May 29, 2013
Complete Baseball Release in PDF Format 
ON DECK: The University of San Diego baseball team (35-23) will be playing in the UCLA Regional of the NCAA Tournament this upcoming week. The Toreros are the No. 3 seed in this regional and will square off against Cal Poly on Friday at 2 p.m. The two other remaining teams in the bracket are the No. 1 seeded UCLA Bruins and the No. 4 seeded San Diego State Aztecs.
SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS: The Mustangs enter the tournament with an overall record of 39-17 after taking two-of-three from future WCC member Pacific this past weekend. Denver Chavez, who is hitting .362 with 84 hits, 14 doubles, three triples, one home run and 21 RBI, paces the Cal Poly offense. On the mound, the Mustangs pitching rotation is anchored down by Joey Wagman, who is 12-3 with an ERA of 3.11, and an impressive 100 strikeouts. USD is 28-29 all-time against the Mustangs, and last faced them on Mar. 2, 2012, a 5-4 USD win at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
SCOUTING THE BRUINS: UCLA enters the tournament with an overall record of 39-17 after dropping two-of-three to Stanford this past weekend. The Bruins lead he all-time series at 19-7, but the Toreros did with the last meeting between the two, 5-3, back on May 6, 2008 at Jackie Robinson Stadium behind Kevin Hansen's first career home run. Kevin Kramer, who is hitting .290 with 61 hits, 11 doubles, two triples, three home runs and 38 RBI, paces the Bruins offense. On the mound, the Bruins ace of the staff comes in the form of Adam Plutko, who is 7-3 with a 2.60 ERA in 97.0 innings of work.
SCOUTING THE AZTECS: The Aztecs enter the tournament with an overall record of 31-29 after upsetting New Mexico in the Mountain West Tournament Championship game this past Sunday. SDSU leads the all-time series at 67-51-2, including winning all three match ups this season at Fowler Park. However, USD has won four of the last seven meetings. Tim Zier, who is hitting .346 with 85 hits, 13 doubles, two triples, one home run and 41 RBI, leads the San Diego State Aztecs offensively. On the mound, Michael Cederoth, who is 3-8 with a 4.15 ERA on the year, anchors SDSU's rotation down.
NO. 31: San Diego junior All-American third baseman Kris Bryant, reached a milestone in the final regular-season game of the season at UC Irvine, he hit his nation's best 30th home run, a solo blast to left center field. Bryant then surpassed that mark with his 31st home run of the season against BYU on Saturday in an elimination game at the WCC Tournament. Bryant became the modern era single-season NCAA home run leader with his 31st home run,as all teams now use the BBCORE bats. Bryant surpassed a 2-year old record of 30 held by Georgia Southern's Victor Roache. Roache hit his 30 home runs over the course of 62 games, while Bryant has done it in 54 games, and at sea level.
CAN YOU SEE ME: All of this weekend's games will be on ESPN3. Fans can watch the games this weekend through the ESPN3 website, or by clicking on the Watch link on the USD website. Trey Bender will be providing all the play-by-play action, and providing color commentary will be Jerry Kindall.
TOREROS IN THE NCAA REGIONALS: This will mark the eighth trip to the NCAA Regionals at the Division I level for the Toreros. In these Regionals, USD has posted an overall record of 6-12. USD has reached a regional championship game once, back in 2008, before falling to eventual national champion Fresno State.
LEADING THE NATION: Kris Bryant continues to lead the nation in home runs hit with 31, after hitting one more home run this past weekend, which is 11 higher then Ryan Kindella from Elon, who is in second place with 20. This is a new single-season record at USD. Bryant is also leads the nation in slugging percentage (.860), walks (62), and leads in runs scored with 78.
MR. LONG BALL: Kris Bryant has now etched his name in the USD history, as he surpassed both the 25-year old single-season, and 25-year old career home run record. In 1988, Dave Rolls set the single-season mark with 18 long balls, but Bryant has surpassed that with his nation's best 31. With his 31 home runs on the season, Bryant has also surpassed the 25-year old career record of 43, that was held by Sean Baron, and he currently has 54. What is also more impressive, Bryant set this record in three years, while Baron did it in an outstanding four-year Torero career. The 54 career home runs is now second all-time in WCC history, and the 30 home runs this season is tied for second best in WCC single-season history, with the record currently held at 33 by Nate Gold of Gonzaga. Bryant has now hit more home runs that 228 schools in Division one, as of Monday May 13.
