Papa_Bull

I'm sure you won't be back here if we take two out of three, but thanks for your opinion.

Our baseball stadium, if you can call it that, is one of the things which needs to be upgraded. There are plans in the works to do that, but I don't know exactly what or when.

I presume you meant your "morale" and were talking about football.  ;D

Good to hear that. I hope they have a good turnout.

Here is the USA Release on it: Top 25 Finalists for Collegiate Player of the Year Award 6/7/2004 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK The Amateur Softball Association, the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States, and USA Softball announced today the 25 finalists for the 2004 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award. The award, which is considered the Heisman Trophy in women's collegiate softball and is the only national player of the year award, is designed to recognize outstanding athletic achievement by female collegiate softball players across the country. The final list is comprised of 25 players that represent 18 colleges and six different Conferences. The 2004 top 25 Finalists include: Monica Abbott, Tennessee Nicole Barber, Georgia Autumn Champion, Arizona Christina Clark, Fresno State Leigh Ann Ellis, South Florida Keira Goerl, UCLA Holly Groves, South Florida Alicia Hollowell, Arizona Peaches James, Nebraska Lauren Lappin, Stanford Jessica van der Linden, Florida State Caitlin Lowe, Arizona Monica Hoffman, Oregon State Iyhia McMichael, Mississippi State Brooke Mitchell, Louisiana-Lafayette Stephanie Ramos, UCLA Kristen Rivera, Washington Heather Scaglione, Oklahoma Kristin Schmidt, LSU Dana Sorensen, Stanford Jamie Southern, Fresno State Cristin Vitek, Baylor Kim Wendland, Georgia Haley Woods, California Phelan Wright, Arizona State Note: Florida’s Jenny Gladding was selected among the top 25 finalist but was removed from further consideration after suffering a season ending injury last week. The list will be reduced to ten players on April 28 and three finalists will be announced May 11. The winner of the 2004 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award will be announced May 26 at the opening ceremonies of the NCAA College World Series in Oklahoma City, OK. The winner will be recognized and presented with the Player of the Year trophy during the ASA National Council Meeting in Mobile, Alabama, in November. A replica of the award will be placed in a permanent display in the ASA National Softball Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, along with photos of the winner. An additional replica of the award will be presented to the player’s academic institution. About ASA The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation’s largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 91 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 240,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit www.asasoftball.com. About USA Softball USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture back-to-back gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won seven World Championship titles including the last five consecutive. For more information about USA Softball, please visit www.usasoftball.com.

Here are the team pitching stats for ECU. I don't know who they plan to start, so maybe ECU Pirate can tell us: Player.................ERA W-L APP GS CG SHO/CBO SV IP H R ER BB SO 2B 3B HR AB B/Avg WP HBP BK SFA SHA 18 Matt Bishop...... 1.32 2-0 6 0 0 0/0 0 13.2 14 4 2 0 18 4 1 0 54 .259 1 1 0 1 0 25 Mike Flye........ 1.62 1-2 8 0 0 0/1 2 16.2 10 4 3 5 21 3 0 1 61 .164 2 0 0 0 0 32 Greg Bunn........ 1.97 5-0 8 8 0 0/3 0 50.1 25 12 11 13 60 3 1 3 171 .146 0 4 0 1 5 7 Shane Mathews.... 3.00 3-0 10 3 0 0/1 0 27.0 23 11 9 9 20 1 1 4 101 .228 3 2 0 1 2 19 Brody Taylor..... 3.13 4-0 7 7 0 0/1 0 46.0 38 16 16 8 48 3 0 7 164 .232 1 1 0 1 2 29 Carter Harrell... 3.19 4-1 8 5 0 0/1 0 31.0 30 13 11 7 23 6 1 2 121 .248 3 1 0 0 0 21 Ricky Brooks..... 3.92 1-2 7 5 0 0/0 0 20.2 18 14 9 10 15 2 0 2 77 .234 0 4 1 0 2 44 Dustin Sasser.... 4.12 1-0 13 0 0 0/3 2 19.2 21 10 9 9 16 3 0 1 73 .288 1 0 0 0 4 27 P.J. Connelly.... 5.40 1-0 6 2 0 0/0 0 11.2 11 8 7 13 8 2 0 1 44 .250 0 0 0 0 2 -------------- 28 Ken Huffmaster... 0.00 0-0 1 0 0 0/0 0 1.0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 .000 0 0 0 0 0 33 Phillip Powell... 0.00 0-0 6 0 0 0/1 1 6.2 4 0 0 3 5 1 0 0 24 .167 0 0 0 0 0 3 Scott Andrews.... 2.45 1-0 6 0 0 0/1 0 7.1 9 2 2 1 4 2 0 0 27 .333 0 0 1 1 1 34 Kevin Rhodes..... 2.84 1-1 8 0 0 0/0 1 12.2 10 7 4 1 11 2 0 2 45 .222 3 3 0 0 0 22 John Emmert...... 3.38 0-0 2 0 0 0/0 0 2.2 2 1 1 3 5 0 0 0 10 .200 2 1 0 0 0 43 Jason Neitz...... 6.00 0-0 2 0 0 0/0 1 3.0 5 2 2 0 2 1 0 1 12 .417 0 0 0 0 1 Totals.............. 2.87 24-6 30 30 0 5/5 7 270.0 220 104 86 82 258 33 4 24 987 .223 16 17 2 5 19 Opponents........... 6.10 6-24 30 30 4 1/0 3 258.1 312 215 175 116 211 58 7 48 1041 .300 19 28 3 10 26 These are all their stats: http://www.ecu.edu/athletics/bbc04/teamcume.htm They still have to face Duke tonight.

