May 5-10 Blog
May 05, 2008 12:33 PM | General
We’re changing things up a little bit. For the past four years Campus Connection has kind of been like a weekly blog full of tidbits, notes, commentary, quasi-opinion and weak stabs at humor that have sometimes hit the mark and at other times completely missed. Well, to keep up with the Jones', we’ve decided to turn Campus Connection into a daily blog. If we miss a day then you know we’re struggling.
Hope you enjoy it ...
Minor League Update
Posted By John Antonik: May 9, 2008 (4:16 pm)
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| Grant Psomas |
Of the seven former Mountaineers currently active in professional baseball, four are presently assigned at the Triple-A level. Longtime reliever Steve Kline is currently pitching at Triple-A Lehigh Valley where he owns an 0-1 record with a 6.97 earned run average in nine appearances. Lehigh Valley is an affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Dustin Nippert has made two starts for the Texas Rangers Triple-A affiliate Oklahoma, where he owns a 1-0 record with a 3.86 earned run average in 9 1/3 innings pitched. Nippert has also had major league experience playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Ex-Mountaineer quarterback J.R. House has caught on with the Triple-A Round Rock Express where he is batting .307 with a home run and 10 RBI in 29 games. The Round Rock Express is affiliated with the Houston Astros.
Grant Psomas, is presently playing first base for the Albuquerque Isotopes where he is batting .500 in seven games. Psomas shows nine hits in 18 at-bats with three home runs and seven RBI. Psomas played shortstop at West Virginia University.
Catcher David Carpenter is batting .219 in 10 games with the Palm Beach Cardinals in Advanced A, while pitcher Levi Maxwell shows a 3-1 record with a 1.16 earned run averaged with the Single-A Kannapolis Intimidators. Centerfielder Adam White is batting .275 with a pair of home runs for Single-A Lake County Captains, a Cleveland affiliate.
Pitcher Kenny Durst and outfielder Justin Jenkins are presently in extended spring training.
Online Orders
Posted By John Antonik: May 8, 2008 (11:26 am)
I read today that one of West Virginia’s corporate partners, Papa John’s, recently surpassed the $1 billion mark in online sales. For the past seven years Papa John’s has made an effort to grow its online business. Presently, Papa John’s expects to reach its second million in less than three years.
This is interesting because West Virginia University’s online business is experiencing similar growth, particularly in ticket sales. According to Marketing Director Matt Wells, WVU has made a significant push toward having its ticket customers renew their season tickets online this year.
The benefit for the customer is the ability to save $10 on processing fees and the security of knowing their order was processed via an instant email confirmation. The benefit for the ticket office is less time on the telephones and fewer papers to process.
Wells says approximately 40 percent of this year’s tickets have been renewed online. That’s substantially more than the six percent that the ticket office processed last year. With still two weeks to go, the ticket office has already more than doubled the total number of orders renewed online from last year’s total. Wells expects the number of online orders to continue to grow.
West Virginia first realized the potential of online ticketing in 2004 when it processed nearly 30 percent of its Gator Bowl ticket sales online, excluding club seats.
“Overall we’ve averaged less than 10 percent in total ticket sales online,” Wells said. “But that number will grow this year with increased online renewals. The limited availability of single-game tickets because of high season ticket sales has reduced our capacity for online sales the last two years.”
To renew your season tickets online, simply log onto WVUGAME.com or click the online renewal button to your left below the WVU Downloads image.
NCAA Rankings
Posted By John Antonik: May 7, 2008 (1:46 pm)
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| Chelsea Carrier |
Chelsea Carrier’s Big East-winning performance of 13.48 in the 100-meter hurdles moves her up to 26th this week in the NCAA women’s 100-meter hurdles rankings. The outstanding freshman is also ranked 35th this week in the heptathlon with a score of 5,073, also produced at last weekend’s Big East Championships.
Keri Bland is ranked 23rd nationally in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:21.60 and 24th in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:07.01.
Others in this week’s national rankings include: Katelyn Williams (23rd, high jump, 1.77 meters), Clara Grandt (34th, 5,000, 16:28.57) and Alison Spiker (85th, 3,000-meter steeplechase, 10:47.55).
West Virginia returns to the track May 16-18 to compete at the ECAC Outdoor Championships in Princeton, N.J.
Cover Boy
Posted By John Antonik: May 6, 2008 (11:03 am)
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| Owen Schmitt |
Four years ago fullback Owen Schmitt was looking for a place to play. Today, the fifth-round draft pick of the Seattle Seahawks is one of four former college standouts selected on the cover of the new EA Sports NCAA Football 09.
From walk-on to cult hero, one of college football’s most colorful personalities is also one of its best fullbacks due to his devastating strength, blistering speed and relentless desire to block opponents back into last season, wrote EA Sports.
Joining Schmitt on this year’s covers are former Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan, the Michigan State Sparty, former Arkansas running back Darren McFadden and ex-Cal wide receiver Desean Jackson.
Big East Bowl Lineup
Posted By John Antonik: May 5, 2008 (12:35 pm)
The Big East bowl lineup is changing once again this year. With NCAA approval of the St. Petersburg Bowl in Tampa, the Big East now has six bowl affiliations for its eight football playing members.
The St. Petersburg Bowl will be played at Tropicana Field on a date yet to be determined (sometime between Dec. 20-23) against a team from Conference USA. The Big East was also able to land an SEC opponent in the PapaJohn’s.com Bowl. That game has been moved to Dec. 29 making it one of the more appealing bowls in the Big East lineup.
“We have always wanted to have a bowl relationship with the Southeastern Conference,” Big East Commissioner Tranghese said. “We believe the game will continue to prosper under the Big East and SEC banners.”
The Big East’s other bowl tie-ins are with the Gator (ACC) or the Sun (Big 12) for its second choice, the Meineke Car Care Bowl (ACC) for the third choice and the International Bowl against a team from the Mid-American Conference.
The Big East champion goes to one of the five BCS bowl games.
Notre Dame will continue to be involved in the Big East’s bowl rotation should the Irish fail to qualify for a BCS bowl.
The Big East is hopeful of one day growing the St. Petersburg Bowl into an appealing bowl with a date closer to New Year’s. Presently the Big East does not have any bowl tie-ins with the Big Ten or the Pac 10.
The addition of the St. Petersburg Bowl and the Congressional Bowl in Washington, D.C., pitting Navy against a team from the ACC, brings the total number of sanctioned bowl games to 34. That means 68 out of 119 schools have the opportunity to play in a bowl game in 2009.
Last year, just seven bowl-eligible teams failed to receive an invitation to a bowl game including 6-6 Louisville from the Big East.
