The Rise of the Carnegie Mellon Tartans (MVP 07 NCAA Baseball)

[Careless Whisper]

Tartans Land New Coach, Conference for Baseball Program
Carnegie Mellon will begin its first NCAA baseball season in the Atlantic 10 Conference this coming February

by Alicia Brown, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporter

PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- Carnegie Mellon baseball has its first leader and home to play in.

Tartans athletic director Daniel Corrigan announced at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that he has hired Steven Van Buren as the program’s first head coach, and that they have been accepted as an affiliate member of the Atlantic 10 Conference. CMU joins fellow city university Duquesne in the 14-team league.

“It’s an exciting day for the CMU baseball program,” said Corrigan. “Travis (Van Buren) was a slam-dunk candidate and will do wonderful things building this team from the ground up. I was floored with the work he’s done over his young career, and his youthful energy and passion will be the jolt this program needs in its early stages. I’m also thankful that the leaders of the Atlantic 10 Conference have accepted us as an affiliate member. The A-10 made the most sense regionally and financially from the start, and I’m sure we’ll be an excellent addition to their league.”

Van Buren, 30, is arriving in Pittsburgh after spending the last four seasons as the head coach at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. The Lords won a pair of North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) championships under Van Buren’s watch, and made the 2005 Division III College World Series.

“I’m thankful for the opportunity Daniel (Corrigan) and the rest of the leadership staff has presented me here at Carnegie Mellon,” said Van Buren. “I am forever grateful for my four years at Kenyon College and cherish all the memories we made during my time there. Moving to Carnegie Mellon says nothing about the job I am leaving and everything with the challenge ahead of me. I’m a man that loves a good challenge, and I am fired up to build a program here in the Steel City.”

The new head coach is bringing four of his Kenyon players with him to CMU, as seniors Kit Kreuter and Hector Karl, and juniors Darrell Salters and Ramon Tillman have been accepted and signed scholarship agreements with the program. Kreuter, a centerfielder, was an All-NCAC First Team selection alongside the shortstop Salters, while pitchers Tillman and Karl were All-NCAC Second Team picks in 2006.

[kinsmen7]

Ahhh, I miss the NCAA series so much! Have fun man, I'm looking forward to following along!

[Careless Whisper]

Quote: Originally Posted by kinsmen7

Ahhh, I miss the NCAA series so much! Have fun man, I'm looking forward to following along!

Appreciate it man, glad to have you on board!

[Careless Whisper]

CMU Set for Debut Season on the Diamond
The Tartans’ slate features 47 games, including non-conference tilts at Auburn, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and UCLA

by Jayson Thomas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter

PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- It’s hard to build a baseball program in a matter of months. It’s even harder to play actual games after forgoing a one-year grace period.

Carnegie Mellon, the newest university to join the NCAA Division I ranks, was given the opportunity to spend a full year recruiting and preparing for its debut season in 2008. Instead the Tartans, under the direction of first-year head coach Steven Van Buren, is attempting to complete an impossible task by competing in actual games just months after the creation of the team.

“We’re going to take our lumps either way,” said Van Buren. “So why not get some of them out of the way this year? The way I look at it is that we’ll learn some valuable lessons over this season, and know what we have to improve on with a full off-season for 2008. I know the guys are itching to get out on the diamond too – I couldn’t imagine holding them out for an entire year while we got everything in order.”

Van Buren’s Tartans squad is made up of the previous year’s club team, four transfers from his previous institution, Division III Kenyon College, nine freshmen who committed shortly after the head coach was hired, and a bevy of walk-ons that made the squad after a tryout.

Leading the charge will be the four former Lords in senior centerfielder Kit Kreuter, junior shortstop Darrell Salters, junior right-handed starter Ramon Tillman, and senior right-handed reliever Hector Karl. The quartet all made All-North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Teams while at Kenyon, and were likely to be D3Baseball.com Preseason All-America selections at their previous school.

Kreuter and Salters will occupy the top two spots in the starting lineup, as Van Buren hopes to give them as many at-bats as possible. Behind them will be junior designated hitter Tyler Tully and senior leftfielder Ryan Rayner, both of which were standouts on last year’s club team.

Freshman second baseman Robby Freed, an All-WPIAL selection at Blackhawk High School, will be penciled in as a starter against both right and left-handed pitching. Fellow first-years Danny Ray Boss – a Beaver Area High School product – and Adrian Arndt will be part of platoons at right field and catcher, respectively.

In the rotation, Tillman will lead the charge as the team’s Friday starter. He’s joined by a pair of sophomore right-handers in Matt Uribes and Bryan Paronto, both who made seven starts for the club team last season. Karl, the fourth transfer from Kenyon, will also start some games according to Van Buren, as he plans to deploy his top right-hander in a multitude of different situations.

Another WPIAL product, freshman Einar Reagan from Keystone Oaks High School, will begin as the team’s primary closer.

CMU’s schedule features eight non-conference series, highlighted by trips to Auburn, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and UCLA. After the season-opening series with the Aggies, the Tartans’ home opener will come against Santa Clara, with Cincinnati and Western Kentucky also making the trip to Pittsburgh in the non-conference slate. The most notable Atlantic 10 series will take place on April 11-12, when cross-town rival Duquesne faces CMU.

