERA. He allowed 30 hits and 16 earned runs in 28 1/3 innings, striking out 22 and walking 18.
"You feel terrible for the kid," Erstad said of the injury. "The kid puts in all the work. The first weekend, he has a lot of success. But you just never know when things are going to happen. It's part of the game and you have to grind through it.
"We'll be just fine."
Nebraska may have to lean a bit harder on relievers such as Jeff Chesnut, Colton Howell, Austin Christensen and Jake McSteen - to name a few - Erstad said.
"We'll piece it together," he said.
Chesnut, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound junior from Millard South, had two strong outings against UNLV.
"He has good run on his fastball, right-hander versus right-hander, and did a heck of a job jamming the right-handed hitters and inducing ground balls from lefties as well," Erstad said. "When you can attack with your fastball on the inner third of the plate consistently, you're going to be effective."
Nebraska returns to action Thursday, when it begins a four-game series against BYU in Peoria, Arizona. The Cougars lost all four games of their season-opening series against 16th-ranked UC Santa Barbara.
LJS: Husker reliever Hohensee injures arm
Nebraska pitcher Jake Hohensee, who enjoyed a strong effort out of the bullpen this past weekend, will be sidelined indefinitely with an arm injury, Husker coach Darin Erstad said Tuesday.
The issue is with his forearm and elbow, the coach said.
"The MRI is still being read," Erstad told reporters before practice at the Hawks Championship Center. "We'll see where it's at. But he won't be available anytime in the near future."
A graduate of Lincoln East, Hohensee took over for starter Chance Sinclair in the sixth inning Friday night and tossed 2 1/3 innings of no-hit relief, with a career-high five strikeouts, as Nebraska defeated UNLV 2-0 in the Huskers' season opener. The Runnin' Rebels won the last two games of the series.
Hohensee pitched again Sunday, throwing about 30 pitches, and felt pain in the final few pitches.
"The forearm locked up on him, and we're just going to take it day by day," Erstad said.
Erstad called the injury a "forearm strain," although there hasn't been an official diagnosis.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pound Hohensee, a sophomore right-hander, was expected to be a key part of Nebraska's bullpen. He pitched in two games in May in the NCAA Stillwater Regional, tossing a perfect inning of relief against Cal State Fullerton. Last February, he topped off a 9-2 win against top-ranked Oregon State by throwing a scoreless ninth inning.
He finished the 2014 season 0-3 with a 5.08 ERA. He allowed 30 hits and 16 earned runs in 28 1/3 innings, striking out 22 and walking 18.
"You feel terrible for the kid," Erstad said of the injury. "The kid puts in all the work. The first weekend, he has a lot of success. But you just never know when things are going to happen. It's part of the game and you have to grind through it.
"We'll be just fine."
Nebraska may have to lean a bit harder on relievers such as Jeff Chesnut, Colton Howell, Austin Christensen and Jake McSteen - to name a few - Erstad said.
"We'll piece it together," he said.
Chesnut, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound junior from Millard South, had two strong outings against UNLV.
"He has good run on his fastball, right-hander versus right-hander, and did a heck of a job jamming the right-handed hitters and inducing ground balls from lefties as well," Erstad said. "When you can attack with your fastball on the inner third of the plate consistently, you're going to be effective."
Nebraska returns to action Thursday, when it begins a four-game series against BYU in Peoria, Arizona. The Cougars lost all four games of their season-opening series against 16th-ranked UC Santa Barbara.
LJS: Husker reliever Hohensee injures arm
B1G Baseball's Week One Top Prospect Review
Hit the link.
B1G Baseball's Week One Top Prospect Review
Hit the link.
B1G Baseball's Week One Top Prospect Review
BA - Three Strikes: Week One
Three Strikes looks at Virginia, first-year coaches and opening weekend attendance figures.
Strike One: New Defense Comes Together Behind Stellar Virginia Pitching
GREENVILLE, N.C.-Virginia's new center fielder isn't actually a center fielder. At least, he never used to be.
Ernie Clement remembers playing a few innings out in center during a summer ball game four years ago. But that's it. That's all the experience he had before he trotted out to the outfield for the Cavaliers on opening weekend.
"I got a couple of days to practice," Clement said. "They told me just to go out there and track some balls."
Clement, a freshman, was supposed to be Virginia's starting second baseman. But that was before back surgery sidelined junior Joe McCarthy for 12 weeks, leaving a giant hole in an outfield that already lost Derek Fisher, Mike Papi and Brandon Downes to the draft.
McCarthy's injury left Virginia shuffling an already young lineup. At one point during Virginia's season-opening sweep of East Carolina, head coach Brian O'Connor started five freshmen.
In the outfield, top recruit Adam Haseley is cemented in right field, while left field is more of a revolving door. Another converted infielder, junior John La Prise, started the first game of the season in left but missed the next two games with an injured hip. Freshman Charlie Cody started one game in his place, going 3-for-3 at the plate, and senior Thomas Woodruff started the other.
