Welcome to your behind-the-scenes home to Maverick Baseball during the 2010 NCAA Division II College World Series in Cary, N.C. Minnesota State Associate Director of Athletics Paul Allan and MSU Athletic Communications graduate assistant Kyle Bradt will be traveling with MSU to the national tournament with the team - providing updated information and insight along the way.
May 25, 2010, 4:53 p.m. - It's over.
Minnesota State's season comes to an end with a 6-2 loss at the hands of Franklin Pierce. A recap of the game is located
here. A couple of tremendous defensive plays in the game that you had to see to believe in this one. In the bottom of the sixth, MSU second baseman
Matt Kuchenbecker makes a diving catch to end the inning and then, with one on in the top of the eighth, FP pitcher
Mike Adams made a behind-the-back grab to start a double play, effectively ending a MSU scoring threat. MSU's coach
Matt Magers, who had a couple of great quotes at the postgame press conference, said "I don't think we practice that play."
The Mavericks will make the trek back to Mankato tomorrow afternoon, with an expected touchdown of the wheels in MSP at 2:05 p.m.
May 25, 2010, 2:21 p.m. - Game On .............Tuesday's with Odie.
In the top of the second, after
Danny Miller singled and
Aaron Berner is hit by a pitch, sophomore 1B
Matt Odegaard sacrificed both runners up a base and
Pat Dockendorf's RBI ground out plates Miller for the first run of the game today's game vs. Franklin Pierce.
Speaking of Odegaard, we took a moment to have a chat with his dad, Greg, who pitched for the Mavericks from 1978-81. Greg was a junior on MSU's team that played in the DII National Championship tournament in 1980.
Your family has something pretty unusual going on here with you and your son Matt both having played for the Mavericks at the DII National Championship tournament.
GO: "I think the fact Matt and I have had this shared experience is pretty unique. I had this chance 30 years ago and now he’s having the same opportunity. So it’s been fun for Ranaye (Greg’s wife and Matt’s mother) and myself and we're really enjoying ourselves here in Cary."
What do you remember from that 1980 season and team?
GO: "Well, we had a very good team with some very good players that year. Bob Bresnahan, Joel Lepel, Mike Carroll were all on that team and went on to play pro ball, along with some of the other guys. We had a good regular season to make it to regionals where we caught a couple of breaks. We had to come back to beat a very strong Southwest Missouri State team twice to win it. One of the memories I have is hitting a pinch hit three-run home run in the first game against SWMU. I hadn’t hit all that much during the season (he was primarily a pitcher for the Mavericks), but Cheri (Dean Bowyer’s wife) had a hunch and told Dean that I should hit. So, I did and with a 3-0 pitch, I don’t know why, swung away and hit it out. We went on to win the tournament to head off to the World Series.
I can still remember taking the plane ride to Riverside for the World Series. Teams from all over the country and just a great ballpark. We were at the banquet and the coach from Florida Southern made a comment about anything but a national title for his team would be a major disappointment. We had them in our opening game and we were down 9-0 before coming back to win 11-9. They lost their next game and were the first team eliminated. We lost 3-1 to New Haven in the next game. I got the start and the win the next game (an 8-3 MSU victory vs. Florida International). We lost our next game (10-4 against Cal Poly-Pomona) to finish third overall. But it was a tremendous experience for everyone and something we’ll never forget. I’m sure it’ll be the same for Matt and his teammates here in North Carolina."
Your family has a unique connection to MSU with you having played ball and graduated from there and having two of your sons follow in your footsteps as baseball players for the Mavericks.
GO: "We’re extremely proud of all three of our kids and feel pretty good about our relationship with the school. Chris (former MSU pitcher) is chasing his dream, playing professional baseball and not everyone gets a chance to do that. Our daughter, Courtney, is getting ready to graduate from high school and will be attending MSU in the fall."
May 24, 2010 - 6:00 p.m. - Tampa is the First Team Eliminated
The first elimination game of the tournament is complete, the Georgia College Bobcats defeated Tampa, 2-1, ending the Spartans season. The Bobcats will now play at 3:00 p.m. (EST) and face the loser of tonight's contest between Central Missouri and UC San Diego.
As previously noted, the Mavericks will face the Franklin Pierce Ravens tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. (EST) for the first ever meeting between the two teams. The Raven's dropped their opening game of the world series to the Kutztown Golden Bears Sunday, 2-1, dropping them to the loser bracket. Last season the two schools faced one another in women's basketball Division II NCAA National Championship and the Mavericks were victorious, defeating the Ravens by a score of 103-94.
