Sept. 9, 2012

Lineup Card

Lineup Card is a feature highlighting notes from around college baseball.

Sept. 1-9, 2012

The Big South Conference will split into two divisions for the upcoming baseball season. The North contains Campbell, High Point, Liberty, Longwood, Radford and VMI. The South includes Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina, Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian, UNC Asheville and Winthrop. Each team will play a 24-game conference slate, playing all five other division opponents and three teams from the other division. Eight teams will play in the conference championship.

Jason Neitz was raised to top assistant at Bucknell, while Patrick Rose and B.J. LaRosa have been named assistant coach. Neitz played for four years at East Carolina and joined the Bison staff in the winter of 2011. Rose played at UC Santa Barbara and was named second team All-Big West. He was a volunteer assistant at UCSB in 2010-11 and was also an assistant at Santa Barbara City College. LaRosa was a two-year starter at catcher for Bucknell and was a two-time first team All-Patriot League performer.

Former infielder Eddie Smith has returned to Notre Dame as the volunteer assistant. He will work primarily with the outfielders. Smith was an assistant at Santa Clara this past season, working with the position players and assisting with recruiting. Prior to that, he spent five seasons at Virginia. He was director of operations in 2007 and 2008 before becoming an assistant in 2009.

Brian Casey has been hired as pitching coach at William and Mary. He was an assistant for the past five seasons at Tufts, serving as recruiting coordinator, strength and conditioning coordinator and scouting director. Casey was a member of the Jumbos from 2004 to 2007.

Senior left-hander Paxton King has earned the Col. Tyler Fletcher Leadership Award at Southern Miss. The award goes annually to the player who demonstrates leadership both on the field and in the community. He is the second recipient of the award, as Collin Cargill won the inaugural award a season ago.

Virginia will start practice on Sept. 8 and have three home exhibition games: Sept. 22 vs. Ontario Blue Jays, Sept. 29 vs. Towson and Oct. 21 vs. Georgetown. The Cavaliers will hold the Orange and Blue World Series from Oct. 3 to Oct. 16. All exhibition games and World Series games are free and open to the public.

Notre Dame named senior outfielder Charlie Markson and senior second baseman Frank DeSico captains for the 2013 season. Markson hit .311 with six doubles, two homers, 20 RBI and 19 steals in 51 games a year ago. DeSico batted .308 in 2012 with nine doubles, 41 runs, 24 RBI and 13 steals.

Pepperdine will hold its annual Patrick Rooney Memorial Golf Tournament on Nov. 8 at Moorpark Country Club. A silent auction will also be held throughout the day. Check-in will begin at 8:30 a.m. with a shotgun start at 10 a.m. A buffet dinner will follow the tournament.

The National MS Society Utah-Southern Idaho Chapter will honor the Utah Valley baseball team as its 2012 Team of the Year at the 34th Annual Dinner of Champions. The event will be held on Sept. 12 in Salt Lake City. The Wolverines earned their first-ever national ranking in Division I, put together a 32-game win streak and the top winning percentage in the nation. UVU went 28-0 in the Great West Conference and won its third straight conference regular season and tournament titles.

California will hold its 2012 Alumni Weekend on Oct. 20-22. The Stanford-Cal Big Game will be on Oct. 20. The Cal Alumni Baseball Game will be on Oct. 21 with batting practice at noon and the game at 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond. The annual Cal Baseball Foundation Golf Classic will be on Oct. 22 at the Contra Costa Country Club.

Arkansas will begin practice on Sept. 7 at 2 p.m. at Baum Stadium. The Razorbacks will scrimmage on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. All practices and scrimmages are open to the public.  

Eastern Illinois will retire the No. 2 jersey of Kevin Seitzer on Oct. 13 during the homecoming football game against Jacksonville State. Seitzer batted over .400 in each of his three seasons with the Panthers and holds the program record with a .418 career batting average. He was selected in the 11th round of the 1983 MLB Draft by the Cleveland Indians and played in the Major Leagues from 1986-97. Seitzer earned his degree from EIU in 1985 and is currently the hitting coach for the Kansas City Royals.

