|
Post by Raider Country on Jul 17, 2006 16:40:34 GMT -5
July 17, 2006 (News Release/Baseball) Former Raider Baseball Players Enjoying the Minor LeaguesFairborn, OH – Three former Wright State baseball players are off to fast starts with their minor league baseball clubs. Joe Smith and Aaron Garcia have helped each of their teams, both affiliated with the New York Mets, to solid showings and Robert Barrett has made an impact with the independent Sioux Falls Canaries. Smith has made the fastest impact of the three players, appearing in 11 games for the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Short-Season Single A affiliate for the Mets, and holds an ERA of 0.75. Smith recorded 13 saves for the Raiders this spring and through 24 games in Brooklyn has six saves in seven opportunities. Smith ranks among the New York Penn League leaders in saves, ranking third, and ranks tied atop the league in appearances. Smith has posted 15 strikeouts in 12 innings of work and walked only two batters while allowing only 5 hits. In his last five appearances Smith has thrown five innings, recording four saves, surrendering only one hit and striking out six batters to zero walks. Garcia has started his professional career in sunny Port St. Lucie (Fla.) as a member of the New York Mets Rookie affiliate, the Gulf Coast Mets. Garcia has appeared in six games for the Mets, all starts, and his hitting .286 with four his and two runs scored. Garcia has started five games as the catcher and gunned out all three of the potential base runners against him. Barrett has made seven appearances on the mound for the Canaries and made his first professional start on July 15. Barrett has thrown 20 innings and has posted 23 strikeouts while walking only six batters. With an ERA of 5.85 the right-hander has a record of 1-1 and has posted one hold while in Sioux Falls. In his first start Barrett threw six innings, allowing five hits and one earned runs, striking out five batters. “The success our guys are having at the next level is a testament to their work ethic and their abilities,” head coach Rob Cooper said. “These guys helped guide our ball club this season and have made the most of their opportunities at the professional level. I am excited to see how they continue to progress and make a name for themselves at that level.” www.wsuraiders.com/cgi-bin/athletics/news.cgi?action=features&id=2894
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on Jul 2, 2006 8:50:46 GMT -5
He's on sidearm mission to majors Column by The Post's Lonnie Wheeler It's mid-morning of the day in which the Brooklyn Cyclones of the New York-Penn League will finally win their first game of the season after seven unfortunate outings, and Joe Smith, a side-arming relief pitcher, is standing in front of his 20-story dormitory at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, trying to hail a cab to get over to some teammates across the borough and have some breakfast. "Man," says the 22-year-old graduate of Amelia High School, where he was better known for basketball than his favorite sport, "this is the thing about New York. It's hard to get from A to B. I don't mind the subways so much, but oh my goodness, the cab rides are driving me crazy. I guess I'd like somewhere a little smaller." Not that he's complaining, mind you. After what he's been through, Smith would sleep on a hard bench at Grand Central Station if the package included professional pitching. It's all he ever wanted to do, a determination that was positively essential to getting himself named as the Male Athlete of the Year at Wright State University, to getting himself selected (with an 0.98 earned run average) as the best reliever in the Horizon League, to getting himself drafted in the third round earlier this month by the New York Mets. "When he got here," observed Rob Cooper, Smith's head coach at Wright State, "Joe was a competitive kid who had dreams of playing in the big leagues. Over time, he became a guy who instead of just thinking that, basically went on a mission." He first showed up at the suburban Dayton school as a 6-foot-2, 230-pounder with a good arm hanging from a bad shoulder, which had begun to bother him during the summer after his promising sophomore season at Amelia High School. At the time, Smith was pitching in the high-reaching Midland system, and something went awry at a tournament in Battle Creek, Mich. "One organization that really stuck behind him was Midland," remarked his father, Mike Smith. "Jay Hayden was the one who stuck with him; kept him on the club even when he was hurt." Smith took his ailing labrum to Reds doctor Tim Kremchek, who advised him that he was still too young for surgery. The kid scarcely pitched for Amelia the next year, and then, attempting to throw through it, aggravated his injury over the summer. It was a partial tear, and this time, Kremchek approved the operation. By his senior season, Smith's shoulder was healed but still weak. He pitched rarely, and when he did, it didn't go particularly well. When he walked on at Wright State, he was cut. However, Ron Nischwitz, the Raiders' distinguished coach at the time, permitted the Clermont Countian to hang around and practice with the team, which was all he was really looking to do. "I knew I wasn't going to be able to pitch my first year there," Smith