Feb. 19, 2009
Complete Baseball Release in PDF Format 
ON DECK: The 11th-ranked University of San Diego baseball team will open its 2009 season at the MLB Urban Youth Academy Tournament in Compton, Calif. this weekend. On Friday, USD opens the season with a 6 p.m. game against Southern University. Then on Saturday, the Toreros will square off against Bethune-Cookman University in a 2 p.m. game to be aired live on the MLB Network. The Tournament will conclude with a Sunday game against cross-town rival San Diego State University at USD's Cunningham Stadium.
TOREROS LIVE ON TV: Saturday's game against Bethune-Cookman will be aired live on the MLB Network. This will be the first of two televised appearances for the Toreros this season, as USD will play Santa Clara University on ESPNU on April 5 in Santa Clara.
SCOUTING THE JAGUARS: Southern University will open its season against the Toreros this Friday after posting a 28-18 overall record and a SWAC-West championship last season. The Jaguars return most of their starters from last seasons team including their top four leading hitters in Frazier Hall, James Armstrong, Romey Bracy and Brad McDavid. Hall hit .393 with 46 hits, nine doubles, three home runs and 33 RBI last season, while Armstrong hit .377 with 43 hits, four doubles, four triples, eight home run and 31 RBI. Bracy and McDavid each hit .356 with McDavid leading the team in hits with 58. On the mound, USD will face Kyle Wahl, who posted a 2-0 record with a 3.43 ERA in 15 appearances last season.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS: Bethune-Cookman enters the 2009 season after posting a 36-22 overall record and won the MEAC championship, earning a bid into the Miami Regional, where they went 0-2. Senior outfielder Jose Ortiz is the leading returning hitter for the Wildcats as he hit .319 with 60 hits, eight doubles, two home runs and 35 RBI in 2008. On the mound, San Diego will face right-hander Eric Thomas. In 2008, Thomas posted a 9-1 record and had a 2.36 ERA.
SCOUTING THE AZTECS: San Diego State enters the 2009 season after posting a 31-28 record last year. The Aztecs are highlighted by Olympian and preseason All-American pitcher Stephen Strasburg. The Toreros will not face Strasburg this weekend, but will in two weeks when SDSU and USD go head-to-head in a four-game series between Mar. 5-8. Instead, the Toreros will face Tyler Lavine on the mound, who posted a 8-3 record with a 1.13 ERA at the College of Southern Nevada last season. The Aztecs offense will be led by the return of junior outfielder Brandon Decker, who hit .325 with 51 hits, one double and had 23 RBI.
TOREROS ON THE AIR: Fans can catch all home games as well as select road games live on USDToreros.com. Friday's season opener will be live on USDToreros.com with the voice of the Toreros Jack Murray will bring fans all the live play-by-play action with John Cunningham providing color commentary.
THE POLLS: The University of San Diego baseball team opens the season ranked as high as No. 11 in the Baseball America preseason top-25 poll. The Toreros are also ranked No. 15 in both the USA Today/ESPN preseason top-25 poll and the Rivals.com's preseason top-25 poll, and also check in at No. 17 in Collegiate Baseball's preseason top-30 poll. Southern, Bethune-Cookman and San Diego State are not ranked in any of the preseason top-25 poll.
A LOOK AHEAD: The Toreros will play SDSU this Sunday to kick off a nine-game home stand that will feature teams such as Oklahoma next Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as Kansas State, Pacific, Nevada, Western Carolina and the Aztecs of San Diego State.
BACK-TO-BACK 40 WIN SEASONS: San Diego enter the season after posting record-setting back-to-back 40 win seasons. Last season, USD set the program record with a 44-17 overall record and in 2007, USD recorded its first 40-win season with a 43-18 overall mark. USD will be gunning for its third consecutive 40-win season in 2009.
2009 GAMETRACKER AVAILABLE: All of San Diego's home games, and select road games can be followed live via Gametracker on the Toreros athletic web site at www.usdtoreros.com. Gametracker is a service of CBS College Sports, the official web provider for San Diego athletics, and is a real time update of the action.
SANCHEZ NAMED A PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN: Sophomore third baseman Victor Sanchez of the University of San Diego baseball team has been named third-team preseason All-American by Baseball America. Sanchez, a 6-2 sophomore from Norwalk, Calif., is coming off a freshman campaign in which he set the new USD freshman home run record with 12, while hitting .268 with 59 hits, 12 doubles and one triple. Sanchez played a huge role in helping USD set a program record 44 wins, wining its second consecutive West Coast Conference championship and reaching the Long Beach Regional championship game.
