Baseball

[Papa_Bull]

The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Poll hasn't been released yet, but USF should still continue to receive votes

USF is still receiving votes in their poll.

http://www.sportswriters.net/ncbwa/news/2004/poll040405.html

It's pretty amazing how much we dropped just by losing two out of three to USM a couple of weeks ago. Those were our only losses since they had us ranked #33. We lost one of those games by one run, and that made a great difference in our ranking in ALL the polls. It's a shame that we didn't use Lirette to start against USM when we knew that Manganaro was coming off a couple of bad outings. We escaped with him last night after falling behind 4-0 to Stetson. Nice to have Lirette starting against ECU.

[bulls96go]

good job

[Papa_Bull]

Here is an interesting poll which SE Baseball puts out:

April 5, 2004

SEBaseball.com Poll

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEBaseball.com Staff    

 

SEBaseball.com Poll

April 5, 2004

Clemson makes the biggest move of the 31 teams in this week's SouthEastern Baseball poll, jumping ten spots on the strength of two mid-week wins over Georgia. The Bulldogs rose three spots on the basis of their road sweep at Florida, while the Gators led a trio of teams who dropped eight spots.

Florida Atlantic also fell eight spots, while Stetson gained eight to edge the Owls for 21st by taking the weekend series. Birmingham Southern slipped eight, losing three to Washington State on a long road trip.

South Florida moved up seven spots to 16th, while Mississippi State dropped seven to 28th.

Rank Points Team Conf Prev Diff

1  917  Louisiana State ( 24-5 )  SEC ( 6-3 )  1  0  

2  440  Mississippi ( 24-4 )  SEC ( 7-2 )  2  0  

3  424  Miami Florida ( 23-7 )  Ind  3  0  

4  228  Southern Mississippi ( 24-4 )  CUSA ( 7-2 )  6  2  

5  191  North Carolina ( 23-6 )  ACC ( 7-2 )  7  2  

6  185  South Carolina ( 23-5 )  SEC ( 4-5 )  5  -1  

7  149  Tennessee ( 25-5 )  SEC ( 6-3 )  10  3  

8  130  Central Florida ( 27-5 )  ASUN ( 13-2 )  12  4  

9  123  Tulane ( 22-8 )  CUSA ( 7-2 )  8  -1  

10  91  Auburn ( 21-9 )  SEC ( 4-5 )  9  -1  

11  83  Florida State ( 23-9 )  ACC ( 6-3 )  11  0  

12  81  Florida ( 25-8 )  SEC ( 5-4 )  4  -8  

13  74  East Carolina ( 24-6 )  CUSA ( 6-3 )  15  2  

14  73  Vanderbilt ( 21-7 )  SEC ( 4-5 )  13  -1  

15  71  Arkansas ( 20-10 )  SEC ( 5-4 )  17  2  

16  58  South Florida ( 22-8 )  CUSA ( 7-2 )  23  7  

17  57  College of Charleston ( 23-5 )  SoCon ( 10-0 )  19  2  

18  53  Clemson ( 17-10 )  ACC ( 6-0 )  28  10  

19  45  Georgia ( 19-10 )  SEC ( 5-4 )  22  3  

20  37  North Carolina State ( 20-10 )  ACC ( 4-5 )  18  -2  

21  35  Stetson ( 19-12 )  ASUN ( 9-3 )  29  8  

22  34  Florida Atlantic ( 26-7 )  ASUN ( 6-6 )  14  -8  

23  21  Louisiana-Lafayette ( 18-9 )  SBC ( 4-2 )  hm  

24  20  Birmingham-Southern ( 17-9 )  BigS ( 5-1 )  16  -8  

25  14  North Carolina-Greensboro ( 20-7 )  SoCon ( 7-5 )  20  -5  

26  13  Coastal Carolina ( 18-9 )  BigS ( 2-4 )  27  1  

27  12  The Citadel ( 19-9 )  SoCon ( 11-2 )  ---  

28  8  Mississippi State ( 17-10 )  SEC ( 3-6 )  21  -7  

29  6  Georgia Tech ( 17-13 )  ACC ( 2-4 )  30  1  

30  5  Eastern Kentucky ( 15-4 )  OVC ( 4-2 )  26  -4  

31  4  Austin Peay State ( 17-7 )  OVC ( 6-0 )  ---  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Honorable

Mention  Alabama ( 19-11 )  SEC ( 3-6 )  24  

Bethune-Cookman ( 20-13 )  MEAC ( 11-1 )  hm  

Georgia State ( 13-17 )  ASUN ( 8-7 )  ---  

North Carolina-Wilmington ( 16-11 )  CAA ( 4-1 )  ---  

Winthrop ( 15-12 )  BigS ( 5-1 )  ---  

Dropped Out  Belmont   25  

SouthEastern Baseball continues its poll with a few differences from the 2003 season. We are including experts on college baseball from around the southeast along with the SEBaseball.com staff writers, and it will no longer be designated a "top 20". Since we always listed "others receiving votes", for this year we don't make an arbitrary distinction between number 20 and number 21.

The scoring system is the same as it was in 2003, but the results will be reported differently. Last year we assigned points so that whichever team was number one always was reported as having 1000 points, and the remaining teams' points were scaled to that standard. For 2004, the value 1000 represents a unanimous number one choice, and all teams' points are scaled including the actual number one. This allows a team's points to be compared from week-to-week.

http://sebaseball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=282921

There is an article on that site relating to C-USA Baseball. Here's what they said about ECU and USF:

April 7, 2004

C-USA NOTEBOOK

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SEB Staff

 

 

Mark Etheridge

Conference USA has a top heavy feel as Southern Miss, Tulane, South Florida, and East Carolina are on track for big seasons...

