Pat Murphy abruptly resigned after 15 seasons as baseball coach at Arizona State on Friday.

University vice president for athletics Lisa Love said she accepted the resignation to allow Murphy and the program to move in a “new direction,” the Arizona Republic reported.

According to the report, Love said Murphy’s resignation was not directly related to an ongoing two-year school investigation into allegations made against him by a former baseball employee, including claims of academic fraud and improper recruiting travel.

*****

The colorful and often outspoken Murphy led the Sun Devils to the College World Series four times — 1998, 2005, 2007 and 2009. The program has produced several major league players, including Andre Ethier of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox, who appeared along with Muhammad Ali at a recent Murphy fundraiser.

He took over the historically successful Sun Devils program in August 1994 after seven seasons at Notre Dame. Under Murphy, Arizona State was 629-284-1.

“Coach Murphy has an outstanding record of success on the playing field,” Love said in a prepared statement. “I thank him for 16 years of hard work and service to the university and the sport.”

The Sun Devils had won the past three Pac-10 titles, with Murphy named conference coach of the year each time. Murphy, 50, had offered no hint publicly of his impending resignation in recent interviews.

This is definitely an odd time to resigning. It would seem Murphy’s resignation to tied to the troubles currently under investigation at ASU.

A sheriff’s official in Georgia says former major league pitcher Brian Powell has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 35.

Powell was 7-18 with a 5.94 ERA in 59 games for Detroit, Houston, San Francisco and Philadelphia. He last pitched in the majors with the Phillies in 2004, and spent 2005 in Triple-A for Washington.

Dave Fuller, the winningest baseball coach in University of Florida history, has died. He was 94.

He was also a member of the football staff for 29 years (1948-76), the longest run of any assistant coach in school history. Fuller served in many capacities as head freshman coach, varsity assistant, head scout and a key recruiter under head coaches Bob Woodruff, Ray Graves and Doug Dickey.

Officials at Oklahoma State said Thursday that a former baseball player accepted a used car as a gift while he was in a summer league in what the NCAA contends was a major rules violation that could cost the program.

A letter sent May 28 from the NCAA to Oklahoma State president Burns Hargis asks university officials to meet Aug. 7-8 with the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions in Indianapolis.

Oklahoma State spokesman Gary Shutt said the player received a 10-year-old car from an out-of-state family he stayed with while playing in the summer league. He said the university contends it was not a major violation, in part because the family had no prior connection with Oklahoma State athletics.

He said the player did not appear in any games for the Cowboys after receiving the car.

“The facts do not support the ‘failure to monitor’ allegation made by the NCAA Enforcement Staff,” Oklahoma State said in its response to the letter from David Price, the NCAA’s vice president of enforcement. It said the violation was “isolated and inadvertent” and not an attempt to break NCAA rules “but an innocent and charitable act.”

The player didn’t play for OSU, the rules violation happened outside the school’s area of oversight, then why should it be punished? This is more idiotic than making Florida State forfeit football games because of an academic cheating. Tell me how the penalty suits the crime done? How do you undo history and why do you punish a program for something out of its control?

Stephen Cardullo set a tournament record with seven hits, including three of Florida State’s NCAA-record 15 doubles, as the Seminoles routed Ohio State 37-6 on Sunday in the Tallahassee regional and advanced to the super regionals.

“I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it,” Martin said. “We’re sitting there in the fourth inning and I knew we were going to a super regional.”

Florida State (45-16) set NCAA postseason records with 37 runs, 38 hits and 66 total bases, while Cardullo tied the school mark for hits in an offensive performance the football team would’ve been proud of. The Seminoles set or tied 18 NCAA, school or postseason records.

Jason Stidham, the regional’s most outstanding player, hit a two-run double as the Seminoles scored eight times in the first and cruised past the pitching-depleted Buckeyes (42-19), who trailed 32-0 in the fifth.

“Everything they did was right,” said Ohio State coach Bob Todd, who went through seven pitchers in an attempt to stem the rout. “Everything we did was wrong.”

Sounds like it. The Buckeye starter gave up seven runs without recording an out. I’ve never seen 30 runs scored in one game, alone 37.

Travis Tucker hit an RBI single with one out in the top of the 25th inning, leading Texas to a 3-2 victory over Boston College on Saturday night in the longest game in NCAA history.

The game eclipsed the previous record of 23 innings, set in 1971 when Louisiana-Lafayette defeated McNeese State 6-5. The game began at 7:02 p.m. EDT Saturday and concluded 7 hours, 3 minutes later at 2:05 a.m. Sunday.

