March 26, 2008
Complete Baseball Release in PDF Format 
IN A NUTSHELL: The University of San Diego baseball team (17-8) will conclude this week with four straight games beginning Thursday with their final game against Harvard University at 2 p.m. inside of Cunningham Stadium. The Toreros will then begin their defense of the West Coast Conference championship with Santa Clara University coming to town from Friday through Sunday to begin WCC action. Friday's game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start and both Saturday and Sunday's games are slated to begin at 1 p.m.
THE POLLS: The University of San Diego baseball team has moved up five spots in the latest Baseball America top-25 poll to No. 14, moved up three spots in the latest Rivals.com top-25 poll to No. 17 and moved back into the Collegiate Baseball top-30 poll at No. 27. Neither Harvard or Santa Clara are ranked in any of the national polls.
SCOUTING THE CRIMSON: Harvard is currently posting a 1-12 overall record after being no-hit by USD on Monday, one-hit by Long Beach State on Monday evening and dropping a 13-8 decision to No. 3 UC Irvine on Tuesday. The Crimson are 0-3 against USD this season with the Toreros claiming the series by a combined score of 37-4. Harvard is led offensively by Tom Stack-Babich, who has a team-best .434 batting average, has 17 hits, five doubles, one triple, two home runs and seven RBI. The pitching rotation is anchored down by Max Warren, who is 0-1 with a 6.43 ERA. The Crimson are under the direction of 13th-year head coach Joe Walsh. During his time at Harvard, Walsh has posted an overall record of 287-250-2.
SCOUTING THE BRONCOS: Santa Clara enters the week with an overall record of 12-8 after upsetting No. 11 California, 7-5, Tuesday evening. The Broncos claimed the first meeting between the Toreros and Broncos earlier this season in a non-conference affair in the San Diego State Tournament. With the Broncos leading by one after eight innings, the umpires called the game due to darkness, and per tournament rules the two teams were not allowed to complete the game, thus giving SCU a 7-6 win. Offensively, the Broncos turn to Geoff Klein, who is hitting a team-best .380 with 30 hits, six doubles, three home runs and 19 RBI. Nate Garcia leads the pitching rotation with a 2-1 record and a 2.51 ERA in 28.1 innings of work. The Broncos are under the direction of seventh-year head coach Mark O'Brien. During his tenure at Santa Clara, O'Brien has posted an overall record of 178-177.
MATUSZ EARNS NATIONAL AND REGIONAL HONORS: Junior All-American Brian Matusz was been named to the Collegiate Baseball National Team of the Week, and was named the West Coast Conference Pitcher of the week. Matusz, a 6-4 left-hander from Cave Creek, Ariz., posted his fourth win of the season on Saturday against Harvard. In the game, Matusz tied Kyle Blair's single-game strikeout record with 16, as he allowed one run on three hits in 8.0 innings of work. Matusz has now lowered his ERA to 2.71 and moves back into the team-lead with 55 strikeouts. After Matusz's first start of the season against San Diego State, in which he gave up six runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings of work, the junior lefty has bounced back with a 0.87 ERA in four appearances, while striking out 49 batters and holding opposing batters to a .165 average in 31.0 innings of work.
LAST TIME OUT: The Toreros saw their 10-game winning streak came to an end with a 6-3 loss to No. 21 Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday at Cunningham Stadium. Fullerton scored four runs in the first inning, that proved to be too much for the Toreros to overcome. In the game, Victor Sanchez looked impressive on the offensive side of things as the freshman third baseman went 2-for-4 with two home runs and three RBI. This marked the second time this season that Sanchez has hit multiple home runs in a single game. The only other Torero to record multiple hits was James Meador, who went 2-for-4 with one double.
ROMANSKI NO-HITS HARVARD: Junior All-American Josh Romanski threw his first collegiate no-hitter to help guide the 14th-ranked University of San Diego baseball team to a 12-0 win over Harvard University Monday afternoon at USD's Cunningham Stadium. Romanski (4-0) faced one above the minimum in the game as he retired the first 13 batters he faced, before he hit Harvard's Matt Kramer in the top of the fifth inning. Romanski then retired the remaining 14 batters, while posting a season-high eight strikeouts in the win. The Crimson nearly broke up the no-hitter in the seventh inning on a well hit ball to the left side, but shortstop Sean Nicol dove on the ball to knock it down, then popped up and just made the throw in time to preserve the no-hitter. Romanski's no-hitter is the sixth in program history and first since March 23, 1996, when Bart Miadich no-hit Gonzaga University.
