USD Baseball Learns from Basketball

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 | By the clip the University of San Diego's unheralded men's basketball game squad had shocked Nutmeg State on March 21, the Toreros' nationally ranked baseball game programme was a calendar month into its season.

If the baseball game participants hardly stopped to shrug their shoulders while going about their concern -- which includes being ranked in the Top 10 for the 2nd sequent twelvemonth and winning a 2nd consecutive Occident Seashore Conference statute title -- could you have got blamed them?

After all, this is the 3rd consecutive season and the 5th in the last seven that the USD baseball game squad have advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

This year's baseball game club is ranked No. Seven in the state as it set ups to confront 20th-ranked Cal in the first unit of ammunition of a four-team, double-elimination NCAA Regional that open ups Friday at Long Beach State's Blair Field.But USD baseball manager Rich Hill and his participants state they did halt to bask the basketball game team's minute in the national spotlight.And they believe they benefited from it just as they have got from playing in summertime collegial leagues, offseason exerts in the autumn and the visual image exercises Hill sets his participants through in pattern and games.

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"Big time," is how Hill described the encouragement it gave his team. "Any clip our participants are around a civilization of winning, that's going to help."Hill's one pitcher, junior left-hander Brian Matusz, who will flip Friday's 2 p.m. regional opener with an 11-2 record and 1.88 ERA, felt the energy tally through campus like an electrical current.Matusz is by far the greatest name in San Diego college sports. He could be the first choice of the Amateur Baseball Draft next month.But Matusz states he and his teammates benefited from watching participants that won't see a fraction of the professional athletics fillip dollars that are about to be waved at Matusz.

"Anytime you see your school's name on ESPN and in the national spotlight, it's exciting," Matusz said. "USD is turning into a school where every programme is good. It's a particular feeling to acquire the pupils involved and following the athletic programs."What USD's basketball game squad did against Nutmeg State was gaining control a magic moment. It's what USD's baseball game squad hasn't done in the past, especially last twelvemonth when the Toreros were bounced with two consecutive losings despite being ranked No. Four in the state and seeded No. One in a regional they hosted at San Diego State's Tony Gywn Stadium (USD's Merce Cunningham Stadium doesn't have got lights, so the Toreros can't host on campus)."The adjacent measure on the ladder is for that national success and recognition," Hill said. "That's our goal."USD must last the four-team regional that includes experienced NCAA Tournament squads Fresno State and Long Beach State to gain a position in the Superintendent Regional the followers weekend. The victors of the eight Superintendent Regionals progress to the College World Series. USD have never advanced to a Superintendent Regional or CWS.But the Toreros didn't allow last year's letdown deflate their chance in 2008.

"You've got to allow it go," Matusz said. "It was very difficult on us. It was tough emotionally for everyone because it was a particular team. But this is a particular squad and can be a particular year. We just have got to play our game."Of the 16 four-team regionals in the 64-team bracket, Hill believes USD is in the toughest one. Long Beach State, which have won an NCAA title, is ranked No. Eighteen in the state and seeded No. 1. Fresno State isn't ranked, but the fourth-seeded Bulldogs were three-time Western Athletic Conference champs and one of the squads that round USD in last year's regional.