BRYANT NAMED GOLDEN SPIKES SEMIFINALIST: USA Baseball announced Tuesday the names of the 30 semifinalists for the 2013 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award, highlighted by the University of San Diego's Kris Bryant. This marks the 36th consecutive year that the award has been presented to the nation's top amateur baseball player. Bryant, a 6-5 junior from Las Vegas, Nev., is currently leading the nation in home runs with 31, which is no a new NCAA modern BBCORE era record, as well as a new USD single-season record. Bryant has also broken the career USD home run record and now has 54 in his three-year Torero career. He was named the West Coast Conference Co-Player of the Year, and is currently leading the nation in home runs (31), slugging percentage (.860), walks (62) and runs (78). Overall, Bryant is hitting .340 with 73 hits, 13 doubles, three triples and 62 RBI. Bryant was also named to the All-Tournament team of the WCC Championships, and has been named the national player of the Week once, WCC Player of the week three times, and WCC Player of the month once.
MVP, MVP, MVP: USD freshman left-handed pitcher Troy Conyers, was tabbed the West Coast Conference MVP of the WCC Tournament this past weekend. Conyers, who was the staring pitcher in the championship game, entered the game with a 10 plus ERA, and the result, a complete game, three-hit shutout of San Francisco to lift USD to the WCC Tournament championship. Conyers fanned a career-high nine batters, and became just the second Torero this season to toss a complete game shutout. The other pitcher to do it was freshman lefty PJ Conlon, and it too was a complete game shutout, and against none other than San Francisco. Also an interesting note, entering the game, Conyers had recorded 132 pitches in his previous 10 outings, then goes out and throws 123 pitching in the win over USF.
ALL TOURNEY HONORS: San Diego had four players take home All-WCC Tournament honors this past weekend. Troy Conyers, MVP, as well as Austin Bailey, Austin Green, and Kris Bryant were also selected to the team. For the tournament, Bailey went 7-for-18 with two doubles, one home run and six RBI, while Green went 7-for-19 with one double and four RBI and Bryant went 5-for-14 with a double, one home run and one RBI. Bryant was also walked five times this weekend.
CAN YOU HEAR ME?: All of this weekend's games can be heard live on the USD website through an audio broadcast. Providing all the live play-by-play action will be the voice of Torero baseball Jack Murray, and providing color commentary will be Hall of Fame baseball coach John "JC" Cunningham.
TWO TOREROS NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM: Junior third baseman Kris Bryant and sophomore infielder Andrew Daniel were named to the preseason All-WCC team. In WCC action last season, Bryant hit .326 with 31 hits, six doubles, two triples, seven home runs and had 25 RBI. Bryant also slugged at a .653 clip and had an on base percentage of .409. Daniel on the other hand, was just behind Bryant in WCC games, as he hit .323 with 32 hits, nine doubles, two home runs and 29 RBI. Daniel had an on base percentage of .387 and was slugging at a .475 clip.
PICKED TO WIN IT: The University of San Diego has been selected to win the 2013 West Coast Conference baseball championship, in a preseason poll of the WCC's nine head coaches. The Toreros earned six of eight possible first-place votes and 62 overall points in the poll. Last year's West Coast Conference champion, Pepperdine University, earned 53 points and picked up two first place votes in the annual survey. Gonzaga University garnered a first place vote and tallied 49 points to finish third in the poll. Loyola Marymount University captured 47 points to finish fourth. The University of San Francisco was selected fifth with 39 points, while BYU was tabbed sixth with 24 points. The University of Portland (19 points), Santa Clara University (16 points), and Saint Mary's College (15 points) rounded out the poll.
TORERO SKIPPER Rich Hill: San Diego's Rich Hill has built the USD Toreros into one of the most successful Division I baseball programs on the West Coast. The 2013 spring season will be Hill's 26th year as a head coach at the collegiate level, and 15th at USD, having enjoyed 22 winning seasons in 25 years. Since taking over at USD in 1999, Hill has been remarkable in leading the Toreros to 14 winning campaigns, rewriting the school record book en route to claiming five West Coast Conference Championship titles in 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008 and 2010. Under his leadership San Diego has averaged 35 wins per season, including winning a school record 44 games in 2008, a year in which Hill was honored by his peers as the WCC Coach of the Year. In 2007, Hill led USD to its highest national ranking in program history at No. 4, as well as USD's first-ever national seed in the NCAA Regionals. In 2008, Hill guided the Toreros into the championship game of the Long Beach Regional, marking the first time USD had reached that game in a NCAA Division I Regional.
2013 LIVE STATS AVAILABLE: All of San Diego's home games, and select road games can be followed live via Stat broadcast on the Toreros athletic web site at www.usdtoreros.com. Statbroadcast is a real time update of the action.
CAN YOU SEE ME?: All USD home games, as well as select road games, will be streamed live via video on the athletics department website. Fans can watch all the action live from the comfort of their home by logging onto usdtoreros.com. Simply go to the baseball schedule page and click on the WATCH link to view that days game. The voice of the Toreros, Jack Murray, will be providing live play-by-play of all home games as well as select road games this season.