To view updated notes for the MSU baseball team, click
here.
May 24, 2010 - 10:41 a.m. - Late Night With the Mavericks
A series of weather delays, technical glitches and a game that took a little longer than normal to end led to last night's late start to the MSU vs. Southern Indiana contest. There was sporadic rain and intermittent lightning in Cary during the course of the day and the game between Franklin Pierce and the eventual-winners from Kutztown (Pa.), which got underway at 1:00 p.m., didn't get finished until nine hours after it started. The first lightning delay occurred after the eighth inning and took 68 minutes. Then a four-hour, 10-minute weather delay in the bottom of the 10th was followed by a power surge that caused half the stadium field lights to go out in the bottom of the 12th, stopping the game for an additional 20 minutes. The Mavericks and the Screaming Eagles (yes, everybody, we're familiar with the tv show "Coach" and the irony that goes with it and, no I've never met
Craig. T. Nelson. Just
Scott Nelsen and
Craig Roberts), finally got underway just after 11:00 p.m. and finished up at around 2:30 a.m. So a long day all around. I will say this...USI's lead-off hitter
Wandy Rosario is an interesting player. He's their regular shortstop and lead-off hitter. He went one-for-two with two walks and two hit by pitches. So on base five of the six times he came up and he stole three bases. He then came in with MSU in a position to tie things up in the bottom of the ninth to earn his 14th save of the year.
In any event, kudos to the Mavericks. We'll look for a bounce back game Tuesday when we take on Franklin Pierce. MSU will practice today and do some scouting of the two games going on at the USA Baseball Complex (Tampa vs. Georgia College at 3:00 p.m. and Central Missouri at UC-San Diego at 7:00 p.m.). More to follow later today. It's great to be a Maverick.
May 23, 2010 - 10:15 p.m. - Mavericks vs. Screaming Eagles to Start at 11:00 p.m. (EST)
After hours of delay (rain, lightning and power), game one of Saturday is complete, with the Kutztown Golden Bears defeating the Franklin Pierce Ravens, 2-1 in 12 innings.
Game two of the day, #11 Minnesota State vs. #9 Southern Indiana, is slated to start at 11:00 p.m. (EST). Hopefully the storms will stay away and allow for the two teams to complete their opening contest of the tournament.
May 23, 2010 - 6:00 p.m. - Rain/Lightning Delays in Franklin Pierce vs. Kutztown
Fans waiting to follow Minnesota State's baseball game against the Southern Indiana Sceaming Eagles will have to wait a bit. Game one of today's action, #13 Franklin Pierce vs. #6 Kutztown, has been delayed multiple times due to rain and lightning. The Mavericks and Screaming Eagles will get started about one hour at the conclusion of game one.
The Ravens of Franklin Pierce and the Golden Bears of Kutztown are knotted up at one in the bottom of the 10th inning. The two squads will look to wrap up the contest once NCAA officals give the OK to get started.
May 23, 2010 - 8:15 a.m. - Game Day
The first game on today's docket, Kutztown (41-13) vs. Franklin Pierce (41-15-1) is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start, but it's raining pretty hard this morning. It was raining yesterday morning (not quite this hard) and the start to the Central Missouri/Tampa contest was pushed back two hours. With only two games a day being played at this point, it's not likely going to be much of an issue. UC-San Diego, by the way, won yesterday's second game over Georgia College, 3-2.
May 22, 2010 - 8:25 p.m. - Updating
Thought I might pass this along in the event you didn't see it. The
College Baseball News released its
most-recent poll on May 19th. The top four teams in the poll make up one of the brackets here in Cary with UC-San Diego (#1) taking on Georgia State (#4) in tonight's second game after Central Missouri (#3) beat Tampa (#2), 3-0 in the tourney lid-lifter earlier today. The other half of the tournament pits Kutztown (#6) against Franklin Pierce (#13) in tomorrow's first game and MSU (tied for #11) against Southern Indiana (#9), with both games taking place tomorrow (Sunday). The format of this tournament is such that the two brackets don't cross over until Thursday. Take a look
here if you'd like to see what I'm talking about - the link goes to the NCAA interactive bracket. As the always-opinionated
Tim Marshall would say ......"interesting."
A couple of people have been asking about live video streaming of our games and the answer is that when you click on our games on the interactive bracket, an icon appears. Click on that and you should be good to go.