said. "I just needed a place to go and work out and get in the swing of things." A year later, Smith's improvement was conspicuous enough that Nischwitz brought him on for some first-rate relief work, which he delivered with a conventional overhand motion. Then, with the WSU stadium already in his name, Nischwitz left the program and Cooper took over, which is where the story picks up steam. As Cooper tells it, "We got here and we thought that Joe was good enough to help us on the mound, but we didn't know in what role. He threw about 83 to 85 miles an hour and threw for strikes and threw his curveball for strikes. We knew he could help us. There were some other guys that we were going to drop to sidearm who we didn't think could compete at this level otherwise. Joe was not a candidate for that. But he was more or less hanging around the bullpen one day when our pitching coach (Greg Lovelady) was working on this. Joe said, 'Hey, I can do that,' and dropped down and all of a sudden you saw run on the ball, you saw the ball moving. "The pitching coach came down to where I was and said, 'You've got to see this.' It looked different. It was good." At first, Smith resisted the change. There were meetings. There was encouragement. Eventually - after Cooper convinced him that the low-slung style would actually raise his profile - there was consent. And soon, success. "He was pitching well for us," Cooper recalled, "but it was never like, 'Wow, this is unbelievable.' About halfway through the year, we had a game against Evansville and we thought, golly, it looks like he's throwing harder. But it was night, and cold, and we thought that's what it was. Then we went to play at Arizona State and after the game the head coach came up to me and said, 'That guy's unbelievable. He's better than anybody we've got in the Pac-10.' "The next day a Texas Rangers scout came up and said, 'Tell me about Joe Smith. I've got to be honest, that's the best one-inning guy I've seen west of the Rockies.' He said Joe was throwing between 88 and 91 miles an hour. I said, 'You've got to be kidding me.''' This spring, his weight down to 205 and his dream coming into focus, Smith occasionally reached 94 on the radar gun. He developed a serviceable slider and a better changeup. "I was at Miami when Danny Graves was there," Cooper said, "and Joe Smith has the ability to pitch in the major leagues." The Mets obviously think so. Upon signing June 19, Smith was immediately inserted into a closer's role. The short Class A season started the next night, which found Brooklyn losing 18-0 to the Staten Island Yankees. Smith's first appearance came the next night against the same team, when the Cyclones led their archrivals 7-2 going into the bottom of the eighth inning. He entered with the bases loaded. He left with Brooklyn trailing. It wasn't as bad as the numbers suggested - only one Yankee hit the ball out of the infield against him - but his next outing wasn't quite as good as might be imagined from a statistically scoreless inning and two-thirds. "If you were at the game," Smith admitted, "it didn't look all so graceful. I came in with two runners on and the first pitch went back to the backstop. Then I hit a guy to make the bases loaded. Then they hit a ground ball back to me and I knew it at the catcher's knees, off his glove, and that run scored." Finally, Wednesday night, Brooklyn took a lead into the bottom of the ninth inning at nifty KeySpan Park, which sits directly across from Coney Island, a 25-minute ride on the F-train and a 40-minute trip in the team van from the dorm at Polytechnic University, and Smith was summoned and the sidearm was working and three batters came up and three sat down and the Cyclones, hallelujah, had won their first game. "They told me I was on a fast track," Smith said, "and as long as I do well, they would move me." The next stop would be somewhere like Hagerstown, Md., or St. Lucie, Fla., where the buildings stop at a few stories and all roads lead from point A to Double-A. Contact Lonnie Wheeler at lwheeler@cincypost.com. news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060630/SPT08/606300328/-1/all
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on Jun 6, 2006 5:52:24 GMT -5
Wright St. catcher named to all-tournament teamCORVALLIS, Ore. – Wright State catcher Aaron Garcia was selected to the Corvallis Regional All-Tournament Team on Monday. The team, which includes one player at each position, is selected by the media and coaches from the NCAA Regional site. Garcia paced the Raiders, who were 0-2 in the tournament, with a .444 average. He had a homer and two RBIs www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0606wsudig.html
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on Jun 5, 2006 7:07:39 GMT -5
