It’s a summer’s day in Wichita, Kansas.  The temperature outside on the turf field at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium is 120 degrees.

So why is Vance Albitz shivering?  He was just sweating a minute ago.

Vance pops two pills and pulls down hard on the bill of his cap.  He’s waited weeks for a chance to start for the Lincoln SaltDogs, and he’s not about to let a little heat exhaustion (or whatever this is) slow him down.  There’s a game to play.

If this is what living the dream feels like, it sure doesn’t feel very good.

* * *

At every level of sport, there is a talent cutoff.  Someone who shines in Little League can be exposed in Pony League.  High school’s best rarely become college stars.  And the overwhelming majority of Big Men on Campus become small fish in the pro pond.

The dream dies for almost everyone who chases it, but it dies hard.  Playing pro ball is a fantasy most kids have growing up, and for those who have been good at every level, the cleats can’t be taken off without a fight.

But how do you chase the dream when the dream doesn’t chase you back?

619 Sports caught up with two of the best players who have come through our local colleges in the past few years; not the superstars, but the glue guys who held together their teams in the field and in the dugout.  Two players who despite all their talents were undrafted, but have held onto the dream of playing professional baseball, no matter where it takes them.

In part one of this series, we looked at SDSU standout Mitch Blackburn, who went undrafted in June but has hooked on to the Angels’ organization and risen to Double-A.  Today, we profile UCSD’s all-time hits and runs leader, Vance Albitz, who helped the Tritons to back-to-back appearances in the Division II College World Series, including a run to the championship game in Cary, North Carolina in May.

Like Mitch, he’s on a road which has propelled him improbably into the middle of the minor league framework, but he’s still a long way from The Show.  About as far as Lincoln, Nebraska is from San Diego.

* * * PART TWO: Vance Albitz * * *

Vance Albitz is a square peg in a room of salty SaltDogs.  He’s keeping his eyes open and his mouth closed, the youngest player in a league filled with transitory talents, veterans of every level of the minor leagues fighting to get onto their next roster.  To get anywhere but here.

Not Vance.  He’s fought too hard just to get to this place.  He wants to stick in a place where everyone’s moving.

Here is Lincoln, Nebraska.  Here is actually pretty nice.  But nobody wants to stay in baseball’s version of Purgatory too long.

In the baggy double-knits of the UCSD Tritons, Albitz looked like an extra walking off the set of Field of Dreams.  Generously listed at 5′8″, 160 lbs in the Tritons media guide, Albitz didn’t stand out until you put a glove on his hand and sent him to shorstop.  Then, you couldn’t take your eyes off him.

A two-time National Defensive Player of the Year, Albitz was a vacuum cleaner at short.  He had great range to his right or his left, a strong arm, and the quickness to get to balls others would be unable to reach.  Pitcher after pitcher talked about the comfort they felt having Albitz behind them on defense.

At the plate, Vance was a hard worker in the David Eckstein mold, who established himself as the UCSD table setter and leadoff man.  Albitz finished with a .339 average in his senior season after hitting .374 as a junior.  By the time the Tritons had concluded their march to the national championship game, Albitz was the school’s all-time leader in hits and runs scored.

It was a glorious march, but it ended one step short of the goal.  Southern Indiana beat UCSD 6-4 in the title game, on a day when the Tritons’ airtight defense let them down.  Up 2-0 after the first inning, UC San Diego made a pair of errors in a 3-run second which put them behind for good.

Albitz went 0-for-5 in his final college game, and was left to stare out at the field as Southern Indiana celebrated.  The dogpile Tritons head coach Dan O’Brien had been talking about since the first day of fall ball was taking place, but the wrong dogs were piling.

It took days for the pain of the loss to wear off.  But just like that, a college career had ended, and coach O’Brien was already working to try and jump start a new career for Vance Albitz.

“Coach told me the SaltDogs were looking for an infielder,” said Vance from his new adopted home of Lincoln, “but I wanted to see what happened in the MLB draft so I said no.  Then, nothing happened in the draft, so I told Coach I wanted to play, and he made a phone call.”