As for center, Clement looked as though he had little difficulty handling the position, utilizing his plus speed to compensate for any false first steps or misreads. At one point, the 6-foot, 160-pound freshman ranged from center to the right field warning track to catch a ball that seemed destined for the right fielder.
Also a hockey player and soccer player in high school in Rochester, N.Y., Clement's athleticism was on full display throughout the weekend. The leadoff hitter swung at the first pitch of the season and ran out an infield single, bunted for a single later in the series and batted 5-for-15 overall.
"You can see the kind of athlete Ernie Clement is," O'Connor said. "He just started playing center field five days ago and never played center field before . . . and he's as athletic a center fielder as you'll see."
Still, there weren't many chances for Clement or for any of Virginia's outfielders to prove themselves this weekend. With the likes of Nathan Kirby, Connor Jones and Josh Sborz on the mound, there were hardly any balls hit out of the infield.
Pitching has long been the strength of O'Connor's Virginia clubs, and that looks to be the case yet again this season.
The lefthanded Kirby, a top college draft prospect entering his junior season, picked up from his breakout 9-3, 2.06 sophomore year, throwing seven scoreless innings against the Pirates in Friday's opener. His fastball sat 92-94 mph with movement, and he commanded his curve and slider for strikes. But perhaps the most impressive element of his outing was the emergence of his changeup.
Kirby used the pitch early and often against righties, locating it down and away and coaxing quite a few weak swings with it. One National League scout in attendance said he thought Kirby's changeup was much improved from a year ago.
"Oh God, it's come light years along," Kirby said. "I don't think it's so much the pitch as it is the confidence. Last year I didn't throw it a lot. I kind of relied on my slider and curveball. But this year we've been working heavily on the changeup, and the more I threw it, the more confidence I had with it."
As impressive as Kirby was Friday, Jones, a sophomore righthander, might have matched him.
Jones made just one start last season, going 4-1, 3.13 in 54 innings that came primarily out of the bullpen. But Jones had what O'Connor called the best fall of any Virginia pitcher, and that success translated in game one of Saturday's doubleheader.
Jones allowed a first-inning unearned run but hit full throttle from there. One scout had Jones' sinking fastball touching 96 mph and sitting 92-94. Jones used the heavy two-seamer on both sides of the plate, jamming righthanders inside and catching them looking with late tailing action on the outside corner. He mixed in a biting mid-80s slider and a newly added splitter to strike out eight Pirates across six innings of work. Because of the movement on his pitches, his command eluded him at times, but Jones never lost control of the game.
Jones said in his freshman year everything seemed to be "moving at Mach speed," but he's entered this season with a newfound confidence.
"Looking back on last year, it was a really big learning experience," Jones said. "Being able to relieve and pitch twice on a weekend, you can get a lot more outings and exposure and experience and pitch in a lot of different scenarios. I think it really helped set me up for this offseason to help prepare to start this season."
Jones' emergence as a starter allowed Virginia to move Sborz from the rotation to the closing role vacated by Nick Howard.
Sborz, whose fastball-slider repertoire is similar to Howard's, didn't disappoint. Virginia threw him into the fire right away, as he made his first appearance with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth inning of Friday's opener. Sborz closed out the game without allowing a hit, and he picked up another one-inning hitless save the next night.
With that kind of pitching, the inexperienced Virginia defense should be able to take all the time it needs.
David Pierce (Photo courtesy of Tulane University)
David Pierce (Photo courtesy of Tulane University)
Strike Two: New Head Coaches At Indiana, Tulane Thrive
Sometimes the hardest part of change is the part you'd never think about.
"We were laughing as a staff-our whole staff's new together-we were just worried about where we're supposed to stand in the dugout," said new Indiana head coach Chris Lemonis, who coached his first games this weekend. "I've been in the same spot so long, I'm just so used to certain things."
The same idea holds true for new Tulane head coach David Pierce.
"The transition's been wonderful. The city's been good. The university's been good," Pierce said. "Probably the hardest part is the domestic side of buying and selling houses."
But the baseball part? That part is easy.
Lemonis and Pierce certainly made it look easy in their first action this weekend.
Both coaches took their teams West, and both came away victorious. Lemonis, a 20-year assistant coach with stints at Louisville and The Citadel, led his Hoosiers to 2-1 series win against Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. Indiana took the first game behind a strong outing from junior righthander Scott Effross. And in the second game, the Hoosiers rallied for two runs in the 10th inning to seal the series against the Cardinal.
"It was great," Lemonis said. "I mean, to play against a program like Stanford, which is one of the class programs in the country, and coach (Mark) Marquess, it was a neat experience for our guys."
Lemonis is stepping in for Tracy Smith, who left for Arizona State after leading Indiana to three NCAA tournaments and one College World Series.