May 22, 2010 - 5:00 p.m. - The Miracle League of the Triangle
During the baseball team's second full day down in Cary, N.C., the squad had the opportunity to participate in the Miracle League of Triangle's season finale home run derby Saturday afternoon. It was an amazing event and a great opportunity for everyone on the team.
The Miracle League vision is "every child deserves a chance to play baseball'" allowing kids of all ages to participate in the game of baseball, no matter their ablilty.
The Mavericks played the part of a "Buddy" to the Miracle League players. The "Buddy" system gives the players a chance to pair up with one of the players, helping them maximize the enjoyment of the game of baseball.
Overall, all of the players enjoyed the community-service activity, shared smiles and met some awesome people by day's end. Photos from Saturday's event appear
here.
Following the visit to the Miracle League, the Mavericks headed over to the USA Baseball Training Complex and practiced for an hour-and-a-half before watching the first five innings of the opening game of the tournament between Central Missouri and Tampa. Central Missouri, by the way, eventually prevailed by a 3-0 margin.
May 21, 2010 - 5:40 p.m. - The first day of practice
After travel day on Thursday, the Mavericks got to work Friday with an hour-and-a-half work out at the site of this year's NCAA Division II Championship tournament at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary, N.C. After hoisting the MSU banner upon arrival at the facility, MSU practiced on field #3 (there are four fields here, including the main competition field) before moving on to the competion field where another 45 minutes of batting practice ensued. Photos from today's events are located
here.
Needless-to-say, the fields, which MSU assistant coach
Tink Larson noted are comprised of bermuda grass, are immaculate.
While the MSU coaching staff has been receiving well wishes via email and phone calls from the many fans and alum of Maverick baseball, there should be a fairly strong contingent of family and friends on hand with MSU begins competion with its first game of the tournament vs. Southern Indiana Sunday.
By the way, for those of you in Mankato, be sure to turn your a.m. radio dial to KTOE 1420 at 8:00 a.m. CST Saturday morning - MSU coach
Matt Magers will be on with KTOE's Barry "the Bear" Wortel.
May 20, 2010 - 6:30 p.m. Travel Day
After being sent off by Dr. Davenport, the Mavericks departed Mankato around noon for the HHH terminal in Minneapolis. After boarding the AmeriStar charter and leaving the familiar terrain known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes at around 3:00 p.m., MSU's travel party landed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and made its way to the Hampton Inn & Suites Brier Creek. The Mavericks will practice tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. (EST) before taking part in the championship banquet at 7:00 p.m. (EST).
The tournament gets underway Saturday with Central Missouri taking on Tampa at 1:00 p.m., and UC-San Diego playing Georgia College at 5:00 p.m. In addition to practicing Saturday, the Mavericks, along with the three other teams not playing Saturday, will take part in a community service project. Then, Kutztown plays Franklin Pierce 1:00 p.m. Sunday, before MSU squares-off with Southern Indiana at 5:00.
By the way, we're in the heart of Tobacco Road here in Raleigh with Duke in Durham and North Carolina State in Raleigh, the University of North Carolina in nearby Chapel Hill and, 75 miles away, Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. The first three schools are within 25 miles of each other and all four schools are members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. One other note -
Ron Wellman, the director of athletics at Wake Forest the last 18 years, spent one year (1986-87) in Mankato as the men's AD at MSU. Wellman, who came to MSU after serving as the baseball coach at Northwestern of the Big Ten, left the Mavericks for Illinois State before being named the AD with the Demon Deacons in 1992.
May 19, 2010 - 12: 46 p.m. - Glory Days
Thought we might take a look back on MSU's previous forays to the NCAA Division II national championship tournament.
1971 - MSU claimed the 1971 NCAA Division II Midwest Regional title (played in Mankato) with an unblemished 3-0 mark with a win over Luther and two wins over Northern Colorado. The first MSU team to appear at the Division II national championship baseball tournament, MSU went on to finish fourth at NCAA Division II national championship tournament in Springfield, Mo., where they absorbed a 9-0 loss to Central Missouri and a 6-0 loss to Florida Southern. This team was 22-12 overall and were North Central Conference champions with a 14-6 league mark. The
Jean McCarthy-led squad boasted All-NCC performers
Mike Vogel and
Randy Heidman, along with
NCC Pitcher of the Year Ken Wilson. Wilson (5-1 with a 1.43 earned run average) and Vogel were selected All-Region. This team was inducted into the MSU Hall of Fame in 2006.