WSU's Smith, Cron athletes of the yearBy the Dayton Daily News FAIRBORN — Pitcher Joe Smith won the Don Mohr Male Athlete of the Year honor at Wright State's all-sports banquet Sunday night, while swimmer Amy Cron was honored as the Peg Wynkoop Female Athlete of the Year. Smith had 13 saves and three wins during the regular season and helped his team to the NCAA tournament. Cron won the 100-meter fly and 100-meter backstroke as the swimming team finished second in the Horizon League. Other awards included the Dr. Carl Benner Male and Female Scholar-Athlete awards to cross country runner Alex Gutman and tennis player Audra Beckett; the Terry Hall Coach of the year to baseball's Rob Cooper; the Angelo "Tony" Tononi Raider Award to retiring administrator Paul Newman for service "above and beyond" and the Life SKILLS Award to swimming's Andrea Hess for community service. Individual sport MVP and Raider awards went to Lisa Griffith (MVP) and Sarah Poling (RA) in volleyball; Tony Labudovski and Kyle Bryan in men's soccer; Warren Thompson and Nick Seuch in men's swimming; Cron and Stephanie Cox in women's swimming; Jess Rooma and Michelle Sarmiento in women's soccer; Brittney Whiteside and Whitney Lewis in women's basketball; DaShaun Wood and Jaron Taylor in men's basketball; Josh Burke and Joel Hidalgo in men's cross country; Megan Feasel and Christina Hill in women's cross country; Lance Koetter and Nicolas Camilleri/Craig Smith in men's tennis; Tiffani Foster and Beckett/Laura Culbertson in women's tennis; Casanav Simmons and Stephanie Supan in women's indoor track; Brandon Knutson/Tyler Miskell and Nathan Boatman in golf; Casanav Simmons and Jennifer Williamson in women's outdoor track; Melanie McInally and Jacqueline Macy in softball; and Smith and Ross Oeder in baseball. www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0605wsubb.html
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on Jun 3, 2006 23:10:09 GMT -5
June 03, 2006 (News Release/Baseball) Baseball Falls 5-3 to Hawaii in NCAA Tournament Corvallis, OR – After falling behind 5-0 the Wright State baseball team mounted a comeback that fell just short against Hawaii, falling 5-3. The Raiders were propelled by their senior leaders and fought back to bring the tying run into the on-deck circle against the third-seeded Rainbows. The Rainbows struck in the third inning when WSU starter Erich Schanz walked the leadoff hitter before surrendering an RBI triple to Derek DePree. The next batter sent a fly ball into left field that allowed DePree to scamper home and made the score 2-0. Hawaii used another sacrifice fly and an RBI double off the bat of Matt Inouye to push their lead to 4-0 after five innings. The Rainbows pushed their lead to 5-0 in the sixth inning when leadoff batter Robbie Wilder took Schanz deep to right field for his second homer of the season. The Raiders were held hitless by Hawaii’s Ian Harrington until the fifth inning when Justin Wilson singled up middle. The Raiders finally scored in the seventh inning when Aaron Garcia singled and moved to third on an Amin Abusaleh singled up the middle. The next batter was Justin Wilson who grounded into a double play and allowed Garcia to cross the plate to cut the lead to 5-1. Wright State used three more pitchers after Schanz, who threw 5.2 innings and allowed five earned runs with seven strikeouts, to close out the game for WSU. Schanz falls to 6-4 overall with the loss as he ends his junior campaign with an ERA of 4.08. The Raiders mounted their rally in the ninth inning when Dan Biedenharn singled to start the inning and Garcia followed that with his fifth home run of the season to pull the Raiders within two at 5-3. That was as close as the Raiders would get as Harrington would coax a two flyball outs and a ground out to end the game. The Raiders were led by Garcia who collected two hits, drove in two RBI and scored two runs for the Green and Gold. Four other Raiders all collected a hit in the game and Biedenharn added the only other Raider run in the game. The Raiders end the season with a 32-27 record as they appeared in the NCAA Tournamnet for the first time since 1994 and won the Horizon League tournament for the first time since 1995. The winning record was the first for the Green and Gold since 2001 which is the last time they won 30 games in a season. www.wsuraiders.com/cgi-bin/athletics/news.cgi?action=features&id=2868
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 31, 2006 6:13:22 GMT -5
Romping Raiders off to Corvallis with theme song and more Wright State puts pieces together en route to baseball NCAA Tournament berth. By Marc Katz Staff Writer FAIRBORN | Players romped around Nischwitz Stadium Tuesday as the Wright State Raiders went through their final practice before heading today to Corvallis, Ore., to play in the NCAA Tournament beginning Friday against Oregon State. Wright State is the No. 4 seed in the four-team, double-elimination regional, behind Oregon State (39-14), Kansas (42-23) and Hawaii (43-15), but those other three teams may not have what the 32-25 Raiders have. For instance: • A team theme song. Sophomore outfielder John Kopilchack and soph pitcher Chris Nighland wrote a song for skit night at the beginning of the season that has every teammate's name in it, plus coaches and some WSU administration. Nighland, who plays the guitar while the two are singing, said it took about a week to write. The song was such a hit — and had no offensive language — when the authors burned it into a CD, it became a song played before every home game at the stadium. • A shortstop drafted by the Twins last season, as a pitcher. Freshman Justin Parker of Fort Wayne, Ind., was taken in the 43rd round by the Twins as a pitcher out of high school, but didn't sign, instead joining the Raiders, where he hasn't pitched at all. Parker hit .299 this season, and .412 (7-for-17) in the Horizon League tournament. • An outfielder who never played the sport in high school. Senior Amin Abusaleh, from West Hills, Calif., saw himself as a football player, but after only a few practices at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, figured he wasn't good enough to play that sport. He then went to Pierce Junior College for two seasons before joining WSU last year. He hit .312 and this year .308 plus .556 (10-for-18) in the tournament. • A catcher who played in the Little League World Series. Aaron Garcia will be playing in a big-time championship event for at least the second time. He played for the Moorpark, Calif., Little League team that went to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., in 1996. • A top-flight closer who was cut as a freshman. Walk-on Joe Smith of Amelia (near Cincinnati) walked on following arm surgery as a prep player and his arm strength was so bad, then-coach Ron Nischwitz told him he couldn't make the team. Smith asked if he could stay and practice, and Nischwitz told him he could. Smith improved so much that Nischwitz used him as a redshirt freshman. Last season, under coach Rob Cooper, Smith dropped his arm slot and improved some more. This season he has been so good he is expected to be an early pro draft pick next week. Contact the reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com. www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0531wsubase.html
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 30, 2006 5:55:47 GMT -5
WSU's baseball hopes begin in Oregon The Raiders will meet No. 1 seed Oregon State in the NCAA tournament. By Marc Katz Staff Writer FAIRBORN — All the anticipation was for the sites, not the selection, for teams in the NCAA baseball tournament. Wright State, Sunday's winner of the Horizon League championship and automatic NCAA invitation, knew it was in. The Raiders just didn't know where, and gathered at the Setzer Pavilion on Monday to watch the NCAA show on ESPN. Hope — especially among the WSU administration — was for a nearby site, but only Lexington, Ky., fit that criteria, and the tournament show quickly named four other teams for that location. Eventually, with only two sites left, a cheer went up when Wright State's name appeared for Corvallis, Ore., where the 32-25 Raiders, seeded No. 4, meet host and No. 1-seeded Oregon State (39-14) in Friday's first game. The other two teams in WSU's double-elimination bracket are No. 2-seed Kansas (42-23) and No. 3-seed Hawaii (43-15). "Honestly, I'm just excited," second-year WSU coach Rob Cooper said when he saw the pairings. "We're facing off against a team that played in the College World Series last year." Since WSU has advanced to the tournament only once before — in 1994 — it seemed a long shot to do it again this early in the Cooper regime. Not all the players felt that way. "We knew from the start we could do this," said second baseman Ross Oeder, the Horizon League tournament MVP. "This is a big stepping stone for the program. We've played teams all year (like this). We played Wake Forest, TCU, Miami (Fla.). We beat TCU in the first game of the year." The Raiders must hold onto and try to build on memories like that. Cooper did away with a spring trip to schedule top-ranked teams from time to time to give his players a chance to see what playing against the best was like. After beating TCU 6-4 on Feb. 25, the Raiders lost two more games to the Horned Frogs, then three to Wake Forest and recently three to Miami, although some games were close. Only TCU among those three teams made the NCAA field. Two other teams WSU played this year — Ball State and Notre Dame — also are in. The Raiders beat ND, 4-2, and lost to Ball State, 2-1, both on the road. In the Horizon League tournament, Cooper stressed playing every pitch. "We did not want to take a pitch off," Cooper said. "We wanted to concentrate on the pitch in front of us. It raised everything, our hitting, our pitching performance, our fielding performance." Wright State not only went 4-0 in the tournament, the Raiders out-scored the opposition 52-5. "What got lost in that was our pitching," Cooper said. "We only allowed five runs in four games." That might not happen in the NCAA tournament, but at least the Raiders have a chance. Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com. www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0530wsubase.html
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 29, 2006 8:40:05 GMT -5
WSU BASEBALL NOTES UIC did Wright State a favor by saving its ace, then losing By Marc Katz Staff Writer FAIRBORN | Top-seeded University of Illinois-Chicago was the only team Wright State had a losing record against during the regular Horizon League baseball season, but that didn't matter during the league tournament at Nischwitz Stadium. The two teams didn't meet, which may have been the result of UIC's calculated decision not to start staff ace Zach Peterson in game one vs. No. 5 Butler. Instead, the Flames started Joe Skinner, a fine pitcher during the regular season, but no Peterson. UIC lost the game and had to play in the losers' bracket of the double-elimination event, and No. 3 seed WSU never lost on the way to the championship and its second NCAA tournament berth. The other came in 1994. • Senior WSU catcher