Baseball Recruit

Just had this pop into my inbox from Google alerts:

One of the reasons why I'm not afraid to make an 11th-hour prediction declaring Crescenta Valley as the next Pacific League champion is because it has Kris Kauppila on its side. The University of Portland-bound leadoff batter has 11 hits in his last 12 plate appearances, pushing his BA up to .555 entering tonight's game with Burbank Burroughs. He has also has 21 RBIs and three home runs. His younger brother, Lonnie, has also helped. He's batting .440 with 21 RBIs.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/varsitytimesinsider/2008/04/baseball-some-m.html

I love the fact that we are getting a kid from the LA area who plays in a big school conference. With all the really quality baseball programs down there you'd think that they would scoop up all of the talent, but here we go and snag one. Awesome!

We also snagged a catcher from LA who plays on one of the top HS teams in the country:

As for the recruit... says UP has a commitment from Beau Fraser, a catcher for Aptos High School in LA and the No. 11 HS baseball team in the country:

http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_8676426?nclick_check=1

Obviously I know nothing about Fraser, but I would venture to guess that plucking a kid from LA who has former MLB players as coaches and who is the catcher for a nationally ranked HS team is a good get.

http://pilotnation.net/baseball-f8/pilots-lose-heartbreaker-but-pick-up-recruit-t804.htm

I am not sure this has been posted, but three players signed early this year . . .

http://www.portlandpilots.com/sports/baseball/release.asp?release_id=4410

Yesterdays Oregonian also indicated the Kyle Kraus of West Linn--a little bit of a connection there--has signed with the U. Kyle recently hit three home runs, and had eight RBIs in a 14-1 win; he also pitched, striking out six.

Hard to evaluate a recruit on these snipets . . .but it does seem as though things might be looking up on the diamond.

Go Pilots!

Nice to hear about Kraus!

Those other players in that release from UP are actually playing this year, and both Armijo and Henricks have been regular starters. Actually, Henricks is probably the team MVP this year at the plate - he's been hitting the ball well all year long.

I agree about the baseball program - we do seem to be getting some good young talent in. It's just a shame that the darn WCC is so tough... I mean, it's great that it's such a good baseball conference, but it's a bummer that our team's improvement isn't being reflected in our W/L record.