April 21, 2008
Complete Baseball Release in PDF Format 
ON DECK: The University of San Diego baseball team (31-11, 10-2 WCC) will conclude their final four home games of the regular season this week at Cunningham Stadium. USD will open the week with a Tuesday 3 p.m. showdown with No. 25 Long Beach State. Then this weekend, the Toreros welcome the Loyola Marymount Lions to town for a three-game West Coast Conference series. Friday's game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start and both Saturday and Sunday's games will begin at 1 p.m.
THE POLLS: The University of San Diego baseball team has reentered the top-10 this week as in the latest Collegiate Baseball top-30 poll the Toreros have jumped three spots to No. 9. USD also moved up one spot in the latest Baseball America top-25 poll to No. 11 and remained even at No. 19 in the latest Rivals.com top-25 poll. Long Beach State checks in at No. 25 in the latest Baseball America top-25 poll. Loyola Marymount is not ranked in any of the polls.
SCOUTING THE DIRTBAGS: Long Beach State enters the week with a 23-14 overall record after sweeping Cal State Northridge this past weekend and posting a mid-week win over No. 15 Pepperdine. USD claimed the first meeting between the two earlier this season with a 5-3 win back on Feb. 26 in Long Beach. The Dirtbags are led offensively by Shane Peterson, who his hitting a team-best .377 with 52 hits, 13 doubles, one triple, four home runs and 38 RBI. On the mound, USD will face a right-hander in Brett Lorin, who enters the game with a 2-2 record and a 3.26 ERA. LBSU is under the direction of eighth-year head coach Mike Weathers.
SCOUTING THE LIONS: Loyola Marymount enters the week with an overall record of 19-20 and a 5-7 mark in the WCC after dropping two-of-three to Pepperdine this past weekend in conference action. LMU claimed their first meeting between the two programs earlier this year, 13-3, back on Mar. 9. The Lions are led offensively by Ryan Wheeler, who is batting .359 with 51 hits, 15 doubles, one triple, three home runs and 34 RBI. On the mound, the Lions turn to Mike Kenney to anchor things down. On the season, Kenney 5-3 with a 6.04 ERA. Loyola Marymount is under the direction of 12th-year head coach Frank Cruz. During his tenure in Los Angeles, Cruz has posted an overall record of 325-344-3.
LAST TIME OUT: The Toreros ran their winning streak to a season-high 12 as they posted a 4-0 record this past week. USD opened the week by upending No. 5 UC Irvine, 7-1, at Cunningham Stadium. The Toreros then went on to sweep Saint Mary's over the weekend by a combined score of 20-3. All three of the SMC runs were unearned. In Tuesday's win over Irvine, Ricardo Pecina was dominate on the mound as he allowed one run on seven hits, while striking out seven in 7.1 innings of work. Offensively for USD, Kevin Hansen led the way as he went 2-for-4 with one double and three RBI. In Friday's 9-2 win, Brian Matusz was dominating on the mound as he allowed two unearned runs and notched up 10 strikeouts in 8.0 innings of work. Offensively for USD, Josh Romanski led the way as he went 3-for-5 with one double and one RBI. On Saturday, USD shutout the Gaels, 6-0, behind Romanski's domination on the mound as he allowed no runs on five hits, while striking out five in 7.0 innings of work. Offensively, James Meador led the way as he went 2-for-4 with one home run, one triple and three RBI. In Sunday's 5-1 win, Meador led the way as he went 3-for-5 with two RBI. Jose Valerio and Hansen were the only other USD players to record multiple hits as Hansen went 2-for-3 with one double and Valerio went 2-for-4 with one RBI.
MEADOR NAMED WCC CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Sophomore outfielder James Meador of the ninth-ranked University of San Diego baseball team has been named the West Coast Conference Co-Player of the Week. Meador, a 6-1 sophomore from Ramona, Calif., helped lead the Toreros to a perfect 4-0 record this past week, thus running the team's winning streak to a season-high 12 games. Meador went 7-for-16 (.438) with one double, one triple, one home run and a team-best eight RBI. Meador led the team's offense in both Saturday's and Sunday's wins over Saint Mary's going a combined 5-for-9 with one triple and one home run and five RBI. On the season, Meador is leading the team's hitting with a .366 batting average, has 52 hits, is tied for the team lead in doubles with 11, leads the team in triples with two, has four home runs and is third on the team in RBI with 40.
