Baseball-The Tribe had another disappointing day, dropping their second straight to VCU, 5-4. This makes tomorrow a must-win to stay in CAA contention with a tough schedule ahead.

Tennis-The Men’s Tennis team dropped their match to #32 ODU, but Women’s Tennis kept it going and will play in the CAA final tomorrow at 10 AM in Newport News.

Football-The stat lines are out from the Spring game today, with RJ Archer’s line looking the best. He went 9-14 with 126 yards and a TD through the air, and 58 yards plus 2 TD’s on ground. Potts went 11-15 with 142 yards, and Phillips was 8-13 with 91.

Courtland Marriner had the best line on the ground, with 39 yards on 6 carries. The biggest thing I overlooked in my last post was Drew Atchison, who gained 84 yards on 4 catches. Cam Dohse caught a 48-yarder, and Joe Nicholas gained 48 yards with a touchdown. DJ McAulay had 40 yards, and Rob Varno gained 49 yards on 4 catches with a TD.

The defense had a sub-par game, but had sacks from Tracy, Lissemore, and Reyer. TJ O’Neill and Michael Pigram also had very good games, and Derek Cox was the standout in the secondary.

Basketball-The CAA came home with an L from the game tonight, but AP still had a pretty good game. He started slow, but ended with some very nice dunks against little defense. It was great to see the whole team there supporting him, also.

Tomorrow is another big day for the Tribe with the CAA Women’s Tennis final and the 3rd game of the VCU series, both of which are huge for the Tribe.

Tough games for the Tribe, and pitching was just terrible throughout the weekend. This really hurts any chance of CAA contention, and has them in a multi-game hole against ODU.

Riley Benock, a 6-4 Kentucky guard has commited to W&M, the 4th commitment of the year. He is the Tribe’s third guard of the 2007 class, and also received an offer from Furman and interest from Penn State and Purdue. He was ranked #62 in the state by Kentuckypreps.com, who had this to say about him…

Versatile player that poses match-up problems. Effective passer and ball handler. Shot range most effective inside 15 feet. Can hit the 3. Must improve footwork to become better defender on the perimeter.

Here is the report from ESPN recruiting tracker…

6-foot-5 shooting guard Riley Benock orally committed to William & Mary on Saturday, reports the News-Enterprise. The senior chosed the Tribe over Furman and several NAIA schools. “It was the best option for me basketball-wise and academic-wise,” Benock said.

Here is a report from the recruiting section of a Kentucky Newspaper…

One of the state’s top sleepers, the 6-foot-4 Benock doesn’t play in an area that gets a lot of media attention. He’s a combo guard who can stroke it from the perimeter and also has exceptional passing skills. Benock averaged 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists as a junior and hit 50 three-pointers.

Also, his school website has many nice resources. First of all, total stats show he led the team with 18 points per game and 7 rebounds. It also has some nice movies, including a Benock dunk off the glass during warm-ups and also a nice reverse. Finally, it has an extensive photo gallery, which you can find here.

This could mean one of 2 things. First, it could mean Matt McFadden will not receive a scholarship this year. Second, it could mean somebody is going to transfer. Within the next week, we will know the answer, but I shudder at the thought of losing someone to a transfer after a breakthrough year.

Now on to the baseball game, William and Mary’s fifth straight win. Liberty got the loss in Lynchburg Tuesday in an 8-3 game which was headed by 2 Tim Park homers and 8 strong innings from Tyler Truxell. The Tribe had a total of 17 hits, including 2 each from Maliniak, Sheraton, McWhorter, and Sexton. Baseball returns home Friday for a 3-game set against CAA foe Georgia State, and faces Liberty at home next Tuesday.

Go Tribe!

The baseball team has continued it’s hot play, improving to 19-13 with a sweep over Wagner. In Saturday’s double-header, the first game belonged to Brent McWhorter and Greg Sexton. McWhorter went 2-4 with a homer and 4 RBIs, and Greg Sexton also went 2-4 with a homer and 2 ribbies in an 8-5 win. Sean Grieve pitched a very solid game, going 5 innings with only 1 run, but also served up 6 walks. The second game had an unlikely star in Jeff Wera, a back-up catcher who went 2-3 with 3 RBIs in a 6-4 win. Kevin Landry pitched a nice game, going 5 innings with only 1 earned run.

On Sunday, the Tribe won a hard-fought 14-12 game that involved little pitching. Tim Park, Mike Sheridan, and Greg Sexton went deep for the Tribe, and Greg Maliniak also added a 4-5 day. Warrik Staines had a tough day giving up 3 runs in a little over 2 innings, but it was his third time pitching in two days, which is definitely difficult.

Also, you can add Kentucky 2-guard Matt Walls to the Tribes recruiting radar, as he has an offer from W&M. I’ll try to get around to updating the recruiting page today.

Haven’t checked in for a while, seeing as not much is happening, but there is a little bit of stuff to update you one…

Basketball: The Tribe is still actively recruiting. Ben O’Donnell, a point guard from the Tampa area, has cut his list down to W&M and East Tennesee State. From the article, it looks like we are the current favorite…

“They want a point guard,” O’Donnell said. “I liked the campus more (than ETU’s) and it’d be a really good situation (playing-wise) for me.”

Also, the Tribe is going after an Arkansas transfer, Sean McCurdy. In his sophomore year, McCurdy played in 30 of the Razorbacks games this season, and had some nice assist/turnover ratio. He is also talking to Richmond(who just had a player transfer), Wofford, and Colgate. Both would seem to be good gets, but we have to take into account the fact that McCurdy would have to sit out a year.