The situation is different for Pierce, the former Sam Houston State head coach, who is looking to get Tulane back to the power it once was.
The Green Wave, which is coming off a 23-29 season, opened this season by taking two out of three at Pepperdine-coming two outs away from a sweep.
After hitting .226 as a team last year, the young Tulane lineup outslugged Pepperdine, 9-3 and 9-5 on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Righthander Tim Yandel threw 6 1/3 no-hit innings against the Waves on Sunday, but the Green Wave was derailed by a two-run walkoff home run in the ninth.
"It doesn't matter who you play out there. If you travel to the West Coast, you know you're going to play against some great teams that know how to play the game," Pierce said. "So it's definitely a building block for us. To be basically two outs away from sweeping the series is quite an accomplishment for this team in the opening weekend."
Beside the fact that both programs have new men at the helm, there's no question Indiana and Tulane are in the midst of transitional seasons. Indiana lost catcher Kyle Schwarber, infielders Dustin DeMuth and Sam Travis to the draft, among other losses, while Tulane is starting a lineup with seven sophomores.
Over in Greenville, N.C., new East Carolina head coach Cliff Godwin is dealing with a similar situation, rebuilding a Pirates team that produced the No. 9 pick in last year's draft in righthander Jeff Hoffman.
Godwin's Pirates didn't experience the same sort of success that Tulane and Indiana did this weekend, losing all three games at home to No. 4 Virginia. But the weekend was still a sweet one for Godwin, as he took the field wearing his former coach Keith LeClair's No. 23. In the past, the late LeClair's number has been designated to a different Pirate annually-a player who displayed hustle and determination. Godwin plans to wear the number until the Pirates make it to Omaha, at which point it will be retired.
"It was super exciting for me to be able to run out to third base and wear No. 23 and honor coach LeClair," Godwin said after Friday's opener. "Just a lot emotions for me going throughout the game. I thought our guys played hard and we were ready to go. We just ran into a buzzsaw facing Nathan Kirby.
"You get tested early for sure, and it's going to help us down the road."
Godwin said he was optimistic about his team and that his players, so far, have bought into his system. At Tulane, Pierce said one of his main focuses gearing up for the season was establishing trust with his new team and building chemistry.
"No matter what state the program is in, there's always a transition. No. 1, it's establishing your culture. That's the biggest challenge," said Pete Hughes, now in his second year at Oklahoma after leaving Virginia Tech, where he coached for seven years. "The biggest excuse is, 'Oh, I didn't recruit these guys. They're not my guys.' But they are your guys, because you're coaching them. I took over a super regional team, so the challenge is to establish a culture and make it yours."
The other challenge is to find the right place to stand in the dugout.
Strike Three: Attendance Snapshot
Opening Weekend included some strong attendance numbers for college baseball. Arizona State's first series at its new home, Phoenix Municipal Stadium, drew 10,360 fans, an average of 3,453 per game.
According to attendance figures compiled by the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), that was enough for ASU to rank 13th in the country in 2015. That's an improvement from five years ago, when the Sun Devils attracted 2,780 fans on average on opening weekend. On both occasions, the Sun Devils had a new head coach-Tim Esmay then, Tracy Smith now-but the '10 team was one with high expectations and big talent, a team that wound up going 52-10 en route to a College World Series berth. This year's Sun Devils opened the season ranked No. 18 and have fewer outside expectations, so the new ballpark likely contributed to an attendance spike.
In general, it felt like a strong weekend for attendance. But going back to 2010, the numbers aren't too different. In 2010, 14 schools averaged more than 3,000 fans per game on opening weekend. In 2015, it was 14 schools again; in fact, it was nearly the same 14 schools. Back then, East Carolina (coming off a super regional) and Southern Mississippi (coming off a trip to Omaha) made the top 14; this year they were replaced by Texas Tech (coming off an Omaha trip) and Rice (playing a four-game home set with rival Texas). TCU, also coming off an Omaha trip, climbed into the top 14 at Miami's expense.
One trend that's easy to see since 2010-the top-drawing programs are drawing more fans now than they did five years ago. Arkansas, Mississippi and South Carolina all have climbed from a bit more than 7,000 fans per game to more than 8,000 for opening weekend this season, thanks to ballpark expansions and those programs' successes. The number of schools that drew 1,200 or more fans-which is where the survey cuts off-climbed from 30 to 34, with No. 3 Houston, which drew 5,932 fans for the weekend, the most prominent new addition.
Then as now, LSU led the way nationally, drawing 10,909 fans per game and 32,728 for the weekend to Alex Box Stadium. The top six schools in attendance on Opening Weekend-LSU, Ole Miss, Arkansas, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Texas A&M-all hail from the Southeastern Conference, which also placed five other teams in spots 14-34.
-JOHN MANUEL
BA - Three Strikes: Week One
Three Strikes looks at Virginia, first-year coaches and opening weekend attendance figures.