I thought the same thing when I read it in today's Oracle online.

Of course he could be scouting the team because he might be interested in taking Leavitt's job.

Meanwhile, the Pirates have their hands full playing the #18 USF Softball team which is on a 16 game winning streak. Maybe if Ellis has time she can also pitch some baseball.  ;D

I wonder if he is thinking about leaving coaching and considering becoming the AD at USF. Why else would he be here?

Mike...I think Army is our homecoming game in football this year.

Yep, but ECU leads C-USA in pitching, so it's all relative. Their starters are just as good and their relief pitching is a lot better. We have the edge on them in overall hitting, but they lead C-USA in home runs by a wide margin. The good news is that we give up very few home runs. ECU also has a great fielding team and we do not. They are 18-2 at home this year. We have never taken two out of three from them, so we are in for a stiff challenge. If we can somehow win two from them then we should be ranked in at least one of the polls next week.

Leslie is still on the team. He was selected in the baseball draft but elected to stay at USF. Here are our starting pitchers in the series this wekend: Player..................ERA  W-L  APP  GS  CG SHO/CBO SV  IP H R  ER  BB  SO 27 Kyle Schmidt.....  2.25  6-1   9  8  0  0/0   0  48.0  38  17  12  29  40 39 Chase Lirette....  2.28  4-0   13  3  0  0/0   1  43.1  38  20  11  14  39 10 Casey Hudspeth.. 2.91  5-1   9  9  0  0/0   0  55.2  68  23  18  18  47 I believe Schmidt will pitch game one, followed by Hudspeth and Lirette, but that is not official.

If anybody here attended let is know how it went: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 News St. Petersburg campus holds pep rally for spring football scrimmage By Taylor Williams Staff Writer April 07, 2004 USF St. Petersburg will be hosting a pep rally today at Bay Walk to promote Saturday's Spring Game at Raymond James Stadium. The pep rally will feature speakers such as football coach Jim Leavitt, Regional Chancellor Karen A. White, assistant athletic director Jim Louk and Bob Foster, a St. Petersburg City Council member. The pep rally will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Bay Walk courtyard, with the Herd of Thunder Marching Band kicking it off. The Sun Dolls and USF cheerleaders will be performing at the pep rally as well, said Holly Kickliter, a representative from USF St. Petersburg media relations. The pep rally is being held in support of the Spring Game, a scrimmage to preview the upcoming fall football season. "This is the first time the St. Petersburg campus has ever hosted this event," Kickliter said. "USF is trying to broaden its fan base to include St. Petersburg residents." During the event, which is open to the public, USF Athletics and the St. Petersburg Times will be giving away complementary tickets to Saturday's game. Many of the restaurants at Bay Walk will be offering discounts to USF students, faculty, staff and alumni who present their USF IDs today, including Dish, Tokyo Sushi, Johnny Rockets and Dan Marino's. "We're hoping these (price cuts at local restaurants) will be an incentive for people to come out to the pep rally," Kickliter said. The pep rally will begin at 12:30 today in the center courtyard at Bay Walk.

