Paul Mainieri to Receive Musial Award in November
BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri will be honored this fall in St. Louis at the annual Musial Awards, which celebrate the greatest moments of sportsmanship in North America.
Mainieri will receive an award for conducting special tributes to the military academy teams that faced LSU in Alex Box Stadium in February. During a break between innings of its respective games versus Army and Air Force, the entire LSU squad walked to the opposing dugout and engaged in a “Soldier Salute,” shaking the hand of each cadet and thanking him for his service to our country.
Southern Miss adds two for 2018 Season
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss baseball coach Scott Berry announced the signing of a pair of pitchers, including junior college right-hander Jarod Wright and high school left-hander Ryan Och for the 2018 season.
Wright comes to Southern Miss after spending the last two seasons at Northwest Mississippi Community College, where he finished 9-3 with a 3.51 ERA in 2017, including eight quality starts, three complete games and 64 strikeouts over 81.2 innings as a sophomore to earn second team all-conference honors. His 162 career innings pitched and 705 batters faced ranks first all-time at Northwest, while his 14 career wins and 129 strikeouts rank third all-time. He added six complete games over his two-year Ranger career.
Former Sacramento State player named Head Coach at San Juan Hills High School
Bret LeVier has been named head baseball coach at San Juan Hills High School.
He is no stranger to the area, as he recently served as an assistant coach at El Toro High School, in charge of the offense and infielders. He helped the Chargers claim the 2017 Division I CIF Championship plus two South Coast League championships.
Cody Jefferis commits to San Diego
For Hart baseball’s Cody Jefferis, committing to the University of San Diego the summer before his senior year brought a mixture of emotions.
“Of course it’s a relief,” he said after announcing his decision via Twitter on Thursday. “Committing to a school is a big deal, and it takes a lot of pressure off of your back. Everyone wants to play ball in college.
“It helps build confidence, too. It’s exciting. It’s really nice to know you get to continue to play ball at the next level.”
Pendleton (Oregon)’s Naughton has summer to remember
PENDLETON — A little after 4 p.m. on a Wednesday in late July, Pendleton senior Daniel Naughton steps onto the field at Bob White Ballpark for his usual weekday workout.
First up is a round of long toss with teammate Justin Duso and Pendleton alumnus and current George Fox University player Brian Branstetter. Afterwards, Duso and Naughton break off for the duo’s usual bullpen session. On this day, Naughton and Duso choose a spot down the first base line at the ballpark that is in the shade, doing so to escape the sun and heat of the warm mid-90s weather.
Naughton toes the rubber donning a Nike brand long-sleeve, Dri-FIT shirt with Pendleton Baseball printed on the front, black athletic shorts, and black and white New Balance spikes. He peppers Duso’s glove with 35 pitches in this session, mixing his fastball, changeup, curveball and his newest addition, a slider.
Charlie White added to Xavier Coaching Staff
CINCINNATI – Xavier head baseball coach Billy O’Conner has announced the addition of Charlie White as volunteer assistant coach. White joins the Musketeers after a three-year professional playing career and was a decorated college baseball player at the University of Maryland.
“Charlie will be a great addition to our staff,” said O’Conner. “He’s going to bring an energy to teaching that our players will really respond well to. He’s played high-level baseball his entire college and professional career and that has exposed him to some great coaching that I know he will be able to utilize as he transitions from playing into coaching.”
Finwood Named VMI Baseball’s Volunteer Assistant
LEXINGTON, Va. – VMI baseball has named Grey Finwood, former letterwinner at Old Dominion, as its new volunteer assistant coach. Head Coach Jonathan Hadra made the announcement Tuesday afternoon.
Finwood, the son of ODU coach and VMI Hall of Famer Chris Finwood, replaces Sam Roberts, who was promoted to the pitching coach position in late June.
“I am extremely excited to be able to add Grey Finwood to our staff,” said Coach Hadra. “I believe our program will reap immediate benefits from Grey’s presence because of his willingness to work hard for our Cadet-Athletes. When the time came to begin reaching out to potential candidates, Grey was right at the top of the list. I have always thought that Grey would make a great coach because of his very personable personality and genuine love for the game. He will work with our infielders and will assist myself and the rest of the staff in the day to day operations that are required to run our program.”
Mulvane Patriots Bounce Team USA, 5-4
WICHITA, Kansas — A final run in the 12th inning lifted the Mulvane Patriots to a 5-4 victory over the USA National Team represented by the University of Iowa Tuesday afternoon at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita, Kansas.
“Early in the game we were sloppy and gave up some runs,” said UI head coach Rick Heller. “Defensively we made some costly errors, which ultimately cost us the game. Today I think we pressed and our confidence was lacking at the plate. The pitcher we were facing did have a really good arm and he was a tough guy to hit.”
USA scored its first run in the first inning off an RBI triple from right fielder Robert Neustrom allowing Ben Norman to score. The Patriot’s followed with an Adam Brown RBI double to left field allowing Dalton Dinkel and Hunter Aguirre to score two runs at the top of the second inning giving Mulvane a 2-1 lead.