EAST CAROLINA 24-6, 6-3

ECU hit 10 home runs in three games at Charlotte and leads Conference USA with 48 round-trippers on the season. The Pirates have homered 20 times in nine C-USA games. DARRYL and TREVOR LAWHORN have hit home runs in the same game four times this season and twice in the same inning. Darryl has hit five homers in the last six games while Trevor has hit one home run in each of the last four games. Senior RYAN JONES leads ECU's hitting attack, batting .429. Of Jones' 36 hits on the season, 24 are extra-base hits, including 12 doubles, three triples and nine home runs. In his last two C-USA starts, junior RHP GREG BUNN has 19 strikeouts in 16 innings. Bunn has only allowed one earned run on seven hits and walked one batter. ECU posted a season-high 21 hits in the second game of the Charlotte series and a season-high 24 runs in the series finale. The last time, ECU scored 20 runs was February 2002 when the Pirates defeated New York Tech, 20-8. The Pirates racked up 48 hits in three games against the 49ers.

USF 22-8, 7-2

The Bulls swept a three-game series from Saint Louis to move into a first place tie in C-USA with a 7-2 record, while raising its overall mark to 22-8. USF hit.423 with six home runs and 35 RBI, outscoring the Billikens 35-9. The Bulls pitching staff finished the series with a 2.16 ERA, allowing eight walks and striking out 21. Senior SS MYRON LESLIE scored his 200th career run on Friday night, becoming just the fourth player in school history to do that. When JEREMY BRAND hit two home runs in Saturday's 18-1 win, it marked the second time this season that he had gone deep twice in the same game. He did it earlier against Illinois on March 6. On Sunday, sophomore DH MATT McHARGUE topped him, becoming the fourth Bull ever and the first since Chris Heintz in 1996 to hit three homers in a single game. He has taken over the team lead in home runs with eight. USF will leave the state of Florida for the first time this season on Friday when it opens a three-game series at East Carolina.

http://sebaseball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=283311

 

[smazza]

ftu series shaping up as the biggest outside of miami

[Papa_Bull]

Baseball America put outs its regional projections as well. It also USF in the same regional with Miami, UCF and BCC.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/040409regional.html

Nice to see USF mentioned on Baseball America's College Wekend Preview page:

• South Florida is in a three-way with No. 11 Southern Mississippi and No. 12 Tulane for first place in Conference USA with a 7-2 league record. The Bulls travel to No. 17 East Carolina, which at 6-3 if fourth in the league, for a key conference series. The Pirates are coming off a 7-5 win Wednesday at Duke. Southern Mississippi visits St. Louis this weekend in league play after dropping two midweek games to Mississippi State, while Tulane welcomes Louisville to town. Sophomore lefthander Brian Bogusevic, one of the nation's top two-way players, led the Green Wave to 1-0 win against No. 3 Louisiana State on Tuesday by throwing eight shutout innings. He's hitting .306-5-34 (topping Tulane in RBIs) and is 5-2, 3.30 on the mound, tied for the team lead in wins and best in ERA among its four starters.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/040409preview.html

[Papa_Bull]

Baseball America lists Devin Ivany as Junior Catcher on their  2004 Midseason All-America Team:

http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/040409midaa.html

And from the USF Official site:

Catcher Devin Ivany Named to 2004 Golden Spike Award Watch List

Ivany Recognized Among the Top 30 Collegiate Players in the Nation

DURHAM, N.C. (Thursday, April 8 ) – University of South Florida catcher Devin Ivany was named to the official watch list for the 2004 Golden Spike Award as announced by USA Baseball. For the past 26 years, USA Baseball has honored the top amateur baseball player in the country with the Golden Spikes Award. Following the first ever presentation of the Award to Bob Horner of Arizona State in 1978, the Golden Spikes Award has been presented each year to the player who exhibits exceptional athletic ability and exemplary sportsmanship.

Ivany, a 2004 Johnny Bench Award Watch List selection, is batting .392 with three home runs and 36 RBI in USF’s 30 games this season. A .352 career hitter at USF, the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. native has played in 150 games in his three seasons at USF, scoring 112 runs and registering 138 RBI. As a sophomore, Ivany received all-region honors, hitting .362 with four home runs and 46 RBI. Ivany racked up Freshman All-America honors in 2001, hitting .322 with 10 home runs and 56 RBI. Ivany was a ninth-round selection by the Anaheim Angels in the 2001 amateur draft.

USA Baseball will announce their five finalists for the 2004 Golden Spikes Award in June. The 2003 Golden Spikes Award winner was Rickie Weeks of Southern University. Other past winners of this prestigious award include current Major League Baseball stars such as Mark Prior ('01), Jason Jennings ('00), Pat Burrell ('98 ), J.D. Drew ('97), Travis Lee ('96), Mark Kotsay ('95), Jason Varitek ('94), Darren Dreifort ('93), Phil Nevin ('92) and Robin Ventura ('88 ). Former Major League stars that have captured the award include Alex Fernandez ('90), Ben McDonald ('89), Jim Abbott ('87), Will Clark ('85), Dave Magadan ('83), Terry Francona ('80), Tim Wallach ('79), and Bob Horner ('78 ).