Projected Lineup
CF: #1 Kit Kreuter (Sr.)
SS: #2 Darrell Salters (Jr.)
DH: #36 Tyler Tully (Jr.)
LF: #6 Ryan Rayner (Sr.)
1B: #32 Wade Froemming (Sr.)
2B: #21 Robby Freed (Fr.)
C: #35 Joaquin Cormier (Sr.)
RF: #3 Danny Ray Boss (Fr.)
3B: #9 Aaron Musgrove (Sr.)

Projected Bench
C: #5 Adrian Arndt (Fr.)
1B: #26 Sean Pabst (Fr.)
IF: #16 Chris Grieve (Fr.)
OF: #31 Matt Trachsel (Jr.)

Projected Rotation
RHP: #5 Ramon Tillman (Jr.)
RHP: #27 Matt Uribes (So.)
RHP: #25 Bryan Paronto (So.)

Projected Bullpen
LHP: #15 Elpidio MacLean (Jr.)
RHP: #38 Brett Gaston (Jr.)
RHP: #52 Scott Dittfurth (So.)
RHP: #11 Jamie Boyd (Fr.)
RHP: #18 Peter Dirks (Fr.)
RHP: #44 Paxton Jennings (Fr.)
RHP: #28 Hector Karl (Sr.)
RHP: #46 Jeff Hansen (So.)
RHP: #41 Einar Reagan (Fr.)

2007 Schedule
(Home games in ALL CAPS; * denotes Atlantic-10 game)

02/03-02/05 | at Texas A&M
02/09-02/10 | SANTA CLARA
02/16-02/17 | at #15 Oklahoma
02/23-02/24 | CINCINNATI
02/27-02/28 | at Middle Tennessee State
03/03-03/04 | at Auburn
03/09-03/10 | at UCLA
03/13-03/14 | TEMPLE *
03/16-03/17 | WESTERN KENTUCKY
03/20-03/21 | SAINT LOUIS *
03/24-03/25 | GONZAGA
03/27-03/28 | FORDHAM *
03/30-04/01 | at Richmond *
04/06-04/08 | RHODE ISLAND *
04/11-04/12 | DUQUESNE *
04/14-04/15 | at Xavier *
04/21-04/22 | at St. Bonaventure * (DH on 21st)
04/27-04/29 | at UMass *
05/04-05/06 | at Saint Joseph’s *
05/11-05/13 | GEORGE WASHINGTON *

[mvpstax]

yes!!

Glad to see you carry this over

[Deuce2223]

Need to find some Lefties. MacLean is going to see alot of innings this year. Well it doesn't look like you will need to go out and look for SP right away, having 5 Seniors in the starting linep means your going to be very young by next season. I don't really remember to much about the recruiting process in this game but hopefully you can land some solid talent.

What are your plans on building the program around. Pitching/Defense, Contact/Speed, or just try and outscore everyone by hitting HR's.

[Careless Whisper]

Quote: Originally Posted by mvpstax

yes!! Glad to see you carry this over

Thanks, glad to have you along for the ride!

Quote: Originally Posted by Deuce2223

Need to find some Lefties. MacLean is going to see alot of innings this year. Well it doesn't look like you will need to go out and look for SP right away, having 5 Seniors in the starting linep means your going to be very young by next season. I don't really remember to much about the recruiting process in this game but hopefully you can land some solid talent. What are your plans on building the program around. Pitching/Defense, Contact/Speed, or just try and outscore everyone by hitting HR's.

Definitely will be targeting some lefties in recruiting, because you're right - MacLean will see a ton of innings as the only southpaw and I won't be able to play L/L matchups as much. Tillman is probably the only sure bet to be in next season's rotation, since only four of the players (Tillman/Karl for pitchers, Kreuter/Salters as position players) are by far the highest rated guys on the roster.

The recruiting process is pretty easy in this game and I could go out and land three top 100 guys this year if I really wanted to, but of course I'm limiting that with the academic standards and other house rules. I'm still not sure if I'm going to build my team in a certain direction yet; I tend to side with getting mashers on offense and power pitchers in the rotation and pen, but really I'm just trying to get as many guys in the door as possible right now and worry about a specific style later.

[Careless Whisper]

Around the NCAA – Preseason Edition
Reigning national champion Oregon State comes in at #1 in the Preseason Top 25 Media Poll

Baseball America Preseason Top 25 Media Poll
1 | Oregon State
2 | North Carolina
3 | Clemson
4 | Georgia Tech
5 | Georgia
6 | Cal State Fullerton
7 | Miami (Fla.)
8 | Rice
9 | Virginia
10 | Kentucky
11 | South Carolina
12 | Vanderbilt
13 | Texas
14 | Florida State
15 | Oklahoma
16 | Oklahoma State
17 | Alabama
18 | North Carolina State
19 | Nebraska
20 | Ole Miss
21 | Tennessee
22 | Arizona State
23 | Arkansas
24 | Houston
25 | Baylor

Conference Favorites
ACC: North Carolina
Atlantic 10: Saint Louis
Big East: Notre Dame
Big Ten: Michigan
Big 12: Texas
Big West: Cal State Fullerton
C-USA: Rice
Missouri Valley: Evansville
Mountain West: TCU
Pac-10: Oregon State
Patriot League: Lehigh
SEC: Georgia
SoCon: College of Charleston
Sun Belt: Troy
WAC: Fresno State
WCC: Pepperdine