GOING, GOING, GONE: Freshman third baseman Victor Sanchez hit a pair of home runs in Tuesday's game against Cal State Fullerton. This marked the second time this season that Sanchez has recorded multiple hits in a single game. On the season, Sanchez has now recorded nine home runs, which accounts for just over half of USD's 17 home runs. The nine home runs is also half way to the USD single-season record of 18, held by Dave Rolls (1985-88) who hit 18 in his senior season of 1988. Sanchez is tied for the team-lead in batting average at .337, has eight doubles, one triple and 28 RBI to go along with his nine homers.
A PAIR OF 16 K PITCHERS: Junior All-American Brian Matusz became the second USD pitcher to record 16 strikeouts in a game on Saturday, as a week prior Kyle Blair did it against Hawaii - Hilo. These 16 strikeout performances broke an 14-year old record held by Mike Saipe who had 14 strikeouts in a game against San Francisco on May 14, 1994. For Matusz, this marks the third double-digit strikeout total and for Blair it marked his second of the season, but he has since added a 10 strikeout performance against Harvard to make it three consecutive games in which he has double-digit strikeouts.
ABOUT THE STREAK: During San Diego's 10-game winning streak the Toreros were bolstering a .359 team batting average, while the Torero pitching staff was holing opponents to a .178 batting average. The Toreros outscored their opponents 85-14 and out hit their opponents 124-53. The Torero pitching staff posted a 1.16 ERA, while the opposing pitchers had a combined ERA of 8.00. Zach Walters was the team's best hitter with a .435 batting average as he had 10 hits, three doubles and seven RBI. Victor Sanchez, Kevin Muno, Kevin Hansen and James Meador were all tied for the team-lead in hits with 15 each, but Anthony Strazzara led the team with 12 RBI on 13 hits.
TOREROS TABBED WCC PRESEASON FAVORITES: San Diego was chosen to repeat as West Coast Conference champion in the 2008 preseason baseball poll, as selected by conference coaches. The Toreros, who have been ranked as high as No. 5 in the national preseason polls, received the maximum number of points, garnering all seven possible first place votes and 49 overall points to take first place in the listing. Pepperdine was picked second with 42 overall points, while Santa Clara received the remaining first place vote and checked in at No. 3 in the poll with 32 points. LMU edged out Gonzaga for the fourth place spot, as the Lions received 29 points and the Zags garnered 28 points to grab the No. 5 spot. San Francisco was tabbed for a sixth place finish with 24 points, while Portland and Saint Mary's were picked to finish seventh and eighth with 12 points and eight points, respectively.
THREE TOREROS NAMED PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS: The University of San Diego baseball team had three players named first-team preseason All-Americans by Collegiate Baseball. Junior left hander Brian Matusz was named as a pitcher, while sophomore closer AJ Griffin was selected as a first-team closer and junior utility man Josh Romanski was named to the first-team as a utility player. Matusz, who posted an overall record of 10-3 and an ERA of 2.85 and fanned 163 batters as a sophomore, was also named first-team All-American by the National College Baseball Writers Association and was also named first-team preseason All-American by Baseball America. Romanski, who posted a 9-1 record on the mound with a 3.05 ERA and hit .335 with 75 hits, 10 doubles, two triples, three home runs and 30 RBI, was also tabbed as a second-team All-American by Baseball America and the NCBWA.
GRIFFIN NAMED TO STOPPER OF THE YEAR WATCH: The University of San Diego baseball team's sophomore closer AJ Griffin highlights the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award watch list, along with 39 other players in Division I. The award is given to the top relief pitcher in NCAA Division I baseball. In 2007, Griffin posted an overall record of 6-2 with a team-leading 2.70 ERA and had 11 saves. He also fanned 65 batters and issued only 23 walks in 34 appearances.
MATUSZ HIGHLIGHTS ROGER CLEMENS AWARD WATCH LIST: Seventy-eight of the best pitchers in collegiate baseball have been named to the preliminary watch list for the fifth annual Roger Clemens Award, and the University of San Diego's Brian Matusz highlights this list. Matusz, a preseason All-American, is off to another impressive start to the season, as he is currently 2-1 overall and in his last start against Oklahoma State, Matusz racked up his second double-digit strikeout total of 12. In 2006, Matusz set the new program record with 163 strikeouts, and he appears to be back on track to possibly break his own record.
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 2008 spring season will be Hill's 21st year as a head coach at the collegiate level, and 10th at USD, having enjoyed 17 winning seasons in 20 years. Since taking over at USD in 1999, Hill has been remarkable in leading the Toreros to 10 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 taking the title in 2007. Under his leadership San Diego has averaged 34 wins per season, including winning a school record 43 games in 2007, 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.
|
|
 |
