May 21, 2008
Complete Baseball Release in PDF Format 
ON DECK: The University of San Diego baseball team (39-15) will host the West Coast Conference Baseball Championship Series for the second consecutive season this weekend. This will be a best-of-three series to determine who will get the WCC's automatic bid into the NCAA postseason. Friday's game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. inside of Cunningham Stadium. Saturday's game is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and if necessary Sunday's game will begin at 1 p.m. This will mark the third time in program history that USD and Pepperdine have met in the championship series with USD winning both prior match-ups in Malibu.
THE POLLS: The University of San Diego baseball team remains in the top-10 as they moved up two spots to No. 7 in the latest Collegiate Baseball top-30 poll. The Toreros held steady at No. 11 in the latest baseball America top-25 poll and held steady at No. 12 in the latest Rivals.com top-25 poll. Pepperdine checks in at No. 13 in the latest Rivals.com top-25 poll and are not ranked in any of the other top-25 polls.
SCOUTING THE WAVES: Pepperdine enters the championship series with a 36-17 overall record after taking two-of-three against Santa Clara this past weekend to earn a second place finish in the WCC. USD claimed the season series in Malibu winning two of the three games against the Waves, and have now won five of the last six games against Pepperdine. The Waves are led offensively by Eric Thames, who is hitting a team-best .407 with 74 hits, 11 doubles, eight triples, 13 home runs and 59 RBI. On the mound, the Waves have been relying on Nathan Newman to anchor things down. Newman is 7-3 overall with a 3.24 ERA. The Waves are under the direction of fifth-year head coach Steve Rodriguez. During his tenure in Malibu, Rodriguez has posted an overall record of 184-115.
LAST TIME OUT: San Diego posted a 2-2 record in the final regular-season week as they notched a 5-3 win on the road against UCLA and clinched a share of the WCC Championship with a 4-2 win over San Francisco on Friday. The Toreros then dropped their final two games of the series vs. USF to finish the regular-season with a 39-16 overall record and a 16-5 record in the WCC. In Wednesday's win, the Toreros received a dominating performance from Ricardo Pecina on the mound as he came on in relief in the first inning and allowed no runs on four hits in 5.2 innings of work, while tying a career-high 11 strikeouts. In Friday's win, again USD got a strong pitching performance from Junior All-American Brian Matusz, as he allowed two runs on seven hits, while striking out 14 batters in 8.1 innings of work en route to leading USD to at least a share of the WCC championship. In Saturday's loss, Kevin Muno led the way offensively as he went 3-for-5 with one RBI and three stolen bases and in Sunday's loss, the Dons used a seven-run bottom of the second inning to take control of the game and claim the series.
CLOSING IN ON 40 WINS: San Diego enters the week with an impressive 39-15 overall record, just one win shy of marking back-to-back 40-win seasons, something that has never been done before at USD. Last season's team became the first USD squad to reach the 40-win mark and this season's team will have 1-3 more chances to reach this plateau this weekend.
WCC CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES FAN ADVISORY: On Friday May 23, tickets to the WCC Baseball Championship Series will be sold out of the Jenny Craig Pavilion Ticket Office. Due to the Graduation Ceremonies on Saturday and Sunday the JCP Ticket Office will be closed and entrance to the game and ticket sales will be at the third base line only. Parking will be at the Department of Education lot located just to the east of the intersection of Via Las Cumbres and Linda Vista Road. There will be a bus transporting fans down to the baseball field. There will be no parking in the mission garage or next to the baseball field. There will be limited parking at the softball complex. Entrance to the campus will only be available through the Via Las Cumbres gate. The main campus entrance will be for graduation only.
BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPIONS: For only the second time in program history, the Toreros have won back-to-back West Coast Conference Championships, as USD posted a 16-5 record in conference action this season, 1.5 games ahead of Pepperdine for first place. The 2002 and 2003 seasons marked the first time USD had won back-to-back championships.
MR. STRIKEOUT: Junior All-American left-hander Brian Matusz rung up 14 batters in his regular-season finale against San Francisco on May 9. That marked the fifth time this season Matusz has struck out 10 or more batters and it also ran his career-total to 378, only trailing the all-time leader Gary Myron (1968-71) by 16 for the all-time lead. On the season, Matusz is 10-2 overall, and is bolstering an impressive 2.05 ERA and leads the team with 122 strikeouts.