Strike One: New Defense Comes Together Behind Stellar Virginia Pitching
GREENVILLE, N.C.-Virginia's new center fielder isn't actually a center fielder. At least, he never used to be.
Ernie Clement remembers playing a few innings out in center during a summer ball game four years ago. But that's it. That's all the experience he had before he trotted out to the outfield for the Cavaliers on opening weekend.
"I got a couple of days to practice," Clement said. "They told me just to go out there and track some balls."
Clement, a freshman, was supposed to be Virginia's starting second baseman. But that was before back surgery sidelined junior Joe McCarthy for 12 weeks, leaving a giant hole in an outfield that already lost Derek Fisher, Mike Papi and Brandon Downes to the draft.
McCarthy's injury left Virginia shuffling an already young lineup. At one point during Virginia's season-opening sweep of East Carolina, head coach Brian O'Connor started five freshmen.
In the outfield, top recruit Adam Haseley is cemented in right field, while left field is more of a revolving door. Another converted infielder, junior John La Prise, started the first game of the season in left but missed the next two games with an injured hip. Freshman Charlie Cody started one game in his place, going 3-for-3 at the plate, and senior Thomas Woodruff started the other.
As for center, Clement looked as though he had little difficulty handling the position, utilizing his plus speed to compensate for any false first steps or misreads. At one point, the 6-foot, 160-pound freshman ranged from center to the right field warning track to catch a ball that seemed destined for the right fielder.
Also a hockey player and soccer player in high school in Rochester, N.Y., Clement's athleticism was on full display throughout the weekend. The leadoff hitter swung at the first pitch of the season and ran out an infield single, bunted for a single later in the series and batted 5-for-15 overall.
"You can see the kind of athlete Ernie Clement is," O'Connor said. "He just started playing center field five days ago and never played center field before . . . and he's as athletic a center fielder as you'll see."
Still, there weren't many chances for Clement or for any of Virginia's outfielders to prove themselves this weekend. With the likes of Nathan Kirby, Connor Jones and Josh Sborz on the mound, there were hardly any balls hit out of the infield.
Pitching has long been the strength of O'Connor's Virginia clubs, and that looks to be the case yet again this season.
The lefthanded Kirby, a top college draft prospect entering his junior season, picked up from his breakout 9-3, 2.06 sophomore year, throwing seven scoreless innings against the Pirates in Friday's opener. His fastball sat 92-94 mph with movement, and he commanded his curve and slider for strikes. But perhaps the most impressive element of his outing was the emergence of his changeup.
Kirby used the pitch early and often against righties, locating it down and away and coaxing quite a few weak swings with it. One National League scout in attendance said he thought Kirby's changeup was much improved from a year ago.
"Oh God, it's come light years along," Kirby said. "I don't think it's so much the pitch as it is the confidence. Last year I didn't throw it a lot. I kind of relied on my slider and curveball. But this year we've been working heavily on the changeup, and the more I threw it, the more confidence I had with it."
As impressive as Kirby was Friday, Jones, a sophomore righthander, might have matched him.
Jones made just one start last season, going 4-1, 3.13 in 54 innings that came primarily out of the bullpen. But Jones had what O'Connor called the best fall of any Virginia pitcher, and that success translated in game one of Saturday's doubleheader.
Jones allowed a first-inning unearned run but hit full throttle from there. One scout had Jones' sinking fastball touching 96 mph and sitting 92-94. Jones used the heavy two-seamer on both sides of the plate, jamming righthanders inside and catching them looking with late tailing action on the outside corner. He mixed in a biting mid-80s slider and a newly added splitter to strike out eight Pirates across six innings of work. Because of the movement on his pitches, his command eluded him at times, but Jones never lost control of the game.
Jones said in his freshman year everything seemed to be "moving at Mach speed," but he's entered this season with a newfound confidence.
"Looking back on last year, it was a really big learning experience," Jones said. "Being able to relieve and pitch twice on a weekend, you can get a lot more outings and exposure and experience and pitch in a lot of different scenarios. I think it really helped set me up for this offseason to help prepare to start this season."
Jones' emergence as a starter allowed Virginia to move Sborz from the rotation to the closing role vacated by Nick Howard.
Sborz, whose fastball-slider repertoire is similar to Howard's, didn't disappoint. Virginia threw him into the fire right away, as he made his first appearance with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth inning of Friday's opener. Sborz closed out the game without allowing a hit, and he picked up another one-inning hitless save the next night.
With that kind of pitching, the inexperienced Virginia defense should be able to take all the time it needs.
David Pierce (Photo courtesy of Tulane University)
David Pierce (Photo courtesy of Tulane University)
Strike Two: New Head Coaches At Indiana, Tulane Thrive
Sometimes the hardest part of change is the part you'd never think about.