Texas reliever Austin Wood pitched 13 innings, including 12 1/3 innings of no-hit ball before allowing a two-out single to Tony Sanchez in the 19th inning.

Texas (43-13-1) scored when Connor Rowe walked to lead off the top of the inning and was sacrificed to second by David Hernandez. Rowe advanced to third on a wild pitch, and Tucker grounded past second base through the drawn-in infield for the record-setting victory over Boston College (34-25).

Tucker’s hit came in his NCAA-record 12th at-bat to tie a mark he now shares with teammate Michael Torres, who also batted 12 times.

Texas reliever Austin Dicharry earned his eighth victory by pitching 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, striking out four and allowing one hit.

The longest professional game was a minor league affair played in 1981. It went 33 innings. Two future Hall of Famers took part in that affair, Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr.

West Virginia State’s Bo Darby hit home runs in five consecutive at-bats over two games, including four in one contest.

The sophomore outfielder homered in his first four trips to the plate Monday against Salem International. He also connected in his final at-bat Saturday against the University of Charleston.

A double and a single in his two previous plate appearances Saturday gave Darby seven straight hits.

Darby homered twice more in the second game of Monday’s doubleheader, giving him six for the day with 14 RBIs. He has 18 home runs this season.

The NCAA doesn’t keep Division II records for home runs in consecutive at-bats. St. Edwards’ Josh Hamilton holds the Division II records of five home runs in one game set against Oklahoma Panhandle in April 2003.

That’s a shame the NCAA doesn’t keep records. A great deal of sports history is going to be lost as a result.

Two games, two pitchers and no hits allowed for St. Augustine’s College.

Brandon Stewart and Ryan Wood each threw seven-inning no-hitters for Saint Augustine’s as the Falcons swept Lincoln (Pa.) University 10-1 and 25-2 in a doubleheader Sunday.

Stewart, a sophomore from Atlanta who also threw a no-hitter against Voorhees last season, struck out six and allowed one run in the opening-game victory for the Division II Falcons (4-8).

Wood, also a sophomore from Chester, Va., had seven strikeouts in the second game against the Lions (0-9) at the USA Baseball Complex.

Joseph Pierce was 1-for-2 with three RBIs in the first game for St. Augustine’s, while Ryan Shwedo was 3-for-5 with five RBIs and Chris Vette drove in four runs in the second. Rashad Ingram had nine of the Falcons’ 20 stolen bases on the day.

Lincoln is in serious need of some batting practice.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has suspended guard Luka Drca for two games for an intentional foul committed in a loss to No. 4 Oklahoma.

Drca tripped Blake Griffin as the Sooners were on a fast break with a 14-point lead early in the second half of Saturday’s game. Oklahoma’s Willie Warren was called for a technical for jawing with Drca, who was whistled for an intentional foul.

Utah coach Jim Boylen said in a release Monday that he was suspending Drca for two games.

Boylen says he wasn’t required to suspend Drca, but felt the trip was unacceptable behavior. The junior from Serbia will sit out Saturday’s home game against Weber State and the Utes’ road game against Utah State next Monday.

Drca suspends every bit of the suspension. That kind of behavior he portrayed on Saturday doesn’t belong on a basketball court.

The pitch was nothing remarkable: Pat Venditte, Creighton University’s temporarily right-handed pitcher, threw a fastball past a Northern Iowa
batter for a called strike three. It was his next windup that evinced this young pitcher’s uniqueness and, perhaps, professional future.

As his teammates whipped the ball around the infield, Venditte smoothly, unthinkingly, removed his custom glove from his left hand and slipped it on his right. Moments later he leaned back, threw a strike left-handed to the next batter, and finished the side in order.

Venditte is believed to be the only ambidextrous pitcher in N.C.A.A.
Division I college baseball, the ultimate relief specialist. A junior, he throws left-handed to lefties and right-handed to righties, and effectively. In a home game in Omaha last Friday, he allowed only one hit in five and a third shutout innings to earn the victory against Northern Iowa.

Go to the article not just for the pictures of him pitching, but also for his custom glove. In addition to the standard finger slots, it has two thumbs.

Practically speaking, what happens when he goes up against a switch hitter? That question occurred Thursday night:

Still pitching right-handed, Venditte allowed a single by Nicholas Giarraputo. Up next was designated hitter Ralph Henriquez, and he and Venditte engaged in a routine more vaudeville than Mudville.

