Mack Draft: – Matt Rice, Matt Barnes, Sean Hagen, Brian Johnson

•Bowling Green St. intentionally walked two batters to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth inning, and Western Kentucky University senior catcher Matt Rice made them pay with a game-winning RBI single in the Hilltoppers’ 8-7 win. The Hilltoppers led 7-5 entering the ninth inning but redshirt junior closer Rye Davis surrendered two runs in a blown save. Junior left fielder Jared Andreoli led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. BGSU then intentionally walked junior outfielders Kes Carter and Ryan Hutchinson, setting up the Rice game-winning hit. Hutchinson was 2-3 with one RBI and two runs scored in the game, and Andreoli tallied three hits in four at-bats – http://blugrassbaseball.com  

 

•One of the early season stories has been the terrible start by the UConn Huskies who dropped their second straight game of the weekend this time to Minnesota. Matt Barnes was solid on the hill as he went six innings striking out 11 batters while giving up all three runs. – http://www.collegebaseballdaily.com/2011/02/20/foleys-quick-hits-for-feb-19th  

 

First the St. John’s basketball program has taken a turn for the better, now the Johnnies are off to a fantastic start on the baseball diamond. The Johnnies crushed Big Ten favorite Minnesota to the tune of 14-1 at the Big Ten/Big East Challenge. Four St. John’s hitters finished the contest with two hits and starting pitcher Sean Hagan threw five shutout innings. – http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=5266

It is hard not to gush about Florida’s pitching staff. Friday night Brian Johnson was superb and Saturday Hudson Randall matched that effort with six innings of one run ball in a 4-1 win over South Florida. The impressive depth continued as Nick Maronde and Tommy Toledo (two former weekend starters) finished with three scoreless innings. – http://sebaseball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1191005 

 

Last year I was on record here as saying that I may prefer Brian Johnson as a hitter given his patient eye and smooth left-handed swing. He can still swing it (he went 2-for-4 in this game), hitting a pair of doubles including one to deep left-centerfield, but he looked pretty sharp on the mound. First of all, he’s a pretty big fella, and it looks as though he has added some significant strength since last season (a common trend with a lot of the Florida players, as it looks as though several of the players really hit the weight room since last spring). He doesn’t overpower hitters with his stuff, but he does a great job upsetting their timing by changing speeds and moving the ball around the zone. He allowed only two hits in this game, both of which were wiped out by double plays, and neither of which were hit particularly hard. Overall he induced a lot of grounders and struck out six batters. – http://www.5tooltalk.com/2011-notes-2-20-11.html