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| The Bloggers' Curse: May you blog in interesting times |
♦ Full Schedule for the Tucson Regional, with TV coverage (times all in CT). IT's a brutal broadcast schedule for Midwest fans if Mizzou stays in the winners' bracket (which they need to).
Friday, June 1
- Game 1: No. 3 Louisville (39-20) vs. No. 2 New Mexico State (35-22) (ESPNU/ESPN3, 6 p.m.)
- Game 2: No. 4 Missouri (32-26) vs. No. 1 Arizona (38-17)* (ESPNU/ESPN3, 10 p.m.)
- Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser (ESPNU/ESPN3, 6 p.m.)
- Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner (ESPNU/ESPN3, 10 p.m.)
- Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser (ESPN3, 6 p.m.)
- Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner (ESPN3, 10 p.m.)
- Game 7: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser (ESPNU/ESPN3, 6 p.m.) (if necessary)
Tim Jamieson, on KOMU, explained that Rob Z has started on short rest his last three starts, and it's better for the staff as a whole to give him the extra rest.
♦ The Louisville Slugger All-American College Baseball Team was released today by Collegiate Baseball. It includes several players in the Tucson Regional:
- SS Alex Mejia, Arizona (1st Team; also named Player of Year Pacific-12 Conference).
- RHP Kurt Heyer, Arizona (2nd Team)
- RHP Justin Amlung, Louisville (3rd Team)
- C Zac Fisher, New Mexico State (3rd Team)
- 3B Seth Mejias-Brean, Arizona (3rd Team)
♦ Tucson Regional Preview (Chasing Omaha)
The Wildcats earned a share of the Pac 12 title on a walk-off single by one of the team’s leading hitter, Johnny Field (.379 average, two homers, 31 RBIs) following a season where they went 18-12 during conference play. Arizona finished the season with a .325 team batting average (sixth in the nation) that featured five hitters that hit better than .340 – Field, Robert Refsnyder, Alex Mejia, Seth Mejias-Brean and Bobby Brown – and a pitcher who is one of 30 Golden Spikes Award Finalist in Kurt Heyer.
. . .
Sleeper: Missouri – Anyone who has followed Missouri baseball in recent years has to be happy for Tim Jamieson’s squad. The Tigers had fallen short in last year’s Big 12 Tournament Championship Game by almost upsetting Texas A&M but couldn’t close out the game, but that wasn’t the case this year as they defeated Oklahoma in the title game to claim their first tournament title. Winning the tournament was Missouri’s only ticket to the NCAA Tournament, which in turn knocked out Texas, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Tigers’ continue to build upon the momentum they built up in Oklahoma City.
♦ Big 12 title heals wounds for Missouri (Fox Sports Midwest)
"I've always been a fighter and never wanted to give up and wanted to be focused for 27 outs on every game," Jamieson says. "I think if nothing else, it supports those things."♦ From the UASports.net Forum:
. . .
"I think the Big 12 championship run," Jamieson says when asked how his current team will be remembered. "If we get to Omaha (for the College World Series), then it will be that. But anything that's between now and Omaha, it's what we just did — what we accomplished and how we did it and who we had to beat and what we had to go through last year, because it was incredibly similar. But we still have baseball ahead of us."
Missouri's fight continues, and that's Jamieson's greatest achievement of the spring.
Rob Zastryzny is a decent pitcher.♦ Arizona baseball looking forward to home regional (wildcat.arizona.edu)
If you just look at ERA compared to Heyer, I suppose you can take that to a Vegas sports book and hand them some of your money. But, he strikes out a lot of batters. If he's on, and I assume he has been during Missouri's current hot streak, his ERA is better than his season-long total. The Big XII may not be having a vintage year, but he still has seen plenty of quality teams over the course of the season. Missouri won't be intimidated about playing at Arizona after playing the likes of Texas, Texas A&M, etc. We've had our problems with good pitchers against UCLA and Oregon this year. And he's a lefty, and we've sometimes had problems with that. If we were seeded higher and got a sacrificial cupcake in our first game, I might feel more like it's a lock. But Missouri isn't a cupcake.
Don't take anybody lightly. Just win and move on.
The slogan Lopez uses, and the slogan he has used for the past 36 years is surprisingly simple. “Play good baseball,” Lopez said.♦ New Mexico State: KTSM.com has a video of the "healthy Aggies" in practice. (Around 1:15 to 1:30 on that video you can catch a glimpse of former Tiger Trevor Coleman behind the plate for the Kansas City T-Bones). The Las Cruces Sun-News thinks NMSU may benefit from two-and-out WAC Tournament, because it allowed them to get a longer rest before the Tucson Regional. And the Sun-News talks about Tanner Rust, the Aggies' first baseman who also plays other infield positions.
“It gets involved and intricate,” Lopez said. “I make them tell me what good baseball is. They all know it; they better know it. If you do that, everything else is secondary.”
Rust is batting .338 on the season, with two home runs, 26 RBI, 35 runs scored and 13 doubles.
♦ Louisville: Like the Tigers, the Cardinals are happy to be back in the NCAA Tournament (Louisville Courier-Journal) after missing out lst year. You can watch the obligatory players react to selection video at UofLCardGame.com. And did you know the Cardinals ended up winning 10 Big East titles during the 2011-12 season, setting a new school record (espn.com). Of course, they're moving to the Big East next year.
MU IN THE MINORS
♦ Tepesch keeps eye on big-league goal while enjoying stay in Myrtle Beach (Blue Springs Examiner)
“Nick is a guy who usually gets stronger as the year goes on,” Rangers Director of Minor League Operations Jake Krug said. “He’s off to a good start and we feel like this year will only get better for him. He’s got four solid average to plus pitches. He’s a great make-up kid who we feel has a chance to be a durable starting pitcher in the big leagues.”♦ 4 TinCaps get tossed in another ugly loss (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette)
Bowling Green’s Matt Rice hit a fly ball down the left-field line in the eighth inning Tuesday against Fort Wayne.
Home plate umpire Alex Tosi ruled it was fair for a home run.
Pitcher Matt Stites immediately complained and was ejected. Manager Jose Valentin also argued the call and was thrown out too.
. . .
“I shouldn’t have thrown the pitch,” Stites said. “I made a mistake of saying the wrong thing to the umpire, and I got what I deserved.
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