Here is the official game story: Cardieri Leads USF Past Stetson, 10-8 Final Stats Bulls Win With Walk-Off Home Run in the Bottom of the 14th TAMPA, Fla. (April 6, 2004) – A two-run walk-off home run by second baseman Nick Cardieri in the bottom of the 14th inning, led the University of South Florida baseball team (23-8, 7-2 C-USA) to a 10-8 win over the Stetson Hatters (20-13, 9-3 Atlantic Sun) on Tuesday, April 6 at Red McEwen Field. The home run was the first of his career from the Tampa native, ending the Bulls’ longest game this season, lasting nearly five hours (4:41). “I just glad that our team won… for themâ€Â, said Head Coach Eddie Cardieri. “Nobody did anything to lose that game. Just once it got tied, late in the game, nobody did anything to win it until the very end. It’s not because everybody wasn’t trying. They were doing the best they could. I’m very proud of the fact that they were able to pull it out because that was a great win. It’s a very tough game for Stetson to lose. But, a great win for us.†Matt Ingram (2-1, 4.18 ERA) earned his second win in as many games, allowing no runs on two hits while striking out three in four and one-third innings. Ingram entered the game in the top of the 10th inning, in relief of Joey Livingston. The Bulls recorded three home runs in the game, including a two-run shot by Mike Macaluso (.396, 1 HR, 14 RBI), his first of the season, and Matt McHargue (.348, 9 HR, 32 RBI), who has recorded four home runs in the last two games. Sophomore Jeremy Bellotti (.309, 0 HR, 8 RBI) registered a team-high four hits on the night, going 4-for-7 with three runs scored. Senior Myron Leslie (.288, 2 HR, 27 RBI), who made some stellar defensive plays for the Bulls, went 2-for-5 with a run scored and two base-on-balls to tie the USF record for career walks (158 ). Junior Jeff Baisley (.298, 2 HR, 11 RBI) made his first start since breaking a bone in his left foot (3/5/04), going 2-for-5. Down 4-0, the Bulls cut into Stetson's lead, scoring two runs in the bottom of the third. With a base runner on first, Macaluso crushed his first home run of the season, driving in two runs to make the score 4-2. Bellotti made the score 4-3, Stetson, after reaching home on a wild pitch by Hatters' pitcher Ryan Colton. USF took an 8-5 lead in the bottom of the seventh, scoring five runs on eight hits, including a solo shot by McHargue, his ninth of the season. The Hatters cut in to USF's lead with a two-run shot by Braedyn Pruitt, making the score 8-7 in the top of the eighth. Stetson tied the game in the top of the ninth, 8-8. With the bases loaded and two outs, right-hander Joey Livingston got left fielder Joey Wilson to ground out to first to end the top of the ninth inning. Through the first four extra frames, neither team could capitalize with runners in scoring position. In the bottom of the 14th inning with a runner on first and two outs, Cardieri sent a shot over the right center field fence to end the game and give the Bulls their 23rd win of the season. The Bulls will next travel to Greenville, N.C. to face the East Carolina Pirates in a three-game weekend series beginning on Friday, April 9. Game time is 7 p.m. http://gobulls.usf.edu/Sports/News.asp?i=640&s=Baseball

On another USF baseball note, it's nice to see Ryan Gload on the White Sox roster: Baseball 4.6.2004 Opening Day MLB Rosters Feature 12 C-USA Players A total of 12 players from Conference USA schools appeared on the opening day rosters of Major League Baseball teams as the American and National leagues began regular season play this week. Eight of C-USA’s 12 baseball schools are represented, with players appearing on eight different big league teams. All but one of the 12 players is a pitcher. Houston has the most players on MLB rosters, with four former Cougar standouts on rosters. Veteran hurlers woody Williams (Cardinals) and Ben Weber (Angels) are joined by Shane Nance (Diamondbacks) and Ryan Wagner (Reds), who last summer became the first player to compete in Conference USA and Major League Baseball in the same season. Memphis has a pair of veteran pitchers in the majors once again this season. Long reliever Chad Harville returns to the Oakland A’s bullpen, while Cliff Politte has moved on to the Chicago White Sox. Charlotte, USF, Southern Miss, TCU, Tulane and UAB each have one former standout currently on an opening day roster. In addition, there are nearly 100 former Conference USA standouts that are current playing minor league baseball. Here’s a look at all of the C-USA players on current MLB rosters. Player, Position, MLB Affiliation, C-USA School Jason Stanford, LHP, Cleveland, Charlotte Shane Nance,. LHP, Arizona, Houston Ryan Wagner, RHP, Cincinnati, Houston Ben Weber, RHP, Anaheim, Houston Woody Williams, RHP, St. Louis, Houston Chad Harville, RHP, Oakland, Memphis Cliff Politte, RHP, Chicago White Sox, Memphis Ross Gload, OF, Chicago White Sox, USF Chad Bradford, RHP, Oakland, Southern Miss Jeff Zimmerman, RHP, Texas, TCU Jack Cressend, RHP, Cleveland, Tulane Chris Hammond, LHP, Oakland, UAB

I realize it is very early to talk about the post season, but SE Baseball has already started their projections. They have USF with UCF, Miami and BCC in the Coral Gables regional: Coral Gables Regional 1. Miami 23-7 #3 ^ (3) 4. Bethune Cookman 20-13 #173 * 2. UCF 27-5 #36 * 3. South Florida 22-8 #41 Here are their current projections for all regions: http://sebaseball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=283269

I'd guess somewhere between 2,500 and 5,000 people based on attendance at past spring games.

