Baseball Recruits

[SDSUFAN]

Offically, there have been no press releases relating to baseball recruits, but this past week I was in Columbus, Nebraska signing my closing papers on my house.

A rumor I heard was a local baseball athlete had signed a commitment to attend SDSU. I dont want to guess at his name.

I notice the the offical site has nothing, but I wonder if those on this message board that close to the baseball program could elboarate more.

Columbus, about the size of Brookings has had some good athletes, including Parker Douglas the kicker for Football, and UNO has stepped up their recruiting in Columbus, since Pat Behrn became football coach and McKenna became basketball coach. In addition one of the local radio stations has carried UNO football and basketball games.

The thought that has been running through my mind is the difference in scholarship offering.  Not to put a feather in Big Jakes and Mav No1 hat, but UNO has had a good baseball program the last few years with virturally no scholarships.  The coach is a long time veteran coach, so the reasons for this young man from Columbus to choose SDSU over UNO would be very interesting to know.  My own guess is that  SDSU may have been able to offer just a couple hundred bucks more than what UNO could offer.  Also the chance to play against D1 opponents may be another reason.
Just some thoughts.

I believe 15 full scholarships is the maximum for D1 baseball and my mind tells me that D2 can offer only 3 to 5 full scholarships. Those 15 are split among several athletes like in D2 football. Being a baseball student athlete is not as financially attractive as it is football and basketball.

I hope a SDSU baseball insider can elaborate more on this thread. Its slow we need something to hash out here to keep the board going. Consider also, baseball is a summer sport.

[89rabbit]

Re: Baseball Recruits

11.7 scholarships is the D-I max for Baseball.

Go State! ;D

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Baseball Recruits

89 Rabbit:
Thanks I dont know where I got 15, probably off the top of my head. None-the-less, the kids play for the love of the sport and to advance their chances of playing professional baseball.

I noticed 600AM in Jamestown North Dakota carries the California Angles games instead of the Minnesota Twins. Why? Because Darin Erstad, the Angel team-member was born and raised in Jamestown North Dakota.

I think if any SDSU player makes it to and stays in MBL, we probably will see the same thing happen with a local radio station.

[GoJacks]

Re: Baseball Recruits

My take on baseball is that to be successful you need to utilize most of your scholarship dollars for pitching. On sports radio 950 the fan in Denver one of the afternoon personalities is Irv Brown. He was the baseball coach at CU before CU cut the program. He is also a very well respected basketball referee (retired). He has always said with very little money CU or CSU could start a baseball program and be very successful. His plan that would also work at SDSU is recruit all the local talent, but save your scholarship dollars for pitching. My guess would be pitchers need to top 85 miles per hour consistently probably closer to 90 or they are just throwing batting practice speed to DI opponents. Any then be ready to play defense and small ball to manufacture runs.

[GoJacks]

Re: Baseball Recruits

The Rapid City Journal reported that Chris Reynolds a left handed pitcher from Sheridan, WY is coming to play baseball at SDSU.

http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/arti...top/news01.txt

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Baseball Recruits

D-town:
Is this the right link? A very interesting story about a tourney in Rapid, but no mention of Sheriden Wyo or Chris Reynolds.

You wonder where the money comes for bringing in all these teams to Rapid, but I suppose after all the success at Post 22, you can find a group of deep pockets.

[GoJacks]

Re: Baseball Recruits

Not sure what I did with the link, but here is the article

Strong pitching in Post 320 split
By Padraic Duffy, Journal Sports Writer

RAPID CITY -- Both Rapid City Post 320 and the Sheridan, Wyo., Troopers received complete game pitching performances as they split an American Legion baseball doubleheader at Pete Lien Field on Friday.

The Stars won the first game 8-2 behind Nick Miessner's four-hitter. Miessner struck out nine and walked four in the win.

"That first one we really enjoyed," Post 320 head coach Jim Brandt said. "We got some great pitching in the first game. Miessner threw very consistently and kept the ball down low."

Miessner doubled his innings pitched on the season as he had only thrown a handful of innings coming into the game.