GRIFFIN HIGHLIGHTS GOLDEN SPIKES WATCH LIST: USA Baseball announced its preseason Golden Spikes Award Watch List Tuesday, marking the organization's first step toward identifying the top player in college baseball. Highlighting this list is the University of San Diego's ace closer AJ Griffin. Griffin, a 2008 first-team All-West Coast Conference selection, a 2008 Louisville Slugger All-American, Team USA member, and a first-team preseason All-American by the NCBA, posted an overall record of 1-1 with a 1.96 ERA and set the school record for single-season saves with 14 a year ago while helping lead the Toreros to their second consecutive West Coast Conference championship and its third straight trip to the NCAA Regionals. With the 14 saves, Griffin became the all-time leader in career saves at USD with 25.
THREE TOREROS HIGHLIGHT BROOKS WALLACE AWARD WATCH LIST: Junior All-American closer AJ Griffin along with sophomore right-hander Kyle Blair and sophomore lefty Sammy Solis highlight the list of players named to the pre-season release of the 2009 Brooks Wallace Player of the Year Award Watch List. The Wallace Award is presented annually to the nation's top collegiate baseball player in conjunction with the College Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. The 2009 award banquet will be at 7 p.m., Thursday, July 2, in the United Spirit Arena on the campus of Texas Tech University. Griffin, a 2008 first-team All-WCC selection, Louisville Slugger All-American and Team USA member, posted an overall record of 1-1 with a 1.96 ERA and tied the school record for single-season saves with 14. With the 14 saves, Griffin became the all-time leader in career saves at USD with 25. Blair, a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, posted an 8-4 record, 3.86 ERA and fanned a USD freshman record 99 batters. Blair helped lead the Toreros into the championship game of the Long Beach Regional. Blair set a new program record for single-game strikeouts with 15 against Hawaii - Hilo. Solis, a 6-5 freshman from Litchfield Park, Ariz. and a WCC All-Freshman team member, posted a 3-1 overall record with a 3.83 ERA. In West Coast Conference action, Solis was 1-0 with a 4.42 ERA in six appearances.
TOREROS RETURN FIVE ALL-WCC PLAYERS: San Diego welcomes back five All-WCC performers from a year ago. Making their return are first-team All-WCC honoree James Meador and AJ Griffin. All-WCC honorable mention returners include Kevin Muno and Jose Valerio and a pair of All-WCC freshman team members in Sammy Solis and Kyle Blair also make their return.
TOREROS TABBED AS WCC CO-FAVORIATES: San Diego and Pepperdine were picked as favorites to win this year's WCC regular season title in the 2009 preseason baseball poll, as voted on by the head coaches in the conference. The Toreros and Waves have already been receiving several preseason accolades by several publications as San Diego has been ranked as high as No. 11 by Baseball America, while Pepperdine was ranked No. 17 in the same poll. San Diego and Pepperdine both received 45 points, with the Toreros receiving four first place votes to three for the Waves. Santa Clara, which has received votes in several preseason publications, was picked to finish third with 35 points. Gonzaga received the last remaining first place vote, and received 30 points, to come in at fourth place, edging out San Francisco, which received 26 points, for fifth place. Rounding out this year's poll are Loyola Marymount, with 20 points, Saint Mary's, with 14 points, and Portland, with nine points.
TORERO SKIPPER Rich Hill: San Diego's Rich Hill has built the USD Toreros into one of the most successful Division I baseball programs on the West Coast. The 2009 spring season will be Hill's 22nd year as a head coach at the collegiate level, and 11th at USD, having enjoyed 19 winning seasons in 21 years. Since taking over at USD in 1999, Hill has been remarkable in leading the Toreros to 11 consecutive winning campaigns, rewriting the school record book en route to claiming back-to-back West Coast Conference Championship titles in 2002 and 2003 and again in 2007 and 2008. Under his leadership San Diego has averaged 34 wins per season, including winning a school record 44 games in 2008, a year in which Hill was honored by his peers as the WCC of the Year. In 2007, Hill led USD to its highest national ranking in program history at No. 4, as well as USD's first-ever national seed in the NCAA Regionals. In 2008, Hill guided the Torero into the championship game of the Long Beach Regional, marking the first time USD had reached that game in a NCAA Division I Regional.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: All USD home games, as well as select road games, will be streamed live via video on the athletics department website. Fans can watch all the action live from the comfort of their home by logging onto usdtoreros.com. Once on the home page, click the baseball tab, then the schedule link and look for the LISTEN LIVE! button on the right side of the page. The voice of Torero Baseball Jack Murray will be bringing fans all the live play-by-play action all season long. This service a free of charge for all who wish to watch the broadcast. This weekends games will not be streamed live on video, but there will be an audio feed for the games with Murray calling all the action.