The next day, Albitz’s car was packed and he was on the road to Nebraska.

The Lincoln SaltDogs play in the American Association, a top independent minor league.  Compared by scouts to a solid mid-range Double-A league, the Association includes the somewhat famous St. Paul Saints, as well as well-established Midwestern cities such as Wichita and Sioux City.

And Lincoln, where Cornhusker red is acceptable to be worn six days a week.  It’s OK to wear white on Sunday.

Albitz was given a contract with the team and a host family to stay with.  He quickly realized that his baseball life had changed considerably.

UCSD was all about team.  The Tritons played with a spirit and togetherness that lifted them to the #1 ranking in Division II back-to-back seasons.  Now, Vance was on a team where it was every man for himself.

“A lot of the guys here, I’ve noticed…baseball’s all they have.  They have nothing else they can fall back on.”

The SaltDogs’ roster is dotted with Latin American players who have shaken out of the pro system but are still trying to make a living for their family at home.  For these desperate men, every new face in the clubhouse is potentially taking away their lone source of income, their last shot.

Albitz quickly learned things weren’t going to be like UCSD anymore.  An everyday starter for four years, Vance found himself bound to the bench.

“The first week, I didn’t play, didn’t say much, and nobody said much to me.  Second week, same thing.  Sat on the bench.”

Life away from the field was proving to be relatively idyllic.  Albitz picked up his first paycheck after two weeks.  He was earning $800 a month…but with room and board taken care of, his outlay was virtually zero.

“My host family is a host mom actually,” said Vance, “She’s probably my luckiest draw in this whole thing.”

Hearty Midwest breakfasts are waiting for Albitz when he wakes up, and even though the team serves dinner at the ballpark, there’s another meal waiting for him when he gets home.  She’d probably do his laundry too, if he asked.

At yellow lights, people slow down and stop in Lincoln.  They go out of their way to make sure you, a stranger, are taken care of.  Dutifully dressed in ‘Husker red, they follow the local nine, with average attendance (the SaltDogs play at the University of Nebraska’s home field, one of the nicest in the league) between 3000 and 5000 per game.

Not a bad life at all for a young man fresh out of college, if only he could get into a game and show these people what he could do!

Albitz’s chance would come in his third week on the team.  The SaltDogs were in Wichita, Kansas, and the regular third baseman got hurt.  Vance would start his first game, not at shortstop, but on the hot corner.  Little did he know how hot it would be.

The turf was 120 degrees, with heat waves radiating off the old school carpet surface.  By the third inning, Albitz started feeling sick.

“I didn’t know if it was dehydration or whatever, but I started feeling light headed.”

Vance finished the game, even picking up a hit.  When he got back to the hotel, though, things started to get worse.

“I was shivering, then sweating, then shivering again.  I was having problems in the bathroom, couldn’t eat.”

“Here it is, my first chance to start, and I’m sick as heck!”

Albitz wasn’t about to beg out of his first professional starting opportunity.  He suffered through a miserable night and morning in the hotel, barely able to put anything in his stomach.  Come gametime, Vance took medicine to mask the symptoms and ran out to third base.

After the game, it started all over again, but even worse.  The shivers, the night sweats.

For seven days, from Wichita to Sioux City, Albitz suffered and played silently.  He batted .270 during the stretch and made only one error in the field, but his body was in full rebellion.  Vance lost weight, couldn’t keep any food down, couldn’t do anything but be sick, then take medicine and play baseball, then be sick some more.

“It wasn’t like we were at home, where I could have just walked in to see the team doctor.  We were in hotels.  Plus, I was finally playing.

He got a hit in five of the seven games on the road trip.  In his final game in Sioux City, Vance knocked in his first (and only) run of the season.  Then there was nothing left.

“Finally I came in and told coach I’m too sick to play today, I’ve got to go to the hospital.”

“Turns out, I had played the entire week with pneumonia.”

Albitz was bedridden for a few days recovering from the pneumonia, and missed ten days of game action.  By the time he was healthy enough to play again, the regular third baseman was back and locked into the #3 spot in the SaltDogs lineup.

Back to the bench.