Aaron Garcia had only one season left to play, and he knew he wasn't going to play much at Oral Roberts, where he appeared in just eight games last season after going to junior college. He knew WSU coach Rob Cooper, who had recruited him to ORU. "I came out here to do this," said Garcia, nodding toward the Horizon League championship trophy and his own all-tournament selection plaque. "I wanted to play the game and play for this team." Garcia hit .311 during the regular season and .500 (9-for-18) in the tournament. He also started an important double play in the seventh inning on a Butler bunt attempt. • Only once before this season did Cooper call upon closer Joe Smith to pitch more than three innings, and that was early on in a game at Texas Christian in which Smith went four. Sunday, after starter Chris Snyder — a Northmont High School graduate and grandson of former longtime Meadowdale baseball coach Ron Brookey — held Butler to just one run and three hits over five innings, Smith was called upon again. "He had not pitched in the tournament," said Cooper, mindful the Raiders had won their three previous games in routs. "And when you have a trump card like that, you don't want to keep him in the bullpen." As soon as Smith took the mound, several scouts pulled out the radar guns and notebooks. The first-year player draft is June 6-7. Smith, a senior with junior eligibility, is expected to go within the first five rounds. • Second baseman Ross Oeder, who hit .349 during the regular season and did not make either the first or second all-league teams, was named tournament MVP after hitting .650 (13-for-20) with four RBIs and eight runs scored in four games. "He was on a mission," Cooper said. "You could make a case he was our most valuable player during the season." Oeder is a junior from Sandusky High School. • In addition to Oeder making the All-Tournament team, five other WSU players were named, including outfielders Amin Abusaleh and Justin Wilson, pitcher Robert Barrett, catcher Aaron Garcia, and first baseman Jeremy Hamilton. Also named to the team were Butler second baseman Jeff Brown and outfielder Stephen Gill, Milwaukee outfielder Rob Brockel, and UIC outfielder Ted Rosinski. www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0529wsunotes.html
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 29, 2006 8:39:02 GMT -5
Wright State celebrates league title Snyder and Smith pitch the Raiders past the Bulldogs 4-1 and give WSU an automatic bid to the NCAA baseball tournament. By Marc Katz Staff Writer FAIRBORN | About a dozen Wright State University students standing atop a dirt mound behind the right-field fence at Nischwitz Stadium — a place they call Cooperville after WSU coach Rob Cooper — hung over the boards to pound on the metal advertising signs Sunday. Maybe it was just an exercise to keep them awake for the 9 a.m. Horizon League championship game after they camped out all night in center field, only to be awakened by the grounds crew wanting to give the area one more mowing. Certainly no one went back to sleep as WSU's Chris Snyder, a senior from Northmont High School, and Joe Smith, a junior from Amelia High School, shut down the Butler Bulldogs 4-1. Justin Wilson and tournament MVP Ross Oeder provided most of the offense during Wright State's quest for the championship and automatic NCAA tournament bid, which will be offered today (12:30, ESPN). "We just got hot at the right time," said Oeder, a junior from Sandusky whose two-run double completed a three-run second inning for the Raiders, leaving Butler out of reach. Wilson, a junior from Franklin-Monroe High School, led off the inning with a homer to left, and the Raiders added an extra run in the seventh on Dan Biedenharn's sacrifice fly. "There are three things you need to win," Cooper said. "You need to score runs. You need pitching. And you need to play defense. When you play good defense, your pitching looks a lot better." Wright State made two errors, recovering from both by turning double plays on the next batter. In the seventh inning, catcher Aaron Garcia quickly fielded a bunt in front of the plate to start one double play to shortstop Justin Parker. In the eighth inning, after one double play opportunity was botched, first baseman Jeremy Hamilton began the game-ending double play with Parker again the middle man. www.daytondailynews.com/sports/content/sports/wsu/daily/0529wsubase.html
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 29, 2006 8:38:02 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 29, 2006 8:36:47 GMT -5