"We were laughing as a staff-our whole staff's new together-we were just worried about where we're supposed to stand in the dugout," said new Indiana head coach Chris Lemonis, who coached his first games this weekend. "I've been in the same spot so long, I'm just so used to certain things."
The same idea holds true for new Tulane head coach David Pierce.
"The transition's been wonderful. The city's been good. The university's been good," Pierce said. "Probably the hardest part is the domestic side of buying and selling houses."
But the baseball part? That part is easy.
Lemonis and Pierce certainly made it look easy in their first action this weekend.
Both coaches took their teams West, and both came away victorious. Lemonis, a 20-year assistant coach with stints at Louisville and The Citadel, led his Hoosiers to 2-1 series win against Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. Indiana took the first game behind a strong outing from junior righthander Scott Effross. And in the second game, the Hoosiers rallied for two runs in the 10th inning to seal the series against the Cardinal.
"It was great," Lemonis said. "I mean, to play against a program like Stanford, which is one of the class programs in the country, and coach (Mark) Marquess, it was a neat experience for our guys."
Lemonis is stepping in for Tracy Smith, who left for Arizona State after leading Indiana to three NCAA tournaments and one College World Series.
The situation is different for Pierce, the former Sam Houston State head coach, who is looking to get Tulane back to the power it once was.
The Green Wave, which is coming off a 23-29 season, opened this season by taking two out of three at Pepperdine-coming two outs away from a sweep.
After hitting .226 as a team last year, the young Tulane lineup outslugged Pepperdine, 9-3 and 9-5 on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Righthander Tim Yandel threw 6 1/3 no-hit innings against the Waves on Sunday, but the Green Wave was derailed by a two-run walkoff home run in the ninth.
"It doesn't matter who you play out there. If you travel to the West Coast, you know you're going to play against some great teams that know how to play the game," Pierce said. "So it's definitely a building block for us. To be basically two outs away from sweeping the series is quite an accomplishment for this team in the opening weekend."
Beside the fact that both programs have new men at the helm, there's no question Indiana and Tulane are in the midst of transitional seasons. Indiana lost catcher Kyle Schwarber, infielders Dustin DeMuth and Sam Travis to the draft, among other losses, while Tulane is starting a lineup with seven sophomores.
Over in Greenville, N.C., new East Carolina head coach Cliff Godwin is dealing with a similar situation, rebuilding a Pirates team that produced the No. 9 pick in last year's draft in righthander Jeff Hoffman.
Godwin's Pirates didn't experience the same sort of success that Tulane and Indiana did this weekend, losing all three games at home to No. 4 Virginia. But the weekend was still a sweet one for Godwin, as he took the field wearing his former coach Keith LeClair's No. 23. In the past, the late LeClair's number has been designated to a different Pirate annually-a player who displayed hustle and determination. Godwin plans to wear the number until the Pirates make it to Omaha, at which point it will be retired.
"It was super exciting for me to be able to run out to third base and wear No. 23 and honor coach LeClair," Godwin said after Friday's opener. "Just a lot emotions for me going throughout the game. I thought our guys played hard and we were ready to go. We just ran into a buzzsaw facing Nathan Kirby.
"You get tested early for sure, and it's going to help us down the road."
Godwin said he was optimistic about his team and that his players, so far, have bought into his system. At Tulane, Pierce said one of his main focuses gearing up for the season was establishing trust with his new team and building chemistry.
"No matter what state the program is in, there's always a transition. No. 1, it's establishing your culture. That's the biggest challenge," said Pete Hughes, now in his second year at Oklahoma after leaving Virginia Tech, where he coached for seven years. "The biggest excuse is, 'Oh, I didn't recruit these guys. They're not my guys.' But they are your guys, because you're coaching them. I took over a super regional team, so the challenge is to establish a culture and make it yours."
The other challenge is to find the right place to stand in the dugout.
Strike Three: Attendance Snapshot
Opening Weekend included some strong attendance numbers for college baseball. Arizona State's first series at its new home, Phoenix Municipal Stadium, drew 10,360 fans, an average of 3,453 per game.
According to attendance figures compiled by the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), that was enough for ASU to rank 13th in the country in 2015. That's an improvement from five years ago, when the Sun Devils attracted 2,780 fans on average on opening weekend. On both occasions, the Sun Devils had a new head coach-Tim Esmay then, Tracy Smith now-but the '10 team was one with high expectations and big talent, a team that wound up going 52-10 en route to a College World Series berth. This year's Sun Devils opened the season ranked No. 18 and have fewer outside expectations, so the new ballpark likely contributed to an attendance spike.
In general, it felt like a strong weekend for attendance. But going back to 2010, the numbers aren't too different. In 2010, 14 schools averaged more than 3,000 fans per game on opening weekend. In 2015, it was 14 schools again; in fact, it was nearly the same 14 schools. Back then, East Carolina (coming off a super regional) and Southern Mississippi (coming off a trip to Omaha) made the top 14; this year they were replaced by Texas Tech (coming off an Omaha trip) and Rice (playing a four-game home set with rival Texas). TCU, also coming off an Omaha trip, climbed into the top 14 at Miami's expense.