Life on the bench at UCSD was a feeling of family.  Vance was never on the bench, of course, except when the team was on offense, waiting for his next at-bat.  But the Tritons were known nationwide for their team chants, choreographed routines (which the NCAA made a new rule specifically to outlaw, the old grumps), and espirit de corps.

With the SaltDogs, it was a whole new ballgame.

“People don’t want to be here,” said Albitz, reflecting on the nature of the American Association, “They want to be here, but they want to be somewhere else.”

“You’re with a team playing for a championship, but at the same time you’re not.  If you put up big numbers here, someone will notice.”

“At San Diego, with a runner on second and nobody out, if you hit a ground ball to second base you did your job.  Here, you’re looking to drive that guy in from second base.  If you happen to hit a ground ball to third instead, well…your motive was to knock in that runner, not to help the team get him across.”

For the ultimate team player, it’s an environment he suffers quietly.  His is not the place to speak up or demand a different level of commitment.

“I had a perception of independent ball as not being very good, but there’s players from every level in this league.  Guys who are cut from Triple-A come right here looking for their next job.”

“Out of every player in this league, I’m probably the lowest of the lowest right now.  I’m just trying to get a starting spot.”

Vance finished the regular season with 28 appearances for Lincoln, getting 52 at-bats.  He hit .288 and scored ten runs, only making that one error (when he was at third, playing with pneumonia).  The SaltDogs made the playoffs as the wild card, and have dropped the first two games of their playoff series against Sioux Falls.  Vance hasn’t played in either game.

Will he be back in Lincoln next year?  Somewhere else?  Will his limited time on the field earn him a free agent invite to a minor league spring training camp somewhere?

There are thousands of roads to The Show.  Most of them are dead ends.  This could be another one.

But you’re not taking the spikes away from Vance Albitz.  He’ll keep walking that road all the way to where it takes him.

Mitch Blackburn looks out the window of his hotel room.  He’s in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Knows no one.  No place to live past tomorrow.  No way to get to where he’s going.  He might as well be on the moon.

And if they played ball on the moon, Mitch would probably throw his glove onto the field for a shot there too.

*  *  *

619 Sports caught up with two of the best players who have come through our local colleges in the past few years.  No, not Stephen Strasburg and Brian Matusz, players who were picked in the Top-5 of the draft, signed for millions, and jetted to the big leagues.  Their stories are in SI and the Washington Post.

Mitch Blackburn and Vance Albitz played baseball the way the game was meant to be played.  Team players.  Did the little things right.  Hit the other way.  Fielded their positions flawlessly.  Too small, too slow, no power…a scout’s nightmare, a manager’s dream.

They could have been teammates.  UCSD head coach Dan O’Brien tried hard to get Blackburn to come to La Jolla from Palomar College.  Almost got him, too.  But Tony Gwynn and SDSU came calling and Mitch answered.

Blackburn started for two years at San Diego State, hitting .306 as a junior and .372 in his senior year.  On our goaztecs.com game broadcasts, I always used to say, “leave it to Mitch” when he came to the plate, because he would inevitably do what needed to be done at that moment; whether it be to move a runner, slash the ball into the hole on a hit & run, or draw a walk.  Mitch was named to the all-Mountain West Conference second-team.

Vance Albitz was simply the best player in UC San Diego history.  The school’s all-time hits and runs leader, a two-time national Gold Glove winner at shortstop and a first-team All-American his senior year, Vance and the Tritons made it to back-to-back College World Series, reaching the championship game this summer.

You couldn’t watch SDSU or UCSD play baseball and not come away knowing that these young men were the engines of their teams.  But come draft day in June, neither got a sniff.

50 rounds.  30 teams.  No phone call.

That’s a lot of denial for any young man to take.

And yet, just two months later, both players are in pro ball, each having reached similar levels and faced similar challenges.

Blackburn, improbably, finds himself in Double-A with the Arkansas Travelers of the LA Angels (of Anaheim) farm system.

Albitz is in the American Association, a talent-filled independent league which plays in front of thousands per night and compares favorably to Double-A baseball, as a member of the Lincoln SaltDogs.