Wright State wins 2006 Horizon League Baseball Championship Raiders claim first title since 1995 with 4-1 victory over Butler, advance to NCAA tournament May 28, 2006 Game 10: (#3) Wright State 4, (#5) Butler 1 (Wright State wins championship) Ross Oeder drove in a pair of runs with a second-inning double and Wright State pitchers Chris Snyder and Joe Smith combined on a five-hitter as host Wright State edged fifth seed Butler 4-1 to claim the 2006 Horizon League Baseball Championship. The third-seeded Raiders won the League summit for the first time since 1995 and will enter the NCAA Championship at 32-25 while Butler saw its season come to an end at 21-36. Oeder's double---his 13th hit in four tournament games this week---capped a three-run flurry against Butler starter Bryan Bokowy (5-7). WSU left fielder Justin Wilson opened the inning with his seventh home run of the season, and Brian Shoup followed with a single. Justin Parker drew a one-out walk and Oeder followed two batters with a shot just inside the third base line to plate both teammates for a 3-0 advantage. Butler got on the board in the fourth when Joe Dempsey belted his tenth home run of the year---and second of the tournament---over the left field fence, but could get no closer. The Bulldogs threatened in the top of the seventh when Dustin Bucalo reached on an error but WSU answered the challenge as Aaron Garcia fielded Joel Matheny's bunt attempt to start a 2-6-3 double play. The twin killing was Wright State's 62nd of the season, setting a single-season program standard. WSU pushed the margin to 4-1 in the bottom of the frame when John Kopilchack doubled to open the frame. Oeder followed with a sacrifice bunt and Dan Biedenharn lifted a sacrifice fly to right field as Kopilchack narrowly beat Stephen Gill's throw to the plate. Butler mounted one final comeback attempt in the ninth with Joe Pauley's bad-hop single and an error on Bucalo's grounder with one out, but Matheny's ground ball to first baseman Jeremy Hamilton turned into another double play as the Raiders raced onto the field to celebrate their first title in 11 years. Snyder (5-7) allowed only three hits in five innings before turning the game over to closer Smith, did not allow a run in 28.1 innings against Horizon League opponents during the regular season. The Raider closer, a NCBWA Stopper of the Year candidate, allowed only two hits to register his 13th save of the year with the four shutout innings. Wright State outscored its opponents 52-5 in its four appearances during the week, setting a Championship single-game record with 26 hits in a 20-3 victory over UW-Milwaukee on Thursday. The Raiders opened their tournament by defeating sixth-seeded Cleveland State 16-1 on Wednesday and posted a 12-0 shutout against Butler on Saturday. Oeder was named the Championship's Most Valuable Player, leading a group of six Raiders on the All-Tournament Team. The WSU second baseman was 13-of-20 at the plate, scoring eight runs and driving in four. Amin Abusaleh, Aaron Garcia, Hamilton and Justin Wilson also earned All-Tournament honors for their offensive prowess, while Barrett allowed only eight hits in 13 shutout innings (five versus Cleveland State and eight in the initial meeting with Butler). The Raiders earned the Horizon League's automatic entry into the 64-team NCAA field, and will learn their opponents and destination Monday as the NCAA announces the pairings at 12:30 p.m. (Eastern time) on ESPN. horizonleague.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/052806aaa.html
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 29, 2006 8:35:32 GMT -5
May 28, 2006 (News Release/Baseball) Baseball Heading for the Big Dance, Defeat Butler 4-1 for Horizon League Championship Behind a three-run second and solid pitching performances from Chris Snyder and Joe Smith, the Wright State baseball team captured the Horizon League championship Sunday morning with a 4-1 decision over the Butler Bulldogs at Nischwitz Stadium. Butler posed a threat in the first as Stephen Gill led off with a double to right center and Joe Pauley walked with two out, but Snyder kept the game scoreless as he induced Joe Dempsey to fly out to right. WSU scored what turned out to be all the runs it would need with three in the second. Justin Wilson started the frame by smacking a 1-2 pitch over the fence in left for his seventh home run of the season. Brian Shoup followed with a bunt single along the third base line and Justin Parker walked, tournament MVP Ross Oeder delivered the key hit, a two-out, two-run double down the left field line to make it 3-0. Dempsey cut the margin to 3-1 with his 10th home run of the year in the fourth, but Snyder was able to work out of the Bulldogs having a run at second in both the third and fifth. Joe Smith took over in the sixth and setting down Butler in order in that inning, saw the leadoff batter reach in the seventh on an error. Catcher Aaron Garcia, though, came up with the defensive play of the game as he pounced on a bunt attempt by Joel Matheny and fired a strike to Parker at shortstop, who then turned it to Jeremy Hamilton at first for a double play. That double play gave the Green and Gold 62 total DP's on the season, setting a new school record for a single season. Wright State closed out the scoring in the seventh as John Kopilchack doubled to left center and, after being sacrificed to third by Oeder, scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Dan Biedenharn. Pinch-hitter Kyle Cox doubled with two outs in the eighth for Butler (21-36), but Smith got Jeff Brown to ground out to end that inning. In the ninth, Pauley led off with a hit and Dustin Bucalo reached on an error with one out, but the Raiders closed out the game in dramatic fashion as Hamilton and Parker turned a 3-6-3 double play. Snyder (5-7) picked up the win as he went five innings, giving up three hits and two walks while striking out three. Smith picked up the four-inning save, his 13th of the season, as he gave up just two hits in fanning two. Wright State takes a 32-25 mark into next week's NCAA Regionals as the Raiders will be making their second Division I appearance and first since 1994. The 16 regional sites will be announced on ESPNews at 3:30 Sunday afternoon with the 64-team field to be revealed on ESPN at 12:30 Monday afternoon. 2006 Horizon League All-Tournament Team Ted Rosinski, Sr., OF, UIC Rob Brockel, Jr., OF, UW-Milwaukee Stephen Gill, Sr., OF, Butler Jeff Brown, Sr., 2B, Butler Brian Deter, So., P, Butler Jeremy Hamilton, Fr., 1B, Wright State Amin Abusaleh, Sr., OF, Wright State Aaron Garcia, Sr., C, Wright State Justin Wilson, Sr., OF, Wright State Robert Barrett, Sr., P, Wright State Ross Oeder, Jr., 2B, Wright State (MVP) www.wsuraiders.com/cgi-bin/athletics/news.cgi?action=features&id=2857