One trend that's easy to see since 2010-the top-drawing programs are drawing more fans now than they did five years ago. Arkansas, Mississippi and South Carolina all have climbed from a bit more than 7,000 fans per game to more than 8,000 for opening weekend this season, thanks to ballpark expansions and those programs' successes. The number of schools that drew 1,200 or more fans-which is where the survey cuts off-climbed from 30 to 34, with No. 3 Houston, which drew 5,932 fans for the weekend, the most prominent new addition.
Then as now, LSU led the way nationally, drawing 10,909 fans per game and 32,728 for the weekend to Alex Box Stadium. The top six schools in attendance on Opening Weekend-LSU, Ole Miss, Arkansas, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Texas A&M-all hail from the Southeastern Conference, which also placed five other teams in spots 14-34.
-JOHN MANUEL
BA - Three Strikes: Week One
CBD - Top Performers: 2/13-2/17
The start of college baseball season is upon us and with the first weekend in the books College Baseball Daily would like to show some love to some of the nations top performances.
A breakdown of some of the top hitting and pitching performances of the 2015 Division 1 college baseball season opening weekend are below.
AT THE PLATE:
Harrison Bader was announced as the SEC Player of the Week on Monday after leading the Gators offense to a season-opening series sweep of Rhode Island. Bader hit .583 on the weekend with three home runs and 11 RBI. He also doubled twice and collected a total of seven hits on the weekend.
Welcome back David Thompson. The Miami corner infielder and DH batted .365 on the weekend and tallied three extra base hits, which included a double, triple and home run.
Cam Gibson swung the bat as well as anybody in the country for Michigan State over the weekend. The junior outfielder batted .500 and collected three extra base hits. Perhaps the most impressive stat of Gibson's weekend is the 1.000 slugging percentage he posted in 12 at bats.
Have a weekend Stuart Fairchild! In his first college baseball series Fairchild batted .778 in nine at bats. He belted one home run, one double and crossed the plate three times. Fairchild posted an OBP of .846 and slugged 1.222. Any way you look at it Fairchild had a great weekend and Wake Forest should be inspired by the freshmen's performance.
Arguably the top performance from over the weekend in all of college baseball goes to the Windsor, Ont., Canada native, Jacob Robson. The redshirt sophomore center fielder recorded six hits in ten at bats and demonstrated a very good eye at the plate with five walks in a four game sweep of Cincinnati and Miami (OH).
Cincinnati Bearcat outfielder Ian Happ demonstrated why he is considered a top 20 pick in the 2015 MLB draft by numerous scouts across the country this weekend by batting .438 and collecting seven hits, two doubles and two home runs to go with four RBI in sixteen at bats.
Reigning ACC Player of the Year DJ Stewart started his junior campaign for Florida State how he finished 2014, en fuego. Stewart batted .555 and led the Seminole to a three game sweep of Oakland. Aside from batting .555 Stewart crossed the plate five times, knocked in one runner, stole two bases and walked six times.
Golden Spikes Watch List members Alex Bregman (LSU), Chris Shaw (Boston College) and Dansby Swanson (Vanderbilt) each contributed to the success of their respective teams opening weekend. Bregman recorded two hits, a stolen base and a RBI in a LSU sweep of Kentucky. Shaw hit a home run and knocked in his share of runners with a five RBI weekend for the Eagles. Swanson collected six hits, 2 RBI and a stolen base as Vanderbilt took two of three from Santa Clara.
ON THE BUMP:
USC pitcher Kyle Twomey dominated in his first start of the year throwing 7.0 scoreless innings and only allowing two hits and three walks while fanning seven Towson batters. Twomey and the Trojans swept Towson to start the year 3-0 and on Monday beat Cal State Fullerton, 6-4.
Michael Matuella made his highly anticipated 2015 debut in front of dozens of MLB scouts that packed Evans Diamond stadium on opening weekend. Although he didn't get a win in his start against California, Matuella threw six scoreless innings only allowing four hits and two walks while fanning eight batters. An impressive fastball that touches the upper nineties paired with an array of offspeed pitches he will throw at any point in any situation is just another reason Matuella may be the number one overall pick in the 2015 MLB draft.
Luke Gillingham of Navy started the season off with a bang! Gillingham struck out the first twelve batters North Carolina A&T sent up to the plate on Friday. Over his seven innings of work he allowed just one hit and recorded sixteen strikeouts. His strikeout tally ties him for fifth all-time with Chuck Davis and Dennis Losh who both struck out sixteen in the 59 and 69 seasons. Navy is 2-1 on the year and travels to Virginia to take on Norfolk on the 21st.
