Feb. 20, 2015

Around the Nation

By Sean Ryan

CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder

Sean@CollegeBaseballInsider.com @collbaseball

Last Sunday, Grand Canyon put 30 runs on the board. Miami scored 25 times. Welcome to the new ball?

Runs were up just more than a run per game, per D1Baseball.com, last weekend when compared to opening weekend a year ago. CBI found that 35 teams scored 15 or more runs over the weekend compared to 17 a year ago.

Will the trend continue?

“The ball is going faster than it ever has gone the last several years,” Georgia Tech coach Danny Hall said before adding, “I think we need to go the whole year to see exactly what the impact is. I want to see where this takes us.”

A few offensive tidbits:

·        UCLA has hit eight homers in four games, matching its total from last year.

·        Florida junior outfielder Harrison Bader hit three homers over the weekend – he had three homers in his previous 103 games.

·        ETSU junior second baseman Trey York hit three homers in two games over the weekend – he had one homer in 238 career at-bats before that.

Youth is Served for Yellow Jackets

Speaking of power, Georgia Tech freshman Kel Johnson has burst on the scene, hitting three homers and driving in nine runs in his first four games. That includes a grand slam that turned the Yellow Jackets’ Tuesday game with Georgia Southern around.

“It’s not that he’s just hot, he’s got that kind of power,” Hall said.

Fellow freshman Wade Bailey joins sophomores Keenan Innis, Brandon Gold and Arden Pabst as sophomores who are off to hot starts.

Turning a Program Around

Since 1996, Morehead State has had four winning seasons. In those four years, the Eagles have been one game above .500 three times and two games above once. They haven’t had a 30-win season since going 31-19 in 1993.

Which is what made the Eagles’ 3-1 weekend trip to No. 34 San Diego all the more impressive.

Coach Mike McGuire followed up a 16-40 initial campaign by leading Morehead State to a 29-28 season last year. Late-season wins against Indiana and Kentucky opened eyes and signaled a team on the move.

“It gave us a lot of confidence as a program that we can compete with the big boys,” McGuire said this week.

His 2015 edition is filled with veterans, with eight seniors expected to make major contributions.

“It’s their last hurrah for those guys; they want to do something special their last year,” McGuire said.

It also helps to have Friday night starter Aaron Goe back. Goe was an all-Ohio Valley Conference freshman in 2012, but made two starts in 2013 before missing the rest of the year with a stress fracture in his elbow. Trying to get ready for 2014, he was injured again and missed the entire year.

In the opener against San Diego, he worked 6.1 innings with five hits and one earned run in setting the tone for the weekend.

The Eagles returned to Morehead, Ky., to find 12 inches of snow on the ground, forcing them to shift their schedule from a home series with Bowling Green to a series in Georgia against Dayton. They’ve already talked, McGuire said, about building on their great start.

“It’s a great weekend, but it’s not the highlight, and we can’t let it be the highlight,” McGuire said.