Southern Exposure: SEC Baseball Links

♦ Olsen overhaul: Blue Bell funds sweet upgrades for Aggie baseball (thebatt.com)

Preparing for Texas A&M's newest athletic facility — Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park — has been a team effort. "The team took the visiting locker room and made that into a weight room," A&M athletic director Bill Byrne. 

"The head coach's wife designed and upgraded the locker room and the kids went in and painted it." 

Spearheaded by a $7 million pledge from Blue Bell Creameries in nearby Brenham, Texas, baseball sports information director Adam Quisenberry called the $24 million stadium "one of the sweetest spots in all of college athletics."
. . .
After the renovations, only the stadiums of Louisiana State and Arkansas will offer more seating among schools in the Southeastern Conference.

"We have been gradually catching up," Byrne said. "We put together a master plan with new facilities to upgrade our capabilities as far as facilities in the Big 12, and we will continue to do that as far as updating our facilities for competition in the SEC."

♦ Big 12 versus SEC: total baseball wins (columbiamissourian.com)

MU Chancellor Brady Deaton has announced that Missouri will join the Southeastern Conference for the 2012-2013 school year. Texas A&M has already bolted for the SEC, while TCU and West Virginia are on their way to the Big 12. Here’s a breakdown of how Big 12 and SEC baseball programs stack up on the playing field and in the classroom. SEE CHART

♦ Cal Ripken Jr's son commits to Gamecocks (wistv.com)

South Carolina added a sweet-swinging, slick-fielding first baseman to the class of 2012 on Sunday afternoon. Ryan Ripken (Baltimore, Md./Gilman) is much more than a player with a famous last name.

Ripken, who is ranked as the No. 304 player in the country by Perfect Game, committed to the Gamecocks over Wake Forest, Coastal Carolina, and Maryland. He visited campus last week and took a couple of days to stew over his decision. On Sunday, he called recruiting coordinator Chad Holbrook and gave him the news.
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A 6-foot-5, 195-pounder, Ripken had his best performance of the year in Jupiter, Fla. a couple of weekends ago at the Perfect Game World Championships. He was 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles in a pool-clinching victory over the Diamond Devils, a team that the Gamecocks heavily recruit.

♦ Behind the scenes at Vanderbilt photo shoot

♦ PHOTOS of 2011 South Carolina Baseball Championship Rings (gamecocksonline.com)
The South Carolina Baseball team received their 2011 SEC Champions and National Champions rings tonight at their annual banquet.