THREE TOREROS HIGHLIGHTED AS TOP-50 IN THE COUNTRY: Three University of San Diego baseball players were names as top-50 player for this upcoming season by thecollegebaseballblog.com. Sophomore right-hander Kyle Blair checks in at No. 27, while junior right-hander Matt Thomson is ranked No. 35 and Sophomore lefty Sammy Solis is ranked No. 46. Below I what they had to say about each player. The CBB continues our countdown to the 2009 College Baseball season with our Top 50 players to watch. We will be providing one player each day (Monday-Saturday) until we reach number 1.
Kyle Blair
We continue our list with Kyle Blair of San Diego, a sophomore from Monte Sereno, California (Los Gatos HS).In his junior year of high school, Blair had an outstanding record of 13-1 with an ERA of 0.16 allowing only two earned runs in 89.2 innings of work. This type of performance was good enough to be selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fifth round, but he turned down the money by honoring his commitment to the San Diego program. Kyle Blair stepped right into the best rotation in the country, grabbing the number 3 spot behind first round pick Brian Matusz and fourth round pick Josh Romanski. He made 16 appearances out of the pen with 12 starts. His final record was 8-4 with a 3.86 ERA in 74.2 innings of work, with an eye-popping K/9 of 11.97. He spent the summer with the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League. He only made four appearances on the year with three starts. He had a 1-1 record with a 4.22 ERA in only 10 innings of work. He continued his strong strikeout rate by striking out 14 batters in those innings. Blair will be expected to step into the Toreros rotation in 2009 with Sammy Solis and Matt Thomson filling in the other spots. We think Blair will continue to develop into one of the top pitchers in the country in 200.
Matt Thomson
The CBB continues our countdown to the 2009 College Baseball season with our Top 50 players to watch. We will be providing one player each day (Monday-Saturday) until we reach number 1. We continue the list today with junior right handed pitcher Matt Thomson from the University of San Diego. He is a 6-4 195 pound righty from Santa Rosa California. He spent one season with Santa Rosa Community College after playing high school baseball with El Molino High School. Matt Thomson spent the 2008 season mostly in the bullpen making 16 appearances with one start. He was able to go 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA including 2 saves. He had some problems with his control in 2008 with 11 walks and five wild pitches in 32.2 innings. Thomson had to spend the 2008 season in the bullpen since the Toreros had two of the stronger starting pitchers in the nation in Brian Matusz and Josh Romanski. Thomson spent the 2008 summer in the Cape Cod League playing for the Orleans Cardinals where he showed his true value. He had a perfect record of 4-0 with an ERA of 1.66. He ended up starting six games while making a total of 12 appearances for a total of 48.2 innings. He was named to the CCBL All-Star game and to the 2008 All-Cape Cod League Team. Thomson spent the 2007 season at Santa Rosa Community College as he went 4-6 with a 3.05 ERA before transferring to San Diego. His season was good enough to get him drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 22nd round. The CBB saw Matt pitch in the 2008 CCBL All-Star game. He was named the starter where he allowed only one hit in his inning of work.
Sammy Solis
The CBB continues our countdown to the 2009 College Baseball season with our Top 50 players to watch. We will be providing one player each day until we reach number 1. We continue the list today with Sophomore Sammy Solis from the University of San Diego checking in at the 46th spot in our countdown. He is a 6-5 228 pound lefthander from Litchfield Park, Arizona and Agua Fria high school where he played four years of varsity baseball where he had a 25-8 record with a 398 strikeouts which is fourth best in the history of Arizona high school baseball. He ended up being selected in the 18th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks deciding to head to the University of San Diego. Solis had a solid freshmen campaign with the Toreros by recording a 3-1 with a 3.83 ERA in 17 appearances including seven starts. He ended up striking out 42 batters in only 49.1 innings of work. He also allowed only 12 walks on the year. He skyrocketed up many charts with an outstanding summer with the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League where he only went 3-2 with a 2.41 ERA in seven appearances with six starts. He only allowed seven walks in his 37.1 innings on the mound with 32 strikeouts. We saw Solis pitch in the Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star game this summer. We named him our most impressive pitcher of the game.
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