As Henriquez walked to the plate, Venditte, assuming Henriquez would bat left-handed, stood behind the pitching rubber with his glove on his right hand and the ball in his left. Henriquez, looking out at Venditte, then stepped across the batter’s box, determined to hit right-handed and gain a righty-lefty advantage. Seeing this, Venditte quickly switched his custom-made glove to his left hand and put the ball in his right, hoping to gain a righty-on-righty advantage.

Henriquez stepped out and began asking the home-plate umpire, Shaylor Smith, to lay out his options, then summoned his third-base coach. With the matter unresolved, Henriquez again stepped across the batter’s box in an attempt to bat left-handed. Again, Venditte switched glove and ball. The cat-and-mouse game reached full comedic gear when Henriquez again strolled across the batter’s box to hit right-handed, and Venditte responded with the old switcheroo, setting up as a righty.

The question is, if there a player’s allowed a single switch, who must commit first?

On Thursday night it concluded:

McMahon, who said Friday that he was waiting for an official ruling from higher baseball authorities on the subject of switch-pitching to switch-hitters, said that the way he understood it, “the rule dictates that the hitter establish the box and the pitcher establish the throw, and then each team can make one move, and then it’s play ball.”

“That’s the rule that we got from the rule book of minor league baseball,” he said.

Apparently that will be the rule in MLB too.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

The University of Central Florida fired baseball coach Jay Bergman because he was accused of sexually harassing a team equipment manager, a university source has confirmed.

Bergman used a bat to simulate raping equipment manager Chris Rhyce in early March, said the university source and two other sources with knowledge of the allegation. The university source asked for anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for UCF.

The three sources said Rhyce told the university in a written complaint that he was held down on the field, fully clothed, by a baseball staff member before a March 7 game while the players watched. Bergman was said to have grabbed a bat and shoved it toward Rhyce’s buttocks.

Bergman coached for almost 26 years at UCF.

File this under embarrassing ways to taint or destroy a long career. The UCF Baseball field is named for Bergman.

I’m inclined to believe the allegations. Bergman was suspended for one game in 2006 for inappropriate behavior towards one of his players. The lawyer for Bergman is denying what happened (of course), and the school is clamming up. (of course) Go to the link and read the Orlando Sentinel article to form your own opinion.

Louisville might be making its first appearance at the College World Series, but the senior-laden Cardinals aren’t overwhelmed by the spectacle.

“I don’t want to hide from the fact that the kids are going to be excited, I don’t want them to try to act too macho,” Cardinals coach Dan McDonnell said. “The coolest they tried to act was when they met (ESPN’s) Erin Andrews in the lobby. I told them, ‘guys, stop acting like you’re so cool and macho.’ This is a kids’ game, and they should be excited.”

Funny. But he has a point. Being on big time TV makes the kids nervous enough without having to worry about impressing a hot chick.

via Rob Tringali and Relentless Grace

A reporter was ejected from an NCAA baseball tournament game for submitting live Internet updates during play. Brian Bennett, a writer for The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal, was approached Sunday by an NCAA representative in the bottom of the fifth inning and told that blogging from an NCAA championship event is against NCAA policies.

Bennett had done live blogging during Louisville’s super regional games against Oklahoma State in the previous two games of the three-game series. The representative revoked Bennett’s credential Sunday and asked him to leave the game.

“It’s clearly a First Amendment issue,” said Bennie Ivory, the newspaper’s executive editor. “This is part of the evolution of how we present the news to our readers. It’s what we did during the Orange Bowl. It’s what we did during the NCAA basketball tournament. It’s what we do.” The newspaper’s lawyer, Jon L. Fleischaker, added: “I think there’s the potential for some action. We’re still talking about it.”

NCAA spokesman Bob Williams said Monday that Bennett was asked not to blog about game action before Sunday’s game. “In a nutshell, we asked the blogger repeatedly not to cover it in that manner, because it violates the policy, and he continued, and his credential was revoked,” Williams said.

Ivory is right that, in the Internet age, people expect information instantaneously. The NCAA policy here is swimming against the tide and, given how little interest there is in college baseball compared to other sports, pretty short-sighted.

That said, it’s simply idiotic to proclaim this a First Amendment issue. The government isn’t censoring the press here. Rather, a business is making a decision about how to control access to a private good. They have every right to do that.