Kyle Funkhouser was true to form as he struck out twelve batters and allowed only one hit in 7.0 scoreless innings in the Cardinals 5-1 win over Alabama State. Funkhouser blew up in 2014 when he was named to a bevy of All-American teams and then pitched for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. Funkhouser has been mentioned as a potential first rounder in this years upcoming MLB draft.
Nathan Kirby was his usual stellar self in his opening day start for the Virginia Cavaliers. Kirby threw 7.0 scoreless innings allowing only three hits, two walks and struck out five in the Cavs 3-1 victory over East Carolina.
CBD - Top Performers: 2/13-2/17
The start of college baseball season is upon us and with the first weekend in the books College Baseball Daily would like to show some love to some of the nations top performances.
A breakdown of some of the top hitting and pitching performances of the 2015 Division 1 college baseball season opening weekend are below.
AT THE PLATE:
Harrison Bader was announced as the SEC Player of the Week on Monday after leading the Gators offense to a season-opening series sweep of Rhode Island. Bader hit .583 on the weekend with three home runs and 11 RBI. He also doubled twice and collected a total of seven hits on the weekend.
Welcome back David Thompson. The Miami corner infielder and DH batted .365 on the weekend and tallied three extra base hits, which included a double, triple and home run.
Cam Gibson swung the bat as well as anybody in the country for Michigan State over the weekend. The junior outfielder batted .500 and collected three extra base hits. Perhaps the most impressive stat of Gibson's weekend is the 1.000 slugging percentage he posted in 12 at bats.
Have a weekend Stuart Fairchild! In his first college baseball series Fairchild batted .778 in nine at bats. He belted one home run, one double and crossed the plate three times. Fairchild posted an OBP of .846 and slugged 1.222. Any way you look at it Fairchild had a great weekend and Wake Forest should be inspired by the freshmen's performance.
Arguably the top performance from over the weekend in all of college baseball goes to the Windsor, Ont., Canada native, Jacob Robson. The redshirt sophomore center fielder recorded six hits in ten at bats and demonstrated a very good eye at the plate with five walks in a four game sweep of Cincinnati and Miami (OH).
Cincinnati Bearcat outfielder Ian Happ demonstrated why he is considered a top 20 pick in the 2015 MLB draft by numerous scouts across the country this weekend by batting .438 and collecting seven hits, two doubles and two home runs to go with four RBI in sixteen at bats.
Reigning ACC Player of the Year DJ Stewart started his junior campaign for Florida State how he finished 2014, en fuego. Stewart batted .555 and led the Seminole to a three game sweep of Oakland. Aside from batting .555 Stewart crossed the plate five times, knocked in one runner, stole two bases and walked six times.
Golden Spikes Watch List members Alex Bregman (LSU), Chris Shaw (Boston College) and Dansby Swanson (Vanderbilt) each contributed to the success of their respective teams opening weekend. Bregman recorded two hits, a stolen base and a RBI in a LSU sweep of Kentucky. Shaw hit a home run and knocked in his share of runners with a five RBI weekend for the Eagles. Swanson collected six hits, 2 RBI and a stolen base as Vanderbilt took two of three from Santa Clara.
ON THE BUMP:
USC pitcher Kyle Twomey dominated in his first start of the year throwing 7.0 scoreless innings and only allowing two hits and three walks while fanning seven Towson batters. Twomey and the Trojans swept Towson to start the year 3-0 and on Monday beat Cal State Fullerton, 6-4.
Michael Matuella made his highly anticipated 2015 debut in front of dozens of MLB scouts that packed Evans Diamond stadium on opening weekend. Although he didn't get a win in his start against California, Matuella threw six scoreless innings only allowing four hits and two walks while fanning eight batters. An impressive fastball that touches the upper nineties paired with an array of offspeed pitches he will throw at any point in any situation is just another reason Matuella may be the number one overall pick in the 2015 MLB draft.
Luke Gillingham of Navy started the season off with a bang! Gillingham struck out the first twelve batters North Carolina A&T sent up to the plate on Friday. Over his seven innings of work he allowed just one hit and recorded sixteen strikeouts. His strikeout tally ties him for fifth all-time with Chuck Davis and Dennis Losh who both struck out sixteen in the 59 and 69 seasons. Navy is 2-1 on the year and travels to Virginia to take on Norfolk on the 21st.
Kyle Funkhouser was true to form as he struck out twelve batters and allowed only one hit in 7.0 scoreless innings in the Cardinals 5-1 win over Alabama State. Funkhouser blew up in 2014 when he was named to a bevy of All-American teams and then pitched for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team. Funkhouser has been mentioned as a potential first rounder in this years upcoming MLB draft.
Nathan Kirby was his usual stellar self in his opening day start for the Virginia Cavaliers. Kirby threw 7.0 scoreless innings allowing only three hits, two walks and struck out five in the Cavs 3-1 victory over East Carolina.
