(06-22-2019 09:35 AM)usm99 Wrote:  

(06-22-2019 01:01 AM)BeagleUSM Wrote:  USM's offense is going to be really iffy next season. We lose our 3 biggest home run hitters. There's a chance we'll be starting 7 true freshmen/sophomores. Maybe 3 or 4 true freshmen.

- We had 10 seniors this past season
- Wallner got drafted
- 3 others that we know of have left or rumored to be leaving...Bowen (starter), McGrew (backup catcher but never got an action), Warren (pitcher who only threw 2.2 innings, was a 20th round pick last season but turned it down)

Have a feeling USM will reload just fine just like FAU did this past season. Maybe sign a few JUCO players.

(06-14-2019 02:22 PM)usm99 Wrote:  From newspaper articles and local talk it appears USM will be going to an all turf field before next season. In the last few seasons especially we’ve had to postpone games on days where it ended up being gorgeous weather but the outfield was unplayable due to heavy rains the day or two beforehand.

https://www.wdam.com/2019/06/22/usm-plan...-facelift/

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) _ Scott Berry can tell you exactly when he new something was going to have to be done with the playing surface at the University of Southern Mississippi’s baseball stadium, Pete Taylor Park.

“When we started losing balls in the outfield this year,” University of Southern Mississippi baseball coach Scott Berry said. “When they started disappearing in the ground.”

To the casual eye, the green, green grass at PTP provides the kind of luxuriant, natural surface where baseball was meant to be played.

USM’s outfield has become nearly as vicious as Charlie Brown’s kite-eating tree. But, instead of munching on flying paper and balsa, Pete Taylor has resumed eating the random fly ball.

“I’m telling you the truth,” Berry said. “In the Gonzaga series (in early March, I had to put that in the ground rules, that if the ball plugs and disappears into the ground, then it’s a ground-rule double. If you can see any part of it, dig it out and we play.”

But rather than do a $600,000 nip-and-tuck on the outfield, Berry is convinced that most-cost effective alternative for the program is turning to a solution that might sound anathema to some: synthetic turf.

“The argument is this: While I would love to have natural grass, we don’t have the resources to have natural grass,” Berry said. “We don’t have the manpower to keep it up. The cost factor is against it.

“If we look at synthetic turf, based on our facilities, we don’t have an indoor facility, outside of the hitting cages. So, what synthetic turf allows you to do really is to never miss a game or a day of practice, unless it just absolutely flooding or lightning. Once it’s done (raining), it’s done, and you can play in another five minutes.”

The first catch: It will cost an estimated $1.2 million to $1.3 million to convert Pete Taylor Park in synthetic turf. The second catch: Berry would love to see the conversion done between the end of fall practice and the opening of spring practice in 2020.

That’s an expensive and tight window.

“If you talk to everybody, and I have, who has synthetic turf around the country, there is not one coach that has said, ‘Don’t do it.’ Not one,” Berry said. “Every one of them, 100 percent, have said, ‘It’s a no brainer. It will change your life.”

Berry said the surface would allow the Golden Eagles to keep a more consistent schedule.

“We missed so many days in the early spring because we couldn’t get on the field because it was so wet,” Berry said. “Even if we put the tarp on, you’d pull the tarp, and it’s still wet. What happens with synthetic turf, when it stops raining, you just go down there and start practice.

clt hopes s miss starts a go fund me

Rice appears to be adding a graduate transfer from Mercer (Andrew Kane, big RHP but maybe not a closer based on his Mercer stats which were fine in fairly limited action?). We've actually added quite a few transfers (including a couple of hitters who played in the JUCO World Series) so I think Rice might have a chance to make the regionals in 2020 after a 2-year absence.

Charlotte has hired UNC’s pitching coach as their new HC

https://charlotte49ers.com/news/2019/6/2...eball.aspx

Charlotte 49ers Director of Athletics Mike Hill named Robert Woodard to lead the baseball program. Woodard, a Charlotte native, has spent the past three seasons as the pitching coach at the University of North Carolina. He has also served as pitching coach at UNCW and Virginia Tech. Woodard will replace Loren Hibbs who announced his retirement after 27 years at the helm.

This past year, Woodard helped lead North Carolina to 46 wins and an NCAA Super Regional appearance. In 2018, North Carolina played in the College World Series in Omaha for the 11th time in program history.

Woodard is the all-time winningest pitcher in North Carolina history, with a 34-5 career record. Woodard, who attended Myers Park High in Charlotte, was a three-time All-ACC performer and the 2006-07 recipient of the Patterson medal, Carolina's highest athletic honor. As a collegian, Woodard never lost a home game as a pitcher, finishing his career with a 22-0 record.

Woodard was drafted in the 20th round by the San Diego Padres and spent three seasons in the Padres organization before beginning his collegiate coaching career.

(06-25-2019 02:00 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt hopes s miss starts a go fund me

We won’t need to, as our AD recently reported that funding was on pace to get it done this offseason.

UL Lafayette coach passes away....RIP

https://ragincajuns.com/news/2019/7/3/to...at-57.aspx

LAFAYETTE - Louisiana Baseball head coach Tony Robichaux passed away Wednesday morning with his family and loved ones at his side at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans.

Coach Robichaux, the winningest head coach in Ragin' Cajuns Baseball history, leaves behind a legacy of servant leadership, compassion and faith that extends beyond the baseball diamond and into the lives of the thousands of student-athletes and staff he impacted in his 25 seasons leading the program.