Grand Junction

To find the best baseball story in Colorado, head west on Interstate 70. Pass the ski resorts and aspen trees. Pass the grape vineyards and the red-capped mesas of the Western Slope and hang a right at the corner of North Avenue and 12th Street – the home of the Junior College World Series. It was here, during the city’s first tournament at the now-renamed Suplizio Field, where Walter Bergman Jr. pulled a cap low over his forehead one night in 1959, stood on the steps of the dugout and proclaimed himself the most important kid in town. The Mesa Junior College batboy was 7 years old.

“Those are memories that last forever,” said Bergman, now 55, whose father was a longtime baseball coach at Mesa, now Mesa State College. “This game is special in so many ways.

“You walk out there, and you feel it. You really can’t explain what this means to us, because words can’t describe it.”

And he might have a point. How can you adequately explain the importance of an event that brings together thousands of people to watch two teams from two-year colleges play baseball? And that’s just the 9 a.m. game.

Read on after the jump…

Come later in the day, for the noon game, or the 3 p.m. game or the 7:30 p.m. game.

Watch the elementary-school children play catch on the dirt and grass field behind the park, the ball arching high toward the sun. See love-struck teenagers holding hands on the benches below the metal bleachers. Listen to fathers teach sons about the importance of the suicide squeeze, the hit-and-run and the double play.

For one week out of the year, baseball is woven into the fabric of this city. And the city is sewn into the game.

Walk the concourse, spend some time in the stands. The stories are as much about families and friends as they are about the game.

Forty-five years ago, Garth Walker took his son, Bob, to the tournament for the first time.

Over time, they kept coming: through Bob’s high school and college years, through his jobs and an eventual move to Washington, D.C.

During those games, they talked about money and relationships. About life and death.

Both now are retired, both home at the park.

“I love baseball,” 87-year-old Garth said.

“I love being here with my dad,” 62-year-old Bob said.

A few feet away, 79-year-old Richard Broadhead has watched virtually every junior college game from the same seat. Third row, just to the catcher’s left.

“Best in the place,” he said of his ballpark perch. “And no one’s ever taking it from me.”

Worthwhile endeavor

The Juco World Series this week is celebrating its 50th tournament – the 49th year in Grand Junction. The city’s first tournament generated less than $50 in revenue and was won by a 10-player team from Paris, Texas, that loaded into two cars and drove all night to play its first game.

But how things have changed.

The all-volunteer event is estimated to top $3 million in revenue this year, and total attendance figures could surpass 120,000.

Funds from the game will go back to Suplizio Field – more than 5,000 seats and a new scoreboard have been added over the years – and to Little League, high school and college programs in the city.

With nearly two dozen games and 10 teams in one week, the series pays for baseball throughout the city for an entire year.

Even the baseballs used during the games – top-of-the line Rawlings models – are saved so children will have quality balls for their seasons.

“This tournament helped put us on the map,” says Dave Mantlo, who runs the city’s Little League program, which takes a weeklong break during the World Series games. “Once spring starts to come around, everyone starts talking about Juco baseball.”

Behind home plate, Jamie Hamilton, chairman of the National Junior College Baseball World Series organizing committee, leaned against the chain fence, surveyed the familiar faces in the stands and said he “couldn’t imagine a better place anywhere on Earth.”

Ask him about his moments with this game – the time New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner wrote a $25,000 check after a tournament banquet 17 years ago; when he convinced a television network this year to broadcast the series’ championship game; when players from two teams took a break from practices to play baseball with disabled children, the 20-year-old men whooping it up as they scooped up their little teammates and ran to first base.

Long-lasting memories

The field is thick with memories.

They are moments the players are unlikely to forget, too. They have come from Georgia and Texas and New Mexico and Iowa and all parts in between.

Some saw their first bighorn sheep or their first snowflakes on the ride through the Rocky Mountains.

The Chipola College team played a movie during its bus ride from Denver International Airport last week after arriving from Florida.

“Our faces were glued to the windows,” 20-year-old infielder Paul Gatchell said. “I’ve never been on a drive that beautiful.”

And it only got better.

A few days later, before throwing a warm-up pitch in the last inning of an eventual 11-5 win, Chipola reliever Kevin McCoy stood behind the mound and took a deep breath.

Back home, the stands had 50 people in them – at most. Out here, 5,000 people were staring back at him.

“I had to calm down a bit,” the 22-year-old said. “I didn’t want to throw the ball to the backstop.”

He didn’t. He struck out the last batter he faced.

“I’m going to be an old man one of these days, and I’m going to tell my kids and grandkids about my week in Grand Junction,” McCoy said. “There’s no way I could forget this.”