Wow! Cardieri has been a real bust at the plate and he came through BIG TIME! Great win!

Are you sure? I listened through 13 innings and it was still 8-8. Stetson was coming to bat, I thought, in the 14th when my radio connection disconnected and I couldn't reconnect. How did USF score the winning run?

I felt the exact same way when I read it late last night  and that's why I didn't bother posting it. All it does is give some other school fans a pretext to spread it around the Web to make USF look bad. Of course, their own athletes may be facing similar problems. Florida evidently is one of the states which is now cracking down and issuing arrest warrants to College Students. I don't know how widespread this procedure is throughout the US. Perhaps, if Green were still eligible to play football for USF there would have been a LEGITIMATE reason for Brett to write about his problems. Since Green is no longer eligible the story is really NOT newsworthy.

I bet if there was an expose' you would find hundreds of College athletes throughout the country behind in their child payments, but there is hardly a mention of it by their hometown press. I don't think this is a unique problem to USF, but the recent articles on these two particular cases give that impression. There needs to be a serious nationwide study done ro get a full picture.

There is evidently internet radio from Stetson for tonight's game: Stetson (20-12, 9-3 Atlantic Sun) at USF (22-8, 7-2 C-USA) Red McEwen Field, Tampa, Fla Game #31 - Tuesday, April 6, 7 p.m. ET Stetson - #57 Chris Ingoglia, freshman, LHP (3-1, 4.24 ERA) USF - #28 Nick Manganaro, freshman, LHP (3-2, 6.63 ERA) TV: None Radio: http://www.stetson.edu/athletics/baseball/sportsnet.php Live Stats: www.GoUSFBulls.com Here are the game notes: http://isis.fastmail.usf.edu/usf-athletics/Sports/baseball/2004/04mediacenter/game_notes/(04-06)STET.pdf Edit: You might have to copy and paste the URL into your browser to read the notes, as the hyperlink doesn't appear to be working properly.