This also has implications on the Tribes roster situation for next season. If we were to get both, it would definitely be a sign someone is transferring, and it would probably be a guard. If we only end up with one, it could either be a transfer or more likely McFadden will not have a scholarship this season and will have to earn it back this year.

An update on some players that have signed, Marcus Kitts is looking better and better, an average of 15 ppg in a recent tournament, including scoring 17 points with 11 rebounds in a game against rival Apex in the championship game. For a peak of his game, here is a video hosted by trianglehoops.net. Here are a couple of his box scores, and a link to him on the All-Tournament team. Also, check out this video of Valeriu Lazarescu winning another dunk contest.

Football: Spring practice has started, and I’ve got a couple updates. First of all, Derek Cox will be keeping a blog, which can be found at that link all season. RJ Archer will get a shot at quarterback this spring, along with now #11 Jake Phillips and Mike Potts. I’d be much happier if Archer stayed at receiver, however, we still have one of our best pass-catchers in that scenario.

The running back situation is also up in the air, as DeBrian Holmes is missing the entire spring with an ankle injury which opens up an opportunity for Tony Viola and speedster Courtland Marriner. Josh Rutter is also being held out of Spring practice, and TJ O’Neill will move back to linebacker.

Very excited about the upcoming football season, and hopefully I will get the opportunity to do some player interviews this at the start of pre-season practice(August) just like last year.

Baseball: The final note of his post, Tribe Baseball has emerged as one of the CAA’s top teams. They are currently second in the CAA, a game behind Old Dominion, with a 8-4 CAA record and a 16-13 overall record, and has a double-header against Wagner Saturday plus the series’ third game on Sunday. Wagner is currently 4-11 and the Tribe should roll in this series.

The reason the Tribe has gotten off to such a hot start has to do with veteran hitting and suprising freshman starters. The Tribe’s top hitter has been Greg Sexton, who got a walk-off double vs. a strong VMI team Wednesday night and has an OPS of 1.174, with 6 homers and 34 RBI’s. Senior second baseman Brent McWhorter has also been great, winning a CAA POW award on top of a 1.074 OPS. JuCo transfer Tim Park has been a very good lead-off man, and while he is not the typical player for that spot, his OPS is 1.077 and he was key to the VMI comeback. Finally, Robbie Nickle has a 1.038 OPS and 5 homers.

I’ll try to post about baseball post-every series, as Tribe baseball this year is really exciting!

Go Tribe!

Chris Ray:Ray had another solid month of July, much-needed after his ERA of over 5 in June. Chris only gave up 5 runs(4 of which were in 1 game) in 12 innings to the tune of a 3.75 ERA. His WHIP is at a solid 1, and he has gone 6/7 in save opps. He is now 26/28 on the season.

Bill Bray(Tribe player of the month):Bill was traded to Cincinnati on July 13th, but that didn’t phase him one bit. Quite Frankly he has been on fire. Getting his second career win and first career save, Bray posted a 1.26 ERA and brought his season total(was over 5) down to 3.64. He held batters to a .196 batting average against, and only gave up 2 runs in 14 1/3 innings pitched.

Curtis Pride:Pride has only been up with the Los Angelos Angels of Anaheim for about a week, but in his few AB’s he has definitely impressed. In 5 AB’s, he has hit .600 with his first homer since July ‘03(that gave the Angels a 5-3 lead over the Red Sox on July 29th) a double, 2 runs scored and 2 RBI’s. Hopefully Pride can keep it up, and maybe even get a ring with the Angels later in the year.

Brendan Harris:Though he is no longer with the big club, Harris should get called-up when the September call-ups take place, so I’ll give an update on him. After getting traded in the same deal Bill Bray was to the Cincinnati Reds, Harris has struggled. If he continues to hit .229 with an OPS just over .600, he may not get that call-up, but hopefully it is just nerves as he hit .283 with the Nationals AAA team prior to getting traded.

Tribe alum, Curtis Pride, was called-up in the place of stud prospect Howie Kendrick today. Pride was hitting .321 with a .903 OPS for Triple-A Salt Lake in 252 AB’s before getting called-up. Pride is the 4th William and Mary alum to be in the MLB this season.

Check it out

In an 8-player trade today, Bill Bray, Brendan Harris, Royce Clayton, Gary Majewski, and Daryl Thompson was traded to Cincinnati for Felipe Lopez, Austin Kearns, and Ryan Wagner.

ESPN’s article

Bray, a 23-year-old lefty, was the 13th overall pick in the June 2004 draft and was considered one of the Nationals’ top pitching prospects. He was 1-1 with a 3.91 ERA in 19 relief appearances this season, his first in the majors.

His stats have really gotten better as the year progressed(ERA was over 5), and he will be one of the top few relief pitchers on the Reds the second he walks into the clubhouse. Only one Reds relief pitcher with more than 15 IP has a better ERA than Bray. I think he could easily develop into a MLB closer of Chris Ray’s caliber(though he may not do it as soon as Ray).

Brendan Harris didn’t get much of a mention in the article, but he has produced anywhere and everywhere he has played this season. With New Orleans this year he has hit .283 and put together a .795 OPS, very good for a middle-infielder. With the big club, he hit .250 and had a .646 OPS. Not great, but you can’t expect a player to be spectacular when his only AB’s come when he’s filling in Jose Vidro is a 12-2 blowout. He can play all the infield positions save first, though, and that is very valuable with any team.

But when I take off my green and gold sunglasses, it’s pretty obvious the Nats won this deal. Lopez, Wagner, and Kearns are all solid players, and I would much rather be on that side of the deal.

Speaking of the Nats, I’ll have the pictures of Bray and Ray(though they were bad) up tonight.

Poll. Vote on it.