"Kind of makes us coaches look bad, doesn't it?" Brandt joked.

The Stars used a five run fourth inning to break the game open, keyed by a three-run double by Chris Lindemann. Beau Grezik went 3-for-4 for the Stars with three doubles.

"We just got beat by a better team in the first game," Sheridan head coach John Araas said.

Sheridan came back in the nightcap after a strategy shift and got to Post 320 starter A.J. Butt in the fifth inning.

"The message going into the last inning of the first game was to get back to basics at the plate and have the right approach. We were impatient in that first game and we made an effort to make their pitcher throw some more pitches," Araas said.

The strategy didn't pay off immediately for the Troopers as Butt struck out six through the first four innings, including the side in the top of the fourth But the wheels fell off a bit in the fifth as Butt opened the inning with a walk to J.D. Dudrey. Dudrey then moved to second on a wild pitch before scoring on a Michael Araas single. Araas then scored on a double to deep center by Chase Patterson to make the score 4-3 and chase Butt. Sheridan scored three more runs in the inning to give starter Chris Reynolds all the cushion he would need.

Reynolds, a crafty lefthander, worked a complete game (115 pitches), striking out five and allowing four runs, two of which were earned. He will be coming to South Dakota next year to pitch for South Dakota State.
Coach Araas hopes that the win will be the start of some good things for the Troopers as they have struggled a bit early this season.

"We're playing better," he said. "Our fundamentals are coming around and we're hoping that this will help us out."

Brandt was extremely pleased with his team's performance in the first game, but was a bit surprised by the pitching struggles in the second game.

"It all centers around the pitching," he said. "We got a few balls up (in the strike zone) and missed a few here and there and it got away from us. It really makes it hard on the kids in the field when that happens."

Post 320 received some bad news on top of the loss when they learned that Travis Bunkowske was lost for the season due to a knee injury.

"That's really tough," an emotional Brandt said. "He's just a great kid - a quiet leader on this team that does anything that's asked of him.

"We feel really bad about that and we're really, really going to miss him."

The split still made Brandt feel pretty good, especially considering that their best player, catcher Travis Burhans, missed the games due to some complications from surgery to remove his tonsils.

"We'll be all right," Brandt said. "We seem to be moving in the right direction."

Sheridan, now 8-18 on the year, will be back in the area on Tuesday when they take on Sturgis before coming back to town to play the Post 22 Split Squad on Wednesday.

Post 320, 29-10, will head up to Sturgis to play a doubleheader today.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Baseball Recruits

D-town:
Thanks. No doubt about needing lefty pitchers, I am glad Mr. Reynolds is coming our way.  It would be nice to see who we have recruited this year. ;D

[89rabbit]

Re: Baseball Recruits

That is great news, we can always use a "crafty lefthander"! 8)


Go State! ;D

[GoJacks]

Re: Baseball Recruits

I was also told the JaColby Anderson from Brookings is playing baseball at SDSU. He is an all-around player. I was also told he throws in the mid eighties but I have seen a gun to confirm that.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Baseball Recruits

Speaking of JaCoby Anderson, I just happen to be in Brookings yesterday and TheBrookingregister had a front page sports story about the Brookings Bandits splitting a double hitter with Sioux Falls East, who outside of Rapid, is one of the best legion programs in the upper midwest. The coach, Bob Kirchoff, thought they could have taken both games, but that was not in the cards. The game that the Bandits won 8-1, was a win that was pitched by JaCoby Anderson. The Sioux Falls coach had nothing but praise for JaCoby, so no doubt, he has to be a very good pitcher and very worthy of a Jacks Uniform. I hope he stays around Brookings and attends SDSU.

[BHSSDSUFAN]

Re: Baseball Recruits

I was also told the JaColby Anderson from Brookings is playing baseball at SDSU.

JaColby was planning to attend SDSU this fall; but he just found out a week or so ago, that he had some mix-up in credits from high-school. So is going to attend a Juco in MN for 1 year and then attend SDSU.