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 26, 2006 19:33:09 GMT -5
Sampson's absence will be noticed by recruits Analyst: Being seen is important By Jeff Rabjohns The Indianapolis Star When Scott Martin looks into the stands in July as his summer basketball team plays in major events around the country, he'll see a number of head coaches from colleges who are recruiting him. He won't see Kelvin Sampson. The biggest practical impact of the NCAA penalties announced yesterday against the new Indiana University men's basketball coach is that Sampson won't be able to show recruits Indiana's interest by watching them in person. Other colleges will be sending their head coaches. Indiana will be sending assistants. "I guess you could understand why he's not there because you know in the back of your mind that he can't be there and if he could be he would, but it sure doesn't help," said Martin, a 6-foot-8 forward from Valparaiso High School who is ranked as one of top 100 players in the nation in the 2007 class. "Then you're not sure. Maybe he would have been there, maybe he wouldn't have been." The NCAA banned Sampson from making phone calls to recruits or from any off-campus recruiting for a year for what it termed a "pattern of willful and significant recruiting violations" while he was at Oklahoma. Of the two penalties, the off-campus recruiting ban is far more significant because recruits can still call Sampson, can talk to him in person during unofficial visits to IU, and he can still be in regular contact through text messaging. The off-campus recruiting ban involves three "recruiting cycles" -- the time coaches can watch players in person -- this July, next high school season and next spring. Coaches use those periods for two purposes: to evaluate players and to be in attendance to show interest. "In today's recruiting world, being visible and seen is important," said Dave Telep, a recruiting analyst with scout.com. "There's an evaluating part and a babysitting part." In July, for example, head coaches sit or stand in prominent positions around the court every time a recruiting target plays to show him how much he is wanted. Sampson cannot make in-home visits to recruits this fall, but most top prospects pick colleges before the start of their senior year, meaning July is the crucial time for colleges to make a final push. "When that recruit looks over and sees the head coach of Purdue or Ohio State or Illinois, and kids see an assistant coach from another school, they'll wonder why that school's head coach is not there," said Mike Fox, who coaches Indiana Elite, a top summer program out of Bloomington, Ind. "I have kids being recruited by several Big Ten schools, and I can tell you, when the head coach is there, they're very aware, and when the assistant is there, they're very aware of that." Martin's teammate, Robbie Hummel, another top-100 recruit, said he tries not to pay attention to the coaches in the stands. "The head coaches who are there, they will make the kids that aren't aware of it very aware of it," said Wayne Brumm, who coaches the summer team that includes Martin, Hummel and another IU target, E'twaun Moore. Fox noted the attention North Central star Eric Gordon paid when Illinois coach Bruce Weber flew to Arkansas to watch the one game Gordon played before returning to Indianapolis for prom earlier this spring. Gordon has orally committed to Illinois, but Sampson had been trying to get the top-ranked shooting guard in the 2007 class to change his mind. Todd Leary, a member of Indiana's heralded 1989 recruiting class and now a part of the IU radio team, agreed that a head coach's presence had a big impact on a recruit. "Coach (Bob) Knight came to a lot of games, and when he was in the building, everybody knew it," Leary said. "I think that's where Sampson suffers with his off-campus ban. Beyond that, I really don't think these sanctions are that big of a deal." Coaches, players and recruiting analysts agreed that the phone-call ban is nearly irrelevant because of other ways to keep in contact with players. "In terms of the phone calls, there are ways around that," Brumm said. "He can text and ask somebody to call him. That's done a lot now anyway to get around the phone-call limitation. If he wants to talk to somebody, his assistant coaches will get the kids to call him." www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060526/SPORTS0601/605260474/1068/SPORTS06
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 25, 2006 18:08:03 GMT -5
