Auburn Baseball Update

[Guest Tigrinum Major]

Good things happening this summer...

Fortunately, no one is playing in the California Penal League this summer.

Auburn Baseball: Summer Ball Update (June 21-27)

A weekly look at how the Tigers playing summer baseball did over the past week. Included this week is Mike Bianucci at the USA Baseball National Team tryouts.

June 28, 2006

A weekly look at how the Tigers playing summer baseball did over the past week. Included this week is Mike Bianucci at the USA Baseball National Team tryouts.

USA Baseball National Team Tryouts

In his bid to secure a spot on the USA Baseball National Team, Mike Bianucci, who reported to tryouts along with Coach Tom Slater last Friday, has been hot ... In Tuesday's 5-1 come-from-behind win over the Keene Swamp Bats of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, Bianucci blasted a solo home run in the seventh to break a 1-1 tie ... Earlier in the day, Bianucci had gone 2-for-4 with a run and two RBI singles in a Red-Blue Intrasquad game ... The team will have its next competition on Thursday with a Red-Blue game in the afternoon followed by a contests against the NECBL's Torrington (CT) Twisters.

Cape Cod League

Through nine games, Josh Donaldson is hitting .289 for Harwich, having scored a team-high seven runs on the young season ... Five of Donaldson's eight starts have come at the hot corner, with the other three coming behind the plate ... On the mound for Yarmouth-Dennis, Luke Greinke is 1-0 with a 0.96 ERA, having allowed just one run in 9.1 innings of relief ... His first win of the season came in relief on Monday when he fanned seven in 4.2 innings of work against the Hyannis Mets ... In a battle of current Auburn teammates last Thursday, Evan Crawford got the better of Donaldson despite the Harwich Mariners claiming a 5-2 win over Crawford's YD Sox ...Crawford threw just 2.2 innings in the starting role, but one of his two K's on the day was of Donaldson ... According to Donaldson, Crawford got him with a curveball for strike three ... Before departing for the USA Team Tryouts, Bianucci was hitting .348 for YD ... Harwich is 5-5 while YD is 4-6 and both trail division-leading Chatham (5-3-1).

Northwoods League

Bryan Woodall pitched 6.2 innings of shutout baseball as the Alexandria Beetles took game two of the series against the Madison Mallards with a 4-1 win on Sunday ... The win was Woodall's first of the year (1-2) and he is currently sporting a 2.61 ERA ... The Beetles moved into a first-place tie this week in the North Division, owning a 14-11 mark, tied with the Border Cats.

Shenandoah Valley League

The Valley League has endured a string of rainouts of late along with an abbreviated schedule over the weekend, limiting the number of games for the Winchester Royals (Paul Burnside, Ryan Jenkins) and the Covington Lumberjacks (Ben Jones) over the last week ... Neither Burnside of Jenkins saw action in Winchester's one game since last Wednesday, a 9-5 loss, while Jones went a combined 2-for-9 in a pair of Covington losses ... Jones continues to lead the Lumberjacks with a .288 average and is a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen bases on the year ... Winchester is 8-9, 5.5 games out of first in the North Division while Covington is 9-9, 4.0 games out in the South.

Texas Collegiate League

In 14 games this season, Josh Stapleton is leading the Roughnecks with 10 runs scored, which is tied for 11th in the league ... In Graham's 9-8 loss to McKinney on Sunday, Stapleton was 1-for-3 with a run and two RBIs ... Russell Dixon continues to miss time for Graham with an injury ... Graham is 4-10, third in the Rogers Hornsby Division, five games out of first.

Also heard around the diamond...

Philip Stringer is playing with the Solano Thunderbirds in Vacaville, Calif., in the California Coastal Collegiate League ... In a conversation with Stringer last week, he indicated the temperatures in Vacaville, which is north-west of San Francisco, soar well above 100 degrees, as it was 111 last Friday ... The (Vacaville) Reporter keeps a good tally on Stringer, who hit a home run in the first inning of a 4-3 win last Wednesday.