Staff researcher Barbara Hudson contributed to this report.

Staff writer Robert Sanchez can be reached at 303-954-1282 or rsanchez@denverpost.com.

JUCO WORLD SERIES

Grand times in Grand Junction

Staff writer Robert Sanchez provides facts and figures about the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction. This year’s tournament began May 26 and wraps up with the championship game Saturday. Complete tournament results on Page 9D.

Teams playing this year: Chipola College (Fla.), Cowley County (Kan.) Community College, Delgado Community College (La.), Iowa Western Community College, New Mexico Junior College, San Jacinto College-North (Texas), Shelton State Community College (Ala.), Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist College, Western Nevada Community College, Young Harris (Ga.) College.

Notable Junior College World Series alumni:

Travis Hafner, Cowley County (Kan.) Community College: One of the young bashers in major-league baseball, the Cleveland Indians’ star designated hitter was the MVP of the Juco series in 1997.

Adam LaRoche, Seminole (Okla.) Junior College: The Pittsburgh Pirates’ first baseman hit 32 home runs for Atlanta last season and once starred for his Juco team as a pitcher and infielder. In 2000, LaRoche won the tournament MVP award.

Donnie Moore, Ranger (Texas) College: A former California Angels pitcher better known for giving up a game-tying home run in the 1986 American League Championship Series. Moore had one of the most memorable Juco tournaments in the event’s 50-year history. In 1973, Moore won four games, a record that still stands.

Kirby Puckett, Triton College (Ill.): Before he was mashing balls in the major-league World Series for the Minnesota Twins, this Hall of Fame outfielder was leading his Triton team in Grand Junction. His .688 batting average (minimum 15 at-bats) in 1982 is tied for the Juco World Series record.

Curt Schilling, Yavapai College (Ariz.): The Boston Red Sox’s flamethrowing ace has two major-league World Series rings and a third-place finish in Grand Junction. During the series in 1986, the future pitching star recorded one save.

Notable items:

Juco officials this week will announce a 10-year extension to play the World Series in Grand Junction.

As part of a three-year agreement, the series championship game(s) will be shown on tape-delay on CSTV. The game will be broadcast within 72 hours of the last pitch Saturday and will be shown three or four times in June.

The first Juco World Series was played in Miami, Okla., in 1958 and was won by Cameron College (Okla.). Paris (Texas) Junior College won the 1959 series, the first in Grand Junction.

San Jacinto College-North (Texas) has played in 16 world series tournaments since 1984 (including this year), winning five championships.

Past five winners:

2006 – Walters State Community College (Tenn.)

2005 – New Mexico Junior College

2004 – Dixie State College (Utah)

2003 – Community College of Southern Nevada

2002 – Central Arizona College

source: The Denver Post

Update* We had a reader ask for a link to the results from this years Junior College World Series. Here you go jucogj.org

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Miami’s baseball team will travel to Virginia Tech this weekend as scheduled, though it’ll be with additional security.

Speaking one day after a gunman killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus before shooting himself — the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history — Miami coach Jim Morris said Tuesday that he doesn’t believe his team will be in an unsafe environment but is adding extra protection to put his players’ minds at ease.

“I just want our guys to feel comfortable,” Morris said.

Morris called Virginia Tech coach Peter Hughes on Tuesday to offer his condolences.

“They want to try to get everything back to normalcy as soon as possible on campus,” Morris said. “There is more security on campus than the rest of state of Virginia right now.”

Miami’s players aren’t certain what to expect on this trip.

“It could be a down game or they could want to lift up the school and want to play hard,” said Scott Maine, who’s expected to be the Hurricanes’ starting pitcher when the series opens Friday. “Who knows? It is so soon from that event.”

The shootings were especially horrifying for Miami outfielder Jonathan Weislow, a freshman from Vienna, Va., who knows several Virginia Tech students.

“All of my friends from high school went there so I immediately starting thinking if my friends were OK,” Weislow said. “Everyone that I talked to was just panicking and said it was just unreal.”

The Hurricanes will be wearing black armbands in memory of the victims.

A nice gesture by the Hurricanes, but the school and its coach are being stupid and paranoid. Higher security of course will cost the school money and for what? The baseball team is more likely to get killed flying up to Virginia than have an incident at the ballgame. Are we supposed to not travel any more? Use your brains people.

What happened in Blacksburg this week was a terrible tragedy. God bless the families of all those who died.

Hat tip- Rick at Stuck on the Palmetto