Antonio Padilla is the new director of operations at his alma mater, Pacific. He has worked in professional baseball for the past two seasons. In 2010, Padilla was a minor league video intern in the Boston Red Sox organization. He was video coordinator for Class-A Greenville, supplying video breakdowns of prospects to the front office. In 2011, he performed the same tasks for Double-A Huntsville in the Milwaukee Brewers organization. Padilla graduated in 2009 with a degree in sports management and a minor in business management.

Armando Flores, in his sixth season as Director of Administration and Community Affairs for the Arizona State baseball team, has received The Victoria Foundation’s Edith Sayre Auslander, Outstanding Support of Hispanic Issues in Higher Education Award. The award is presented to a person who demonstrates significant accomplishments in the support of Hispanic issues. It is named for Edith Sayre Auslander, a former member of the Arizona Board of Regents and a pioneer in Latino higher education issues.

LSU is installing new grass in the outfield and foul territories in Alex Box Stadium. The project should be completed by the end of the month prior to the start of fall practice for the Tigers.

Auburn will begin fall practice on Sept. 6 at 3 p.m. The Tigers will practice this weekend at 3 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday. All fall practices are open to the public.

Former Tar Heel pitcher Bryant Gaines has been added to the staff at North Carolina. Gaines was a member of four consecutive College World Series teams, graduating in 2011 with a degree in sport administration. Gaines has been working at Ring Power Crane in Charlotte and replaces Robert Woodard, who is now the pitching coach at UNC Wilmington. Gaines will help in all areas of the program and will serve as camp director for the Carolina Baseball Camps.

Andy Judkins will be the volunteer assistant at Southern Illinois. He will work with the catchers and assist with the hitters. Judkins was an assistant for the past two seasons at Central Arizona College. He graduated from Concordia in St. Paul, Minn., with a degree in sport management and exercise science. Judkins was a graduate assistant at Minnesota State for two years, earning a master’s degree in sports administration.

Louisville started fall practice on Sept. 4. The Cardinals will scrimmage on Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET and Saturday at 11 a.m.

Skylar Meade has been named pitching coach at Middle Tennessee. Meade spent the past five seasons at Eastern Illinois. He began as a graduate assistant in 2007 before being elevated to a full-time coach in 2009. Meade was pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for the Panthers. EIU led the OVC in ERA during four of his five seasons, while finishing second in 2009. Meade pitched at Louisville, helping the Cardinals reach the College World Series in 2007. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sports administration from Louisville in 2007 and a master’s degree in kinesiology and sports studies (sports management) from EIU in 2009.

Former Stony Brook pitcher Tom Koehler has been called up by the Miami Marlins, joining Joe Nathan as former Seawolves in the Major Leagues. Koehler was a PCL all-star for the Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs, winning 12 games and fanning 138. He was an 18th-round selection of the Marlins in 2008 after twice being named second team All-America East.

Former Bradley hurler Rob Scahill has been called up by the Colorado Rockies. He will become the 14th former Brave to reach the Major Leagues. Scahill pitched for Triple-A Colorado Springs this season, posting a 9-11 record with 159 strikeouts in 152 innings.

Former Texas Tech right-hander AJ Ramos has been promoted to the Miami Marlins. He will be the 23rd former Red Raider to play in the Major Leagues. Ramos was an all-star reliever for the Double-A Jacksonville Suns, recording 21 saves in 55 appearances with a 1.44 ERA. He fanned 89 in 68.2 innings with 21 walks and an opponent batting average of .151.

New Mexico will host the annual Alumni Weekend Oct. 4-6. There will be a social on Oct. 4 and a golf tournament on Oct. 5 at the Desert Greens Golf Course. The alumni game will take place on new Lobo Field on the morning of Oct. 6 prior to the UMN homecoming football game against Texas State.