The Weekend Preview continues here…

.
FIVE TEAMS THAT NEED TO WIN now!
It’s not “now or never” for these teams. But it’s getting close to that.

1- Pepperdine.
This weekend: vs. East Carolina.
The Waves have some good wins so far – UC Irvine, Oregon, Fullerton – but at 4-8, they are at risk of losing their grip on this season. A series win over No. 17 ECU will help turn things around and get them ready for WCC play.

(Editors note: After I typed this list up, Pepperdine beat ECU on Thursday, 5-3)

2- Houston.
This weekend: at Cal Poly.
We’ve talked about this one already, but a tough road series win will do wonders for the Coogs confidence. Like Pepperdine, these guys have some good wins already too, over the likes of Texas, Missouri and Texas Tech.

3- Georgia.
This weekend: vs. Siena
The Dogs have lost their last five games by a combined 62-11. Sure, they should sweep the Saints here, but they must improve their fundamentals across the board. SEC play begins next week and they need to build some confidence.

4- Cal State Fullerton.
This weekend: at the SDSU tournament
The Titans are capable of beating anybody, but the big key here is, if they dig themselves too big of a ditch, by the time they DO rebound, they may not make up enough ground to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAAs. I know, that’s looking waaaaay ahead, but it’s a legit concern.

5- Minnesota.
This weekend: Metrodome Tournament. (Harvard, Creighton, South Dakota State)
For anybody to give the Gophers a puncher’s chance at making a run at the Big 10 title – or any consideration for legitimacy at all – they need to punch it up now. They’re 4-7 and lost every game against the good teams on their schedule so far. Oh, and they also had to go to 12 innings on Wednesday to beat St. Thomas, a D-III school.
.
.
BEST MONDAY WIN.
Florida State – 2
Jacksonville – 0
Mike McGee gets the win, throws 6.0 hitless innings and teams with Tyler Everett and Daniel Bennett to post a combined one-hitter vs. the Dolphins. ‘Noles also prove again they can win at an opponents home stadium. That’s a nice groove they’re getting into as well.
.
.
BEST TUESDAY WIN.
South Dakota State- 3
Univ. of Arkansas – 2
Holy cow! First off, put Ritchie Price on the hot list for good coaches to hire at the end of the season. Any guy that can lead a team out of the state of South Dakota and into Baum Stadium and beat Arkansas, deserves a medal. Alex Oberle and Trever Vermeulen combined on a four-hitter to beat the Hogs. After a Wednesday revenge loss to Arkansas the Jackrabbits are now 6-3 on the season. Beauty.
.
.
BEST WEDNESDAY WIN.
Penn State – 0
Texas A&M – 7
Could be the most perfectly-played game defense-and-pitching-wise by any team this year. Not in a no-hitter kind of way, mind you, but the Aggies were in lock-down mode all game long. They didn’t commit a single error, they didn’t walk a single batter, threw zero wild pitches and didn’t plunk a batter. On top of that, four Aggie pitchers combined on the six-hitter and tossed 14 strikeouts. That’s high-quality type stuff.
.
.
BEST THURSDAY WIN.
California – 8
Rice – 6
The rebuilding Bears hadn’t made much noise yet this season, but this is a biggie. They battered Owl starter Taylor Wall enough to saddle him with his third loss of the season already. Erik Johnson improved to 3-0, giving up just two hits in 6.0 innings. However, the Bears bullpen nearly blew the game, giving up all six runs in the final three innings. Cal is now 8-3 and this is a great beginning to what I am calling the toughest stretch of games of any team in the country. After this three-game set with Rice, the Bears will take on Houston in mid-week play, then play three at Cal Poly, then play three at Arizona State to open Pac 10 play.

.
.
COLLEGE BASEBALL AT THE MOVIES.
Sitting on my fat butt the last week I came upon two movies that had college baseball references in them.

Matthew Perry wearing a Yale Baseball T-shirt in “Fools Rush In” with the vivacious Salma Hayek. And despite sporting a nighty in this scene here, Hayek doesn’t reveal anything worth a damn in this movie, so don’t bother. (If you DO wanna see more of Salma, I suggest “Ask The Dust” from 2006, where she basks naked in the surf for Colin Farrell)
.
.

The closing scene from Steve Martin’s 1990 flick “My Blue Heaven” shows this scene that was shot at Loyola Marymount’s Page Stadium. Here it is depicted as a little league field that Martin’s character had built for local youths… even though the movie is supposed to take place in San Diego.

.
.
MEAC GETS BIGGER.
I was jazzed to see that the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference had accepted Savannah State as a new member into the conference. That’s pretty cool. It means that the baseball side of things will now see the MEAC have a field of eight teams. That’s a nice, even number for schedules and tournaments.

Now, if we can only get SSU back to being as good as they were in the late 90s/early 2000s, when they were consistent winners and even pulled a few 30+ win seasons. Then maybe Bethune-Cookman would finally have some competition.

.
.
YES! COPPIN STATE WINS!
After going 0-29 last season, the Eagles already have two wins on the young season. On Tuesday, they picked up a pair of wins over Virginia State.

Game 1:
Virginia State – 3
Coppin State – 10
Starting pitcher Tim Pomierski threw a complete-game four-hitter, striking out six batters. Those are the kind of stats you just didn’t see at all last season.

Virginia State – 10
Coppin State – 11
Harry Williams gets to be the hero, slashing a two-run single in jog-off fashion, as CSU rallies from a 6-3 deficit. Again, that’s the kind of effort you just didn’t see from the Eagles last year.

.
.
IT’S BEEN A TOUGH WINTER.
Just about every coach I’ve talked to, north-and-south, has had problems with pre-season weather and the inability to get outside for any significant amount of time before their first game of the season. Some manage to cope better than others. Yesterday a friend of a friend sent me this picture from the University of Maryland and how they coped with some of those nasty winter storms that struck their area during the pre-season…

.
.
PERHAPS THE WORST STAT EVER.
In Wednesday’s Western Kentucky-Mississippi State game in Starkville – a 9-4 win for the Bulldogs – the official this-counts-towards-the-NCAA-attendance-mark crowd was 5.798. Not bad, eh? For a freakin’ Wednesday night? Wow.

Then, you look down at the next line that says, “Actual Attendance: 826″

Great. Now you see why attendance figures in college baseball are such a crock of shit. But on the GOOD side of attendance figures…

.
.
THE DODGERTOWN CLASSIC WILL RETURN.
One of the bigger surprises of the young season had to be the 14,000+ that showed up at Dodger Stadium for the USC-UCLA game in the second weekend of the season. That’s a beauty. I talked to UCLA coach John Savage last Friday about that incredible turnout and I begged him to hold the Dodgertown Classic as a yearly event. The good news is, that IS the plan. Coach Savage said they want to do it every year from now on and next year’s field will include the two local schools and also Georgia and Oklahoma State.

The only problem was I was hoping the future seasons would see the Classic hold each of the three days at the Dodger castle. Unfortunately, Coach Savage told me, they get charged $25,000 a day to use the stadium. Originally, the Dodgers were going to offer the use of their facilities for FREE. But once the NCAA got wind of that generosity, they blew the whistle and said they weren’t going to allow that. Thanks NCAA. Thanks for helping out the sport of college baseball.

.
Okay, that’s it. Let the weekend begin boys and girls. I’ll check in with more as the weekend goes along. Don’t miss a word.

G’night