GRIFFIN ACCEPTS USA INVITE: Sophomore All-American closer AJ Griffin of the University of San Diego baseball team is one of 12 players in the nation who has accepted an invitation to play for Team USA this upcoming summer. This marks the second consecutive season that the Toreros have sent someone to Team USA with both Brian Matusz and Josh Romanski playing this past summer. Griffin, a 6-5 sophomore from El Cajon, Calif., has become the all-time leader in career-saves at USD with 24, 13 of which have come during this season. Griffin has been named the WCC Pitcher of the Week twice this season and has a 1-1 record with a 2.04 ERA in 39.2 innings of work this season.
SELECTION DAY: The selection show "Road To Omaha" announcing the 64-team field vying for the national championship will be broadcast on ESPN, Monday May 26, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. PDT. Regional games will run from May 30-June 2 while the Super Regionals will run from June 6-8 or 7-9. The 2008 College World Series from Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska will take place from June 14-24/25, 2008.
19 AND COUNTING: Sophomore outfielder James Meador is currently riding a career-high 19 game hitting streak. In USD's 7-2 win over UC Riverside back on April 9, Meador was hitless going 0-for-4, since then however Meador is 34-for-76 (.447) with seven doubles, two triples, four home runs and 26 RBI. On the season, Meador is the team's leading hitter with a .380 batting average, has a team-best 71 hits, has the team-lead in doubles with 16, has two triples, five home runs and a team-leading 49 RBI.
YOU CAN'T BEAT ME: Junior All-American Josh Romanski finished the regular-season with a perfect 9-0 record. Romanski has been pitching exceptionally well as of late, as the two-way star has been one of the best Toreros pitchers in his last four outings. Romanski has posted a 3-0 record in theses games, while posting a 1.80 ERA and averaging 7.5 innings per outing. Romanski has one complete game in these outings, a one run six hit performance against No. 13 Pepperdine on May 3. Overall Romanski has now lowered his ERA to 3.47. With his 9-0 record, Romanski has now moved his career record to 23-5 (.821), which gives him the best all-time record for a pitcher in USD history.
TOREROS ON THE AIR: Fans can catch all the WCC Championship Series action from San Diego this weekend, as all three games are slated to be broadcast on the web. A free live video webcast of the entire schedule of weekend games will be available exclusively at WCCsports.com, while an internet audio broadcast will be available at USDToreros.com with the voice of the Toreros, Jack Murray, bringing fans all the live play-by-play action.
10 TOREROS EARN ALL-WCC ACCOLADES: The University of San Diego baseball team had 10 players named to the All-West Coast Conference teams highlighted by junior left-hander Brian Matusz being named the WCC Pitcher of the Year, and head coach Rich Hill being named the Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season. Taking home first-team All-WCC accolades are Logan Gelbrich, AJ Griffin, Matusz, James Meador and Josh Romanski. Sammy Solis and Kyle Blair were both named to the All-WCC Freshman team and taking home All-WCC honorable mention accolades was Kevin Hansen, Kevin Muno and Jose Valerio.
MATUSZ NAMED WCC PITCHER OF THE YEAR: Junior left-hander Brian Matusz was named the WCC pitcher of the Year. Matusz becomes the first Torero to be named Pitcher of the Year since Ricky Barrett received the accolade in 2002. The junior continued his assault on the record book, striking out a conference-high 122 batters on the year and moving into fourth place on the WCC's all-time strikeout list with 378. The Cave Creek, Ariz. native was nothing short of dominant during conference play, posting a 6-1 mark in seven starts and notching a miniscule 1.89 ERA during league action. Matusz fanned 67 batters in WCC play, while logging 52.1 innings to rank second in the conference.
Rich Hill NAMED COACH OF THE YEAR: Head Coach Rich Hill has been named the WCC Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season and the third time in his career. Hill guided the Toreros to a 39-15 record, and the program's second straight WCC regular season title. USD put together a program-best 16-game winning streak during the campaign, including 12 straight victories against league opponents.
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.
MATUSZ NAMED SEMIFINALIST FOR THREE AWARDS: Junior All-American Brian Matusz has been named a semifinalist for both the Dick Howser Trophy, the Golden Spikes award and Roger Clemens award. The Roger Clemens award is given out annually to the Nation's best collegiate pitcher and is named after future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens. The Dick Howser Trophy award is given out annually for the nation's best collegiate player by the NCBWA.
ROMANSKI NAMED SEMIFINALIST FOR GOLDEN SPIKES: Junior All-American utility man Josh Romanski has been named along with teammate Brian Matusz, as a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award. The Golden Spikes award is given out annually to the nation's best collegiate baseball player. The winner will be announced after the MLB All-Star break.
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.
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.
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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