Fort Collins Foxes To Open Season Tonight

The Fort Collins Foxes play in the 5 team Mountain Collegiate Baseball League. Three teams play in Colorado, while two teams play in neighboring Wyoming.

Here is a neat article about the upcoming Foxes season written by Sean Star of the Fort Collins Coloradoan.

After practicing together for the first time less than 24 hours earlier, the Fort Collins Foxes will begin their third season in the Mountain Collegiate Baseball League at 5:30 p.m. today against the first-year Parker Xpress.

The Foxes are looking to avenge last year’s loss in the league’s championship series to the Laramie Colts after winning the title in 2005.

“We’re a little disappointed we lost it last year,” said Jason Protano, a pitcher from Tufts University in Boston. “We don’t necessarily want revenge on Laramie, but on whoever’s in (the championship series).”

Read the full press release here.

Youth Will Be Served In San Luis Obispo!

The San Luis Obispo Blues of the California Collegiate League have a very young team, but it doesn’t mean that they won’t be a talented team. The Blues will return six players from last years squad.

Erick Smith of the San Luis Obispo Tribune profiled the team on May 27th.

Rivals To Be Teammates in Duluth

Since starting this blog a while ago, I have come to rely on and appreciate everybody who reads this blog. On a daily basis, I will receive emails from readers about players to watch for, the many different leagues, and individual teams. This next article was emailed to me by a very nice gentleman from Duluth, MN. It is an interesting article by Jon Nowacki of the Duluth News Tribune.

Former Duluth Huskies standout Brock Bond took part in a brawl between his Missouri team and rival Kansas during the 2006 college baseball season. One of the Kansas players involved in the melee was Ryne Price.

Bond joined the Huskies that summer, where he was teammates with Robby Price, Ryne’s younger brother. Bond and the younger Price didn’t feud during their tenure with the Huskies. In fact, they flourished on the field and as friends.

Each year, the Northwoods League features college and junior college players who put their rivalries and preconceived notions aside to form one team. The Huskies are no different. This year, their roster includes NCAA Division II players Kyle Zweber, John Vaudreuil and David Olson of Minnesota Duluth, and Adian Kummet of Division III St. Scholastica.

Read the rest of the article here.

Battle Creek Bombers To Debut Tonight!

The Battle Creek Bomber begin their quest for the Northwoods League Title tonight against the Brainerd Blue Thunder. The Bombers are an expansion team in the ever-growing Northwoods League.

This is a nice article about them as written by Jeff Karzen from The Battle Creek Enquirer.

As the new guys on the new team played catch for the first time, a tall, lanky red-haired pitcher walked over to a medium-sized fellow hurler.

“Hey, what’s up,” said the redhead, “I’m Phillip.” “Hey man. I’m Charlie,” replied the second pitcher.

Read the rest of the article here.

Evan Bigley (La Crosse 07- Denton 06) Ready For Summer Ball!

I had the pleasure of watching Evan Bigley play last season. The Dallas Baptist slugger was a member of the Denton Outlaws last season. He is taking his game up north this summer. Evan will play for the La Crosse Loggers of the Northwoods League. Here is a neat article about Evan from the La Crosse Tribune.

La Crosse Loggers outfielder Evan Bigley can relate to purist fans who don’t like aluminum bats.Bigley prefers good old-fashioned lumber, too.“Swinging with the wood bat is something I love doing; I love it more than the metal bat,” said Bigley, a sophomore from Dallas Baptist University.

“It took me about a week last summer to get adjusted to it and once I did, it felt really good.”Bigley, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound right-hander, batted .270 with eight home runs and 27 RBI in the Texas Collegiate League in 2006.Bigley carried the momentum over from last summer into a breakout year at Dallas Baptist University. He batted .329 — a bump of 36 points from his freshman year — with 10 homers and 61 RBI in 52 games.

Read the full article about Evan from the La Crosse Tribune here.

Maclean Does It Again For The Bulls!

Andrew Maclaen has been very busy as of late. On Sunday, he was the winning pitcher for the Lethbridge Bulls (Western Major League) in an exhibition game. Last night, on opening day, he also was the winning pitcher. The Calgary, AB native came into the game in the 7th and shut down the St. Albert Prospects. Andrew’s line score looks like this. 3.1 inp, 1 hit and 2 k’s. Not bad at all.

Petersburg Generals Deafeat The Peninsula Pilots!

The Coastal Plain League was in full stride last night. The Petersburg Generals defeated the Peninsula Pilots by a score of 11-6, in front of a crowd of nearly 4000. Dave Slusser (West Chester) was the winning pitcher while Ben Campbell (Gardner-Webb) took the loss. The offensive stars for the Pilots were Eddie Van Es (VMI) and Ernie Banks (Norfolk State). They both went 3/5 with a triple. The offensive star for the Generals was Mitchell Kuczek (Transylvania). He went 4/5 with a double and scored 2 runs.

Eric Oliver Interview!

Tim Howell is the media guru for the Denton Outlaws. He has done a fine job this season of helping the fans of the Outlaws to get to know the players a little bit. He interviewed Eric Oliver a little while ago. Eric plays for Orange Coast Community College.

Eric Oliver Interview

Star Of The Game For The Columbia Blowfish!

All Nick Goodwin (South Carolina) needed was a little offensive support from his Blowfish teammates. He received more than enough, which sealed the victory for Columbia. Nick pitched six strong innings, and only gave up one run to the visiting team from Florence.

“Its been a while since I’ve been back out there so it was good to get back out there in front of a crowd and get my adrenaline pumping a little bit,” Godwin said. “I like this crowd. We always get a good crowd here and they’re always behind us.”

Read the rest of the press release.

John Hester-Impressive For The Fayetteville Swampdogs!

John Hester (Freed-Hardeman) was impressive in his Swamdogs debut. The Junior from Alabama went a solid five innings, while giving up only 2 runs to pick up the victory against the Asheboro Copperheads. Fayettville also had their hitting shoes on as they banged out a total of 14 hits. The Swampdogs eventually finished off the Copperheads for a final score of 10-6. Summer Ball also wants to congratulate the fans of the Swampdogs for showing up. They had an opening day attendance of 1856 fans. Way to go.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.- There was supposed to be a period of growing pains for this young Fayetteville SwampDogs team. Instead, after an easy three up three down inning forJosh Hester, the SwampDogs exploded for 7 runs in the first inning on 8 hits. With a seven run cushion to work with, the SwampDogs cruised to an opening night win over the Asheboro Copperheads by a final of 10-6 in front of packed house of 1,856.

Read the rest of the write up about the game here.