BUBBA'S WORLD: Junior left-hander Ricardo Pecina has been nothing short of amazing on the mound for the Toreros in his last two outings. Pecina has posted a 2-0 record with a 2.63 ERA. This past week against the, then No. 5 UC Irvine Anteaters, Pecina shutdown the high-powered Eater offense as he allowed one run on seven hits, while striking out seven batters in 7.1 innings of work. Pecina proved to be a huge reason the Toreros were able to pull off the upset win. On the season, Pecina is 3-2 with a 4.04 ERA and will get the start against Long Beach State on Tuesday.
NO EARNED RUNS: As a team, the Toreros didn't allow a single earned run to cross the plate in the three-game series against Saint Mary's College. The Gaels managed to push across only three runs for the weekend, all of which were unearned, thanks in large part to the Torero pitching staff.
UNHITTABLE MATUSZ: Junior All-American Brian Matusz has been putting on a pitching clinic this season, proving why he has been tabbed as the nation's best pitcher. Currently, Matusz is bolstering a 1.76 ERA and has a 8-1 record, while leading the nation with 90 strikeouts. Since the season opener against San Diego State in which he surrendered six runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings of work, he has bounced back to post a 1.02 ERA with a 8-0 record and opponents are only batting .194 against him. During the month of March, he posted a 0.27 ERA with a 4-0 record to earn the WCC Pitcher of the Month award.
GOING STREAKING: San Diego is currently riding a season-high 12-game winning streak after going a perfect 4-0 record this past week. During this current 12-game winning streak, the Toreros are posting a .350 batting average and the Torero pitching staff is holding opponents to a .235 batting average. James Meador is leading the team with a .431 batting average, has four home runs, four doubles, two triples and a team-best 23 RBI.
BEST IN AMERICA: Victor Sanchez is the top freshman position player in the country at the mid point of the season according to Baseball America. Sanchez arrived at San Diego bearing an enormous burden before he ever played his first game for the Toreros. Along with right-hander Kyle Blair, Sanchez was the centerpiece of the nation's No. 1 recruiting class, and he had already proven himself against college competition last summer, when he was the No. 1 prospect in the Northwoods League. All he had to do this spring was step right into the middle of a power-starved USD lineup and cushion the loss of mainstays Jordan Abruzzo, Justin Snyder and Shane Buschini. The Toreros boast one of the nation's best pitching staffs, but more than anything they needed Sanchez to be an elite power hitter to give their lineup some punch. He has delivered in a big way, batting .310/.374/.606 with 11 homers (more than a third of USD's team total) and 44 RBI.
NO-NO FOR ROMO: Junior All-American Josh Romanski threw his first collegiate no-hitter to help guide the University of San Diego baseball team to a 12-0 win over Harvard University on March 24, 2008. Romanski faced one above the minimum in the game as he retired the first 13 batters he faced, before he hit Harvard's Matt Kramer in the top of the fifth inning. Romanski then retired the remaining 14 batters, while posting a season-high eight strikeouts in the win. The Crimson nearly broke up the no-hitter in the seventh inning on a well hit ball to the left side, but shortstop Sean Nicol dove on the ball to knock it down, then popped up and just made the throw in time to preserve the no-hitter. Romanski's no-hitter is the sixth in program history and first since March 23, 1996, when Bart Miadich no-hit Gonzaga University.
TORERO SKIPPER Rich Hill: San Diego's Rich Hill has built the USD Toreros into one of the most successful Division I baseball programs on the West Coast. The 2008 spring season will be Hill's 21st year as a head coach at the collegiate level, and 10th at USD, having enjoyed 17 winning seasons in 20 years. Since taking over at USD in 1999, Hill has been remarkable in leading the Toreros to 10 consecutive winning campaigns, rewriting the school record book en route to claiming back-to-back West Coast Conference Championship titles in 2002 and 2003 and taking the title in 2007. Under his leadership San Diego has averaged 34 wins per season, including winning a school record 43 games in 2007, a year in which Hill was honored by his peers as the WCC of the Year. In 2007, Hill led USD to its highest national ranking in program history at No. 4, as well as USD's first-ever national seed in the NCAA Regionals.