NCAA extends Sooners' probation 11 more months May 25, 2006 CBS SportsLine.com wire reports NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma escaped major sanctions Thursday from an NCAA inquiry into nearly 600 improper recruiting telephone calls it deemed a result of former men's basketball coach Kelvin Sampson's "decision to consciously ignore certain recruiting rules." The NCAA Committee on Infractions extended Oklahoma's self-imposed probation for an additional 11 months and issued a public reprimand and censure but otherwise accepted the university's self-imposed sanctions, which included reductions in scholarships, recruiting calls and trips and visits to the school by prospective recruits. The infractions committee instituted a two-year probation ending on May 24, 2008. The university's self-imposed probation was to end on June 30, 2007. The university was able to avoid a severe "lack of institutional control" finding that could have resulted in a ban from postseason play. NCAA enforcement staff had recommended such a finding but the infractions committee instead found Oklahoma guilty of a lesser "failure in monitoring" finding. The Committee on Infractions strayed from the enforcement staff's recommendation, saying "though seriously flawed, a system for monitoring the phone calls did exist." In an infractions report, the committee outlined how Oklahoma's coaches met on Sunday nights to review their recruiting calls then recorded them on forms different than those supplied by the compliance office and filed them in a cabinet in the basketball office instead of turning them in. The committee noted that the logs were never cross-checked against institutional phone records and "the coaches were taken at their word when even a cursory review of men's basketball office, cell phone and calling card bills would have revealed the myriad of impermissible calls being made by multiple coaches over a period of years." Former Oklahoma assistant Ray Lopes, who last month was given a three-year "show cause" penalty requiring him to appear before the infractions committee before seeking employment with another NCAA school because of violations while he was the head coach at Fresno State, received a second "show cause" order to run concurrently. The NCAA accepted penalties Washington imposed against former Oklahoma assistant Jim Shaw, who made 107 of the calls. Former assistant Bob Hoffman, who was not retained by new Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, made only 28 calls after joining the staff in 2004 and the infractions committee decided not to keep an individual record of his violations. Sampson made 233 of the 577 impermissible calls. In response to the NCAA inquiry, Oklahoma has added compliance staff and started a new telephone monitoring system. The Committee on Infractions also found Oklahoma guilty of nine secondary violations by the men's basketball program, two by the men's gymnastics team and two by the softball team. Oklahoma's last major infraction came in December 1988, when the NCAA determined the football program broke recruiting rules and provided extra benefits. There were also findings of unethical conduct and the institutional control violation. AP NEWS The Associated Press News Service www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/story/9461232
|
|
|
Post by Raider Country on May 25, 2006 18:06:32 GMT -5
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The NCAA on Thursday banned Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson from calling recruits and visiting them off-campus, ruling he deliberately broke NCAA rules by making extra phone calls to potential players while coaching Oklahoma. The decision, announced by the committee on infractions, also requires Indiana to adopt the restrictions Oklahoma placed on Sampson, where he coached before Indiana hired him earlier this year. "This case is a result of the former head coach's complete disregard for NCAA guidelines for proper telephone contacts with recruits," infractions committee chairman Thomas Yeager said in a written statement. "The former head coach created and encouraged an atmosphere among his staff of deliberate noncompliance, rationalizing the violations as being a result of 'prioritizing' rules." The contract Sampson signed with Indiana on April 20 says the school "may take further action, up to and including termination" if the NCAA "imposes more significant penalties or sanctions than the University of Oklahoma's self-imposed sanctions." It was not immediately clear if the Hoosiers would fire Sampson, who was in Kuwait and unavailable for comment. A message was left on the cell phone of Michael Glazier, Sampson's attorney. It also was not clear whether the Hoosiers would face a scholarship loss, one of the sanctions Oklahoma imposed. Indiana officials were expected to release a written statement later Thursday. "Obviously, we anticipated some type of sanction, and this one seems to fit these minor infractions," Indiana trustee Patrick Shoulders said. Indiana hired Sampson in March amid an investigation into 577 extra phone calls Sampson and Sooners assistant coaches made to 17 recruits from 2000 and 2004. The calls violated NCAA restrictions, and the infractions committee determined Sampson made 233 of them. sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/ncaa/05/25/bc.bkc.indiana.sampson.ap/index.html?section=si_topstories
|
|