USF moved up for places to RPI #41 after going 4-0 last week against Stetson and St Louis: NCAA Division I Baseball -- Pseudo-RPI's Note: W-L records are through games of 4/4.      Rank Rating  W  L    W  L   Team     1  0.690  31  4   31  4  Texas  2  0.662  24  5   24  5  Louisiana State  3  0.658  24  6   24  6  Miami, Florida  4  0.651  23  4   23  4  Stanford  5  0.646  23  5   23  5  South Carolina  6  0.641  22  9   22  9  Arizona State  7  0.640  24  6   24  6  Rice  8  0.632  24  4   24  4  Mississippi  9  0.627  23  9   23  9  Florida State 10  0.626  25  8   25  8  Florida 11  0.619  24  4   24  4  Southern Mississippi 12  0.614  26  8   26  8  Texas A&M 13  0.614  19  6   19  6  UC Irvine 14  0.614  24  6   24  6  East Carolina 15  0.614  20  3   22  3  Notre Dame 16  0.613  25  5   25  5  Tennessee 17  0.611  17  9   19  9  Birmingham-Southern 18  0.611  20  10   20  10  Arkansas 19  0.610  16  3   16  3  Wichita State 20  0.609  20  10   20  10  North Carolina State 21  0.608  19  10   19  10  Georgia 22  0.607  25  7   25  7  Virginia 23  0.607  21  9   21  9  Auburn 24  0.605  20  8   20  8  Long Beach State 25  0.604  21  5   21  5  Nebraska 26  0.602  20  11   20  11  Oklahoma State 27  0.602  15  15   15  15  Southern California 28  0.600  21  7   21  7  Vanderbilt 29  0.599  19  10   19  10  Oklahoma 30  0.598  17  10   17  10  Clemson 31  0.596  17  10   17  10  Mississippi State 32  0.595  23  6   23  6  North Carolina 33  0.591  15  12   15  12  Arizona 34  0.591  26  7   26  7  Florida Atlantic 35  0.590  17  8   17  8  Washington 36  0.586  27  5   27  5  Central Florida 37  0.585  17  13   17  13  Texas Christian 38  0.581  14  3   14  3  Albany 39  0.579  18  9   18  9  Coastal Carolina 40  0.577  16  16   16  16  Cal State Fullerton  41  0.577  22  8   22  8  South Florida 42  0.577  17  13   17  13  Georgia Tech 43  0.576  12  9   12  10  Minnesota 44  0.576  23  9   23  9  Lamar 45  0.576  12  18   12  18  Houston 46  0.573  15  15   16  15  Texas State 47  0.573  22  8   22  8  Tulane 48  0.572  17  8   20  8  Washington State 49  0.569  17  11   17  11  Texas Tech 50  0.568  12  18   12  18  Baylor http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/rpi/currentrpi.html USF will have an opportunity to move up considerably this week if we can do well against Stetson (RPI #64) and @ECU (RPI #14) USF is receiving 7 votes in the ESPN Poll: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/baseball/usatpoll.htm The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Poll hasn't been released yet, but USF should still continue to receive votes: http://www.sportswriters.net/ncbwa/index.html More importantly, USF is tied for 1st place with USM and Tulane in the C-USA standings: 2004 STANDINGS (April 4)  Conference Overall  W L T Pct. H A W L T Pct. H A N L10 Stk. USM 7 2 0 .778 5-1 2-1 24 4 0 .857 16-2 6-2 2-0 8-2 W 6 USF  7 2 0 .778 7-2 0-0 22 8 0 .733 19-4 3-2 0-2 8-2 W 4 Tul  7 2 0 .778 3-0 4-2 22 8 0 .733 17-3 4-5 0-0 9-1 L 1 ECU  6 3 0 .667 1-2 5-1 24 6 0 .800 18-2 6-4 0-0 7-3 W 5 Lou  6 3 0 .667 4-2 2-1 16 11 0 .593 13-9 2-2 1-0 7-3 W 1 TCU  5 4 0 .556 3-0 2-4 17 13 0 .567 10-3 4-9 3-1 6-4 L 4 Hou  5 4 0 .556 1-2 4-2 12 18 0 .400 6-7 4-7 2-4 5-5 W 3 Mem  3 6 0 .333 1-2 2-4 14 11 0 .560 2-3 6-5 6-3 4-6 L 1 Cha  3 6 0 .333 3-3 0-3 13 12 0 .520 10-8 3-4 0-0 4-6 L 6 UAB  2 6 0 .250 1-5 1-1 14 13 0 .519 12-9 2-3 0-0 2-8 L 4 SLU  1 7 0 .125 1-1 0-6 8 20 0 .286 8-7 0-13 0-0 2-8 L 4 Cin  1 8 0 .111 1-2 0-6 4 22 0 .154 1-2 2-19 1-1 1-9 W 1

BCS has fifth bowl in works By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff, 4/4/2004 SAN ANTONIO -- Representatives of the Bowl Championship Series met here yesterday and began to put together a formula that will incorporate a fifth BCS bowl by the 2006 season. "It's important to have the process established first," said Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese. "We can then decide who the fifth bowl will be." BCS sources suggested each of the six conferences that are guaranteed a BCS bowl berth would be linked to one of the bowls. The most likely setup: Rose Bowl: Pacific-10 champion vs. Big Ten champion (except when the Rose Bowl hosts the BCS title game). Sugar Bowl: Southeastern Conference champion vs. at-large team. Fiesta Bowl: Big 12 champion vs. at-large team. Orange Bowl: Atlantic Coast Conference champion vs. at-large team. Fifth BCS Bowl: Big East champion vs. at-large team. The Gator Bowl, which would eagerly accept the Big East conference champion as its anchor team, could be the leading contender for the fifth BCS bowl. At-large slots would be awarded to conference champions that finish in the top 12 in the BCS standings. Another way to get a BCS slot for a non-BCS team would be to finish in the top 16. If that happened, and a champion from a BCS league was lower than 16th, the non-BCS team would also be guaranteed a slot. The rotation of at-large teams at BCS bowls is still undetermined. The Rose Bowl has created its own deal of having the Pac-10 champ play the Big Ten champ every year it does not host the national championship. Not surprisingly, some bowls are reluctant to take an at-large team from a non-BCS league rather than a runner-up from a more high-profile conference. Tranghese said the impact of the BCS computers would be lessened so it would be impossible for a team ranked No. 1 in either of two human polls to be excluded from the championship game. "There can still be problems if you have five teams with one loss or three undefeated teams, that the computers would have to be used to make the final call," said Tranghese. "But if the two human polls are in agreement as to the top two teams, that will be the game."