TOREROS TABBED WCC PRESEASON FAVORITES: San Diego was chosen to repeat as West Coast Conference champion in the 2008 preseason baseball poll, as selected by conference coaches. The Toreros, who have been ranked as high as No. 5 in the national preseason polls, received the maximum number of points, garnering all seven possible first place votes and 49 overall points to take first place in the listing. Pepperdine was picked second with 42 overall points, while Santa Clara received the remaining first place vote and checked in at No. 3 in the poll with 32 points. LMU edged out Gonzaga for the fourth place spot, as the Lions received 29 points and the Zags garnered 28 points to grab the No. 5 spot. San Francisco was tabbed for a sixth place finish with 24 points, while Portland and Saint Mary's were picked to finish seventh and eighth with 12 points and eight points, respectively.
2008 GAMETRACKER AVAILABLE: All of San Diego's home games, as well as select road games, can be followed via Gametracker on the Toreros athletic web site at www.usdtoreros.com. Gametracker is a service of Online College Sports, the official web provider for San Diego athletics, and is a real time update of the action.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: All USD home games, as well as select road games, will be streamed live via video on the athletics department website. Fans can watch all the action live from the comfort of their home by logging onto usdtoreros.com. Once on the home page, click the LIVE button on the top right of the page. The voice of Torero Baseball Jack Murray will be bringing fans all the live play-by-play action all season long. This service a free of charge for all who wish to watch the broadcast. This weekends games will not be streamed live on video, but there will be an audio feed for the games with Murray calling all the action.
RECRUITING CLASS RANKED NATIONS BEST: The University of San Diego baseball team's recruiting class has been tabbed as the nation's best, according to Baseball America's top-25 recruiting classes. According to Baseball America, Kyle Blair, Victor Sanchez and Matt Thomson have already proven ready to face elite college competition, as Thomson ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the Alaska League this summer, while Sanchez and Blair were the top two prospects in the Northwoods League. Steve Kaupang, a former basketball player, has massive raw power. Nick Ousman is another three-pitch mix guy in the mold of USD senior Matt Couch, while Solis has lots of projection to along with a present 88-91 mph fastball and a variation of a knuckle curveball.
TOP BASEBALL PROGRAMS: San Diego was ranked No. 3 by Kendall Rogers in the Rivals Five: Top Overall College Baseball Programs in December, 2007. The Toreros have made significant strides during the past few seasons, but what they accomplished in 2007 was special. In 2005, the Toreros failed to reach the NCAA Tournament with a less than stellar 30-27 overall record. However, their luck took a turn for the better with a 33-25 finish in 2006. Not only did the Toreros finish third in the West Coast Conference, they also competed in the Fullerton Regional. In 2007, the Toreros tallied impressive non-conference series wins over Texas and Wake Forest. They also finished the year with a dominant 18-3 conference record. After making steady progress during the past two seasons, the Toreros now hope to make an even bigger statement in 2008 and beyond.
RISING ROOKIE: Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com selected the Toreros' freshman right-handed pitcher Kyle Blair as one of the nation's top freshman in 2008. Blair was a fifth-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Blair was a second-team All-American as a senior in high school and he was very impressive against experienced college hitters in the Northwoods League this past summer, going 3-3, with a 2.81 ERA, striking out 52 batters and posting 16 walks in 42 innings of work.
MATUSZ HIGHLIGHTS ROGER CLEMENS AWARD WATCH LIST: Seventy-eight of the best pitchers in collegiate baseball have been named to the preliminary watch list for the fifth annual Roger Clemens Award, and the University of San Diego's Brian Matusz highlights this list. Matusz, a preseason All-American, is off to another impressive start to the season, as he is currently 2-1 overall and in his last start against Oklahoma State, Matusz racked up his second double-digit strikeout total of 12. In 2006, Matusz set the new program record with 163 strikeouts, and he appears to be back on track to possibly break his own record.
THREE TOREROS NAMED PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS: The University of San Diego baseball team had three players named first-team preseason All-Americans by Collegiate Baseball. Junior left hander Brian Matusz was named as a pitcher, while sophomore closer AJ Griffin was selected as a first-team closer and junior utility man Josh Romanski was named to the first-team as a utility player. Matusz, who posted an overall record of 10-3 and an ERA of 2.85 and fanned 163 batters as a sophomore, was also named first-team All-American by the National College Baseball Writers Association and was also named first-team preseason All-American by Baseball America. Romanski, who posted a 9-1 record on the mound with a 3.05 ERA and hit .335 with 75 hits, 10 doubles, two triples, three home runs and 30 RBI, was also tabbed as a second-team All-American by Baseball America and the NCBWA.
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