What’s In This Issue?
• Unforgettable ’Series Moments: USC’s dramatic steal of home in 1998 and Miami’s Grand Illusion of 1982 were remarkable.
• Collegiate Baseball’s National Player of The Year: RHP Kevin Kopps posts 12-0 record, 11 saves, 0.68 ERA and 120 strikeouts in 31 appearances.
• College World Series Preview: CB looks at how each of the final 8 teams made it to Omaha and what makes them special.
• Collegiate Baseball’s NCAA Div. I All-American Teams: Incredibly talented players make up 3 teams which are powered by Diamond Sports.
• Collegiate Baseball’s Freshmen All-Americans: Top NCAA Div. I freshmen, power by Diamond Sports, headed by Freshmen Players of The Year in SS Brooks Lee (Cal Poly), C Daniel Susac (Arizona), DH Jacob Berry (Arizona), UT Paul Skenes (Air Force Academy) and RHP Andrew Taylor (Central Michigan).
• Collegiate Baseball’s High School All-Americans: Powered by Diamond Sports, here are the best high school players from 2021 headed by National Player of The Year SS Marcelo Mayer of Eastlake H.S. (Chula Vista, Calif.). He hit .398 with 13 HR and stole 17 bases.
• Special Championship Roundup: CB takes a look at how teams won titles in NCAA Div. II, III, NAIA, NJCAA Div. I, II and III.
• Editorial: NCAA Division I has a broken process when the vast majority of automatic bids for the championship are given to conference tournament winners. CB feels that they should always go to the regular-season champs since many regular-season conference champs don’t get an at-large bid.
• Lou Pavlovich Column: Jesse Cuevas, Stadium Supervisor at old Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, saw wild situations at the College World Series for 41 years.
• 2021 All-Pavlovich Team: Special people in baseball honored with 32nd annual rundown, including a player who never played high school baseball but became an All-American at Georgia Highlands and a closer at Bradley University with a 98-mph fastball who doubled as a blacksmith.
• Book Reviews: Two new books are must reads. Winning With Honor by Gary Adams is about Hall of Fame UCLA basketball coach John Wooden and Los Angeles Dodgers’ Manager Dave Roberts. Another superb book is Beyond The Ball written by Tony Abbatine which explains the visual and emotional habits of high performers.
• New Hall Of Famers Named: National College Baseball Hall of Fame announces its 2021 class.
• NCAA Division I Poll Presented By Big League Chew: Vanderbilt on top for the fourth time this season after winning the Nashville Super Regional two straight and a big upset by N.C. State over Arkansas.
• College Notes: Salisbury wins 20 of its final 21 games enroute to the NCAA Div. III title. The Sea Gulls’ only loss was a 23-inning thriller against Southern Virginia, 7-6, the longest game in NCAA Div. III history. Read all about it plus more notes.
• Coaching Changes Across The Nation: Read about all the latest coaching moves across all levels of college baseball.
• Ruleball With Rich Marazzi: Rich explains an important nuance in the passing of the runner rule when unique situations take place.
• CB’s National H.S. Poll Presented By Diamond Pro: St. Mary’s (Orchard Lake, Mich). No. 1 with 38-1 record and 17 wins in a row as offense averages over 11 runs a game with 57 homers.
• High School Notes: Walker Smallwood fires a no-hitter with 19 strikeouts, several coaches celebrate major coaching milestones while another is fired for alleged racial slur.