CBD - Top Performers: 2/13-2/17
Morehead State is CBI Team of the Week
Team of the Week
Morehead State is CBI Team of the Week
Morehead State, coming off a 29-28 season in Mike McGuire's second season, won three of four at San Diego, ranked No. 34 by Collegiate Baseball, and has been named the CollegeBaseballInsider.com Team of the Week for games played Feb. 13-15.
The Eagles captured the first three games of the road series (10-3, 8-5 and 4-2) and needed one out to complete a four-game sweep before the Toreros scored three times in the bottom of the ninth to salvage the final game 6-5. Morehead State was picked to finish fifth in the Ohio Valley Conference by the league's coaches.
Regional Teams of the Week
Northeast: Creighton of the Big East Conference enjoyed a 3-0 weekend and sweep at Cal State Bakersfield. The Bluejays, who won the Big East's regular-season title, yielded only four earned runs in winning 5-0, 5-1 and 10-4.
Southeast: Tulane traveled to Malibu and took two of three from Pepperdine, winning the first two games 9-3 and 9-5. The Green Wave was two outs from a series sweep before the Waves captured Game 3 with a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth for a 2-1 win.
Central: Baylor got off to a great start by sweeping three games from visiting Cal Poly, which won 47 games a year ago and entered the season at No. 13 in Collegiate Baseball's poll. The Bears won the first two games 8-6 and the third game 6-0.
West: Fresno State pulled off a home sweep of UC Irvine, rallying for 7-5 wins on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the Bulldogs scored six times in the bottom of the seventh for the win; on Sunday, they scored twice in the seventh and five more in the eighth to overcome a 5-0 deficit.
Honorable Mention
Arizona State opened the Tracy Smith era by winning its series (2-1) with No. 8 Oklahoma State
Indiana won two of three at Stanford, which eliminated the Hoosiers from the Bloomington Regional last year
West Virginia took two of three on the road against Clemson
Illinois went 4-0, winning twice at Lamar and twice against New Mexico State
Wright State went 3-0 with wins in Nashville over Belmont and Toledo (2)
Alabama didn't allow a run in three wins over Maryland-Eastern Shore
FIU won its home series with Tennessee
Wofford opened with three home wins over Boston College, Xavier and Dayton
Winthrop won its home series with Kent State
Texas Tech scored 46 runs in a four-game sweep of visiting San Francisco
Note - regional teams of the week are chosen based on their conference affiliation.
Morehead State is CBI Team of the Week
Team of the Week
Morehead State is CBI Team of the Week
Morehead State, coming off a 29-28 season in Mike McGuire's second season, won three of four at San Diego, ranked No. 34 by Collegiate Baseball, and has been named the CollegeBaseballInsider.com Team of the Week for games played Feb. 13-15.
The Eagles captured the first three games of the road series (10-3, 8-5 and 4-2) and needed one out to complete a four-game sweep before the Toreros scored three times in the bottom of the ninth to salvage the final game 6-5. Morehead State was picked to finish fifth in the Ohio Valley Conference by the league's coaches.
Regional Teams of the Week
Northeast: Creighton of the Big East Conference enjoyed a 3-0 weekend and sweep at Cal State Bakersfield. The Bluejays, who won the Big East's regular-season title, yielded only four earned runs in winning 5-0, 5-1 and 10-4.
Southeast: Tulane traveled to Malibu and took two of three from Pepperdine, winning the first two games 9-3 and 9-5. The Green Wave was two outs from a series sweep before the Waves captured Game 3 with a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth for a 2-1 win.
Central: Baylor got off to a great start by sweeping three games from visiting Cal Poly, which won 47 games a year ago and entered the season at No. 13 in Collegiate Baseball's poll. The Bears won the first two games 8-6 and the third game 6-0.
West: Fresno State pulled off a home sweep of UC Irvine, rallying for 7-5 wins on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, the Bulldogs scored six times in the bottom of the seventh for the win; on Sunday, they scored twice in the seventh and five more in the eighth to overcome a 5-0 deficit.
Honorable Mention
Arizona State opened the Tracy Smith era by winning its series (2-1) with No. 8 Oklahoma State
Indiana won two of three at Stanford, which eliminated the Hoosiers from the Bloomington Regional last year
West Virginia took two of three on the road against Clemson
Illinois went 4-0, winning twice at Lamar and twice against New Mexico State
Wright State went 3-0 with wins in Nashville over Belmont and Toledo (2)
Alabama didn't allow a run in three wins over Maryland-Eastern Shore
FIU won its home series with Tennessee
Wofford opened with three home wins over Boston College, Xavier and Dayton
Winthrop won its home series with Kent State
Texas Tech scored 46 runs in a four-game sweep of visiting San Francisco
Note - regional teams of the week are chosen based on their conference affiliation.
Morehead State is CBI Team of the Week