At this time, the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Department of Athletics asks that fans and the general public keep the Robichaux family and baseball program in their thoughts and prayers.

USM loses long time assistant Chad Caillet to Texas A&M as an assistant. Definitely turning into full blown rebuild/reload mode now

(07-03-2019 06:54 PM)usm99 Wrote:  USM loses long time assistant Chad Caillet to Texas A&M as an assistant. Definitely turning into full blown rebuild/reload mode now

clt just donated another 49.49

(07-03-2019 06:54 PM)usm99 Wrote:  USM loses long time assistant Chad Caillet to Texas A&M as an assistant. Definitely turning into full blown rebuild/reload mode now

Caillet, for those who don’t know, was the heir apparent to Berry.

He was also a hell of a recruiter.

He is going to be very hard to replace.

LA TECH BASEBALL, SOFTBALL, SOCCER FIELDS CONDEMNED

After suffering catastrophic damage from an EF-3 tornado in April, Louisiana Tech has made the decision to demolish the baseball, softball, and soccer stadiums this summer. Athletic Director Tommy McClelland says after extensive surveys, they came to the conclusion that trying to salvage those sites just wouldn’t be safe.

“It is, in my opinion, certainly the more responsible thing to do than to try to repair those things.”

The tornado caused hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage, and took the lives of two people.

McClelland says they’re working on cutting a deal for fall baseball and softball practice at Ruston high schools including potentially altering class schedules to accommodate, but the games themselves could be played all over…

“They may play some games in Frisco where they have a really great alumni base in the Dallas Fort Worth area, we may take some road games to Monroe, or Shreveport, or Jackson Mississippi.”

Soccer reports to practice August 1st, but McClelland says they’ve worked out a deal with a local rec complex to host most practices and games.

With the old facilities condemned, McClelland says they’ve begun plans to construct new facilities, and they’ve hired an architect familiar with stadium construction to build something fans will be proud of.

“They are already beginning to work on programming, and what things needed to be added, and designing towards that.”

https://kpel965.com/la-tech-baseball-sof...condemned/

And now WKU has lost its recruiting coordinator/assistant coach as he’s taking over the reigns at Toledo.

https://twitter.com/kendallrogers/status...71078?s=21

https://twitter.com/kendallrogers/status...24832?s=21

WKU's Jake Sanford became the 1st player in CUSA to win the Triple Crown....however, was looking at the year end stats and due to Matt Wallner hitting 4 HR's in the postseason (2 in Biloxi and 2 in regionals) he ended up with 23 to Sanford's 22. So does Sanford still technically have the Triple Crown since baseball stats are counted throughout the postseason??

clt says tonite is the hr derby!

(07-03-2019 06:54 PM)usm99 Wrote:  USM loses long time assistant Chad Caillet to Texas A&M as an assistant. Definitely turning into full blown rebuild/reload mode now

And today it was announced that our volunteer assistant is stepping away after 5 years. I thought he had a good chance of taking over for Caillet but that’s not the case. Berry now will be hiring both a full time assistant and a volunteer assistant coach this offseason. Quite a few former players have become successful high school coaches (Sutton, Best and McInnis come to mind) in Mississippi or he could go with former players who are now college coaches such as current Jones JC’s head coach or current La Tech assistant Travis Creel...all of these are former players who’ve made quite a name for themselves in the coaching ranks with Creel and the JC coach having a wealth of recruiting connections

(07-11-2019 10:58 AM)BeagleUSM Wrote:  

This makes our last 2 baseball hires both from La Tech....first we got Ostrander as our pitching coach and now Creel as our hitting coach. It's probably part of Burrough's (who is a former USM assistant) plan to infiltrate the enemy

(07-11-2019 11:57 AM)usm99 Wrote:  

(07-11-2019 10:58 AM)BeagleUSM Wrote:  

This makes our last 2 baseball hires both from La Tech....first we got Ostrander as our pitching coach and now Creel as our hitting coach. It's probably part of Burrough's (who is a former USM assistant) plan to infiltrate the enemy

I hope Austin Knight gets promoted at tech

clt says Charlotte added a former qb

(07-11-2019 10:58 AM)BeagleUSM Wrote:  

https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/sports...704051001/

Louisiana Tech hitting coach Travis Creel is heading back to his alma mater.

After three seasons on Lane Burroughs’ staff in Ruston, first coaching infield before spending the last two seasons working with hitters and coordinating recruiting at Tech, Creel is taking the hitting coach role at Southern Miss.

D1Baseball first reported Creel joining the Golden Eagles, where he played collegiate baseball from 2011-15, Thursday morning. Burroughs confirmed Creel’s departure to the News-Star Thursday but provided no further comment.

Recruiting will be another big area for Tech where Creel’s absence will be felt. Burroughs, with lots of ties, along with Creel have made a living recruiting Mississippi during their time together. There were nine total players on the Bulldogs roster in 2019 that either played high school or junior college baseball in Mississippi.

Creel leaving for Tech’s conference rival Southern Miss marks the third straight offseason where Burroughs will have to replace one of his two main full-time assistants with former hitting coach Jerry Zulli going to Alabama before the 2018 season and then former pitching coach Cory Barton took the same position at Rice after 2018.