Category: College Baseball

Yesterday, Michigan was defeated by Kentucky 12-6 in front of their home crowd at Ray Fisher stadium.  This eliminated the Wolverines from the NCAA Regionals.  Kentucky went on to face Arizona later in the day, creating a Wildcats vs Wildcats final in the Regional final. 

Arizona beat Kentucky 5-3 and will advance to the super regional. 

You can read my daily updates I did on the Ann Arbor Regional on Brian Foley’s fine website, The College Baseball Blog.

As an Illini fan, rooting for Michigan is always a tricky thing.  But let’s face it, they were representin’ the Big Ten and for that reason alone, I was hoping they would make it.

Tough luck, Blue.

Congrats though, to Zach Putnam, Jason Christian, Adam Abraham and Ryan LaMarre for being selected to the All-Region Tournament team. 

Putnam doubly so.  He was selected as a designated hitter AND pitcher.

Michigan has landed a #2 seed in the NCAA Regionals and will be hosting Arizona, Kentucky, and Eastern Michigan this weekend. 

You can find schedules, box scores and other info at the University of Michigan’s official Ann Arbor Regional site. 

If you’re interested, I will be doing daily write-ups and analysis for The College Baseball Blog during the Ann Arbor Regional.  I have a preview of the Ann Arbor Regional up now.

The Trinity College Bantams capped off a perfect regular season by winning the NCAA Division III Championship over Johns Hopkins 5-4 on May 27th. This game was played in Appleton, WI. My summer cottage is about 45 minutes away in Waupaca, WI.

I became interested in the NCAA Division III Championship because my cousin’s son, Kevin Kaminski, was playing for a very good Division III baseball team Carthage College. I shouldn’t say Kevin actually played for Carthage College, he sat the bench. Last year Kevin redshirted as Carthage made it to Appleton. This year he was promised playing time by head coach Augie Schmidt, but then was cut from the team as tournament play began, after wasting his time on the bench all year. As luck would have it, Carthage was eliminated from tournament play on May 16th losing to St. Scholastica, after losing to Wisconsin-Whitewater 24-3 on the 15th. So Kevin didn’t miss out on a championship, although he did work hard for the privlege of riding the pines. A couple of years ago Kaminski proved his worth as the regular secondbaseman for Harper Junior College, hitting well over .400.

But this story isn’t about Kevin Kaminski, Carthage College, or unkept promises. It’s all about Division III Championship Baseball.

In the bottom of the 8th inning trailing by a run, Trinity pinch-hitter Matt Stafford tied the game with an RBI base knock, coming through with two outs and two strikes. Johns Hopkins again put the pressure back on Trinity, when Matt Benchener hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 9th for a 4-3 lead. Trinity who had lost to Johns Hopkins the previous day to ruin their perfect season, was now just three outs away from losing the championship as well.

Trinity’s Kent Graham got things started in the bottom of the 9th with a one out single up the middle. Then James Wood got a hit & run single through the rightside, sending Graham to 3rd. Chandler Barnard, who had five hits on the day, was given an intentional walk. Matt Sullivan then drew a 3-2 bases loaded walk to tie the game. Then Guy Goglietino, Jr., who’d come into the game as a defensive replacement at 3B, fouled off seven pitches before receiving the game winning ball four.

Who says walks can’t be exciting? Congrats to Trinity College! Maybe next year I’ll have to make it to this exciting baseball tournament in Appleton, WI, rather than just reporting on it from afar.

MSU baseball fan Tom T sent me this link to an article about the Roof brothers currently on the MSU baseball team.  It was written by Casey Kruth from The State News which is the independent paper that covers Michigan State University.  It’s a nice piece that details the reuniting of Eric and Jonathan Roof. 

“When I signed he was talking to a lot of schools,” said Eric, who played at St. Catherine Community College in Kentucky in 2006 and came to MSU before the 2007 season. “But, once I signed and I knew I was going to come here and play, I kind of wanted him to come along.”