Fall Practice

[Bogus Smith]

Although this is an old press release announcing the start of Fall Practice, if this doesn't whet your whistle for next spring, nothing will.  Warm weather can't come back soon enough for me!! 

Baseball Opens Fall Practice on Thursday

TULSA, Okla. ? Fresh off their first NCAA Super Regional qualifier, the Oral Roberts University baseball team opens fall practice on Thursday at J.L. Johnson Stadium in preparation for the 2007 season.

ORU?s fall practice schedule will tentatively run until November 5. Head coach Rob Walton welcomes back 14 lettermen, including six position starters and two starting pitchers, from last season?s 41-14 squad. The Golden Eagles won their ninth consecutive Mid-Continent Conference championship in 2006, and earned a Super Regional berth after capturing the Fayetteville Regional title.

For the first time in school history, ORU ended the 2006 season ranked in the top 25 in all three major polls. The Golden Eagles were ranked 14th by Collegiate Baseball, 17th by Baseball America, and 19th by USA Today/ABCA.

Walton is back at the helm for his fourth year. In his previous three years the Golden Eagles have gone 133-47 with three Mid-Con championships and three NCAA Regionals appearances. Walton was named 2006 ABCA Midwest and Mid-Con Coach of the Year.

Highlighting the returning class are reigning Mid-Con Co-Players of the Year Chris Ashman (Hemet, Calif.) and Chad Rothford (Fresno, Calif.). Ashman, a senior right-handed pitcher, was named to the Collegiate Baseball Louisville Slugger All-America third team and ABCA All-Midwest Region first team. Ashman finished the year with an impressive 10-1 record and had a 2.17 ERA in 99.1 innings of work.

Rothford slugged a team-leading 13 homeruns while batting .332 and knocking in 62 runs in his first year as a Golden Eagle. The starting first baseman was named the Fayetteville Regional MVP after he led ORU with three homeruns and nine RBI in three games.

Other key returning position players are starting second baseman Jake Kahaulelio (Windsor, Calif.), who hit .323 while belting four homeruns, with a team-high 20 doubles and 50 RBI; and outfielders Kelly Minissale (Murphy, Texas), a junior who batted .311 with three homeruns and 38 RBI as a sophomore, and junior Brendan Duffy (Glendale, Ariz.), who batted .358 with 57 runs scored and a .479 on-base percentage last season.

The key returning pitchers are senior right-hander Chance Chapman (Paso Robles, Calif.) and senior righty Eric Crichton. Chapman posted a team-leading 1.55 ERA in 46.1 innings of relief work and a 5-1 record as a junior. Crichton had a 4.33 ERA in 52 innings with a 5-1 record while striking out 43 batters in 2006.

The Golden Eagles brought in 13 scholarship newcomers. Leading the class is C/OF Brian Van Kirk (Southwest Ranches, Fla.), a transfer from Tennessee. With the Volunteers Van Kirk batted .346 with four home runs and 22 RBI in 45 games a year ago.

Top pitching newcomers include right-handed pitchers Jeremy Hefner (Perkins, Okla.), Jerry Sullivan (Budd Lake, N.J.), and Stephen Barnes (Jacksonville, Fla.). Hefner spent two years at Seminole State and played this summer for the Spokane RiverHawks in the West Coast Collegiate League, where he went 5-2 with a 1.54 ERA. Sullivan, a freshman, was considered a first round draft pick last June before undergoing Tommy John surgery last fall. He missed his senior season at Mt. Olive HS, but has fully recovered and is ready for fall practice. Barnes has been drafted each of the last two years in the 36th round, both times by the Milwaukee Brewers. The junior right-hander was 3-4 with a 2.98 ERA as a sophomore at Lake City (Fla.) CC last season.

Practices are free and open to the public.

[tmh8286]

That's a great article, Bogus.

I went to second through sixth grade in Hemet, CA.  Who knows - I may have gone to grade school with Chris Ashman's dad!