1979 - MSU made its second-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II College World Series in 1979 and first under third-year head coach
Dean Bowyer.
The Mavericks played to a 26-13 record over the course of the season and were 14-4 in Northern Intercollegiate Conference play and won 12 of their final 15 regular-season games to secure a spot in the postseason.
Senior rightfielder
Ron Koval led the Mavericks offensively with a .390 batting average and seven Mavericks hit .300 or better.
Waseca native and MSU Hall of Famer
Gene Glynn led MSU with six home runs, while hitting .305.
RHP senior
Jim Hahn pitched to a 7-2 record in nine starts (seven CGs and 1.05 ERA) to pace the Maverick pitching staff.
Larry Woodall also won seven games and led the team with 55 strikeouts.
The Mavericks went undefeated at the regional tourney with three straight wins. The Mavericks went two-and-out at the national tourney however, suffering a 6-2 loss to LeMoyne and a 10-4 decision to Cal Poly-Pomona. Individually, Glynn left the Mavericks owning school career records in at bats (420), hits (132), runs (111), home runs (11), stolen bases (82), assists (179).
Six Mavericks earned All-NIC selections following the 1979 campaign as
Joel Lepel repeated at catcher, while Glynn was a repeat selection as an infielder.
Joining the duo were
Reed Hess and Koval, both outfielders, along with Hahn and Woodall.
Both Glynn and Woodall were drafted following the 1979 season as Montreal drafted Glynn while Baltimore took Woodall.
1980 - Bowyer led the Mavericks to back-to-back appearances at the NCAA tourney with this team finishing third in the final standings. The Mavericks took the Northern Intercollegiate Conference title with a 13-3 mark. After claiming the regional title by going 4-1 in Springfield, Mo., MSU started the national tournament, played in Riverside, Calif., with a 12-9 win over Florida Southern. The team then dropped a contest to New Haven, 3-1, but bounced back to defeat Florida International, 8-3. The Mavericks then were eliminated after a 10-4 loss to Cal Poly-Pomona ending their historic season with 36-21-1 mark.
As a team, the 1980 Mavericks established a total of 14 team records - games played (57), wins (36), batting average (.340), hits (581), doubles (94), triples (22), homeruns (47), walks (248), runs (407), RBI (364), total bases (859), Innings pitched (411), putouts (1191) and assists (411). Senior infielder
Mike Carroll led the Mavericks in several offensive categories, while setting new single-season marks of 57 games played, 209 at bats, 81 hits, 132 total bases and 16 doubles. Junior outfielder
Bob Bresnahan, from St. Peter, Minn., led the team with a .413 batting average and walked 33 times, both new team single-season records. Senior RHP
Blake Evenson finish the season with a team-low 2.19 ERA, an 8-3 record in 86.2 innings of work (a new single-season mark). Sophomore RHP
Ty Herman had a team-best 9-1 record with 59 K in 75.1 innings pitched and nine gomplete games. Five Mavericks from the 1980 squad made it to the professional ranks. Herman was drafted by the Red Sox,
Joel Lepel by the Expos, while Bresnahan (Twins), Carroll (Expos) and
Dave Lottsfeldt (Tigers) all signed free agent deals.
1986 - The Mavericks won their fourth NCC title in five years in advancing to regional action. MSU posted a 3-1 mark in Dayton, Ohio to claim its fourth regional title with a 7-5 win over Lewis in the championship game sealing the deal. MSU, which at one point won 16 games in a row during the course of the season, dropped a dramatic 8-6 decision to eventual national champion and #1-rated Troy State in the opening game at the national tourney before bouncing back with a 6-2 victory over Tampa (which featured future NY Yankee
Tino Martinez) in the next contest. The Mavericks closed out the season with a 14-12 loss to second-place finisher Columbus in completing the year with a 35-15 overall record. Following the season, junior catcher
Fritz Polka, a third-team All-American, was drafted in the second round by the New York Mets. Senior RHP
Wes Weber, who went 9-1 during the season, was a second team All-American and was a 15th-round pick by Oakland. Junior 2B
Joe Marchese was a CWS all-tourney pick and was selected by the Red Sox in the 15th round. There's a post on Mavblog related to MSU's CWS trip in 1986 and it is located
here.
May 18, 2010 - 3:40 p.m. Here's your information!!!!!
The post season media guide has been posted and can be viewed
HERE.