They both know where they want to get.  Neither is anywhere close just yet.  Their paths have been different, but their goal is the same: two longshots hoping to get one shot to play someday, somewhere in the major leagues.

Tomorrow, we’ll profile Vance Albitz’s journey from La Jolla to Lincoln, Nebraska.  Today, click through to read Mitch Blackburn’s story:

* * * PART ONE: Mitch Blackburn * * *

Mitch Blackburn felt like he had been let down and left out.

“After the year I had, I definitely expected to get drafted,” said Blackburn from his temporary Arkansas quarters, a Little Rock hotel room downtown.  He’s just been called up to Double-A after spending less than a month in Arizona rookie ball.

It sounds like the path of a high-round draft pick, but Mitch knows all too well he is not on the chosen path.

“One of the teams who had talked to me (before the 2010 MLB first-year player draft) said it wasn’t a matter of if they would draft me, but when.  The North County Times had me in the paper the week before the draft as one of the local players to watch for.  Then the draft came, and I sat through all three days, all fifty rounds.  Nobody called my name.”

“It was kind of difficult after the last round, not knowing what to do next.”

Next was the vast unknown of free agency.  When you’re cast into a giant pool, it helps to have a lifeline.

Mitch’s lifeline was a contact, courtesy of the family business.  Blackburn’s dad Mark runs a business out of LA, and one of his employees was a former Padres and Angels farm hand by the name of Ryan O’Donnell.  Born and raised in Arizona, O’Donnell had family contacts with one of the scouts in the Angels system.

Through a series of phone calls, an open tryout was arranged at the Angels’ spring training complex in Tempe.  Mitch made the drive down I-8 and into Arizona, his dreams packed in a duffel bag.

He pulled out his glove, cleats and bat and went through a half-hour workout in front of an Angels scout.  Batting practice.  Ground balls.  It was over before he knew it.

“The scout came up to me, and said he liked what he saw.  He said, ‘we’ll see what we need, and if we need a middle infielder, I’ll make sure your name is high on the list.’”

As far as promises go, it wasn’t much.  Blackburn retreated to Temecula, continued to work out at Palomar College, and waited for a phone call, all the while plotting his next step.

“I didn’t want to get my hopes up, after what happened with the draft.  I figured, it was a great experience, if it happens (getting signed), then great.  If not, I’ll look for the next option.”

One week turned into two, and then three.  The workout faded into memory.  But someone in Anaheim (or Tempe) remembered.

“Middle of the third week, I got a call from (Angels’ director of player development) Abe Flores.  He asked if I had signed with anyone yet, or if I was still looking.”

“The next day, I was back on a plane to Tempe.”

The Angels signed Blackburn and assigned him to the rookie league AZL Angels.  The organization’s third-round draft pick, shorstop Wendell Soto, was injured.  Despite being a second baseman throughout most of college, Mitch was thrust into the starting job at shortstop.

For the first week or two, the dream seemed to be at hand.

“Here I was, walking into a professional clubhouse, putting on the uniform and going to work,” said Mitch, “One part of my dream had come true.  Now it was about taking the next step.”

Blackburn played every day for about two weeks.  He didn’t hit for a high average (.204 in 49 at-bats), but hit into some hard luck.  Mitch described an 0-for-17 slump in which six or seven of the outs were line drives.  The Angels’ roving hitting instructor took notice, and praised Blackburn for his approach at the plate.

Then, Soto got healthy, and got his starting job back.  Mitch went from playing every day to fighting for a spot start once or twice a week.

“It was kind of difficult, because growing up, I never had to sit on the bench.  I tried to keep a good attitude, and not show them I was upset or anything like that.  I understand it’s part of the business.  People who sign for big money are going to get the opportunity over those who don’t.”

Still, Mitch was just about a month into his pro career, and already was seemingly adrift, riding the pine in rookie ball.  Then came an unexpected phone call.

“I’m sitting at home on my off day, and get a phone call from my manager.”

Mitch’s heart pace quickened.  Could it come in this cold a fashion?  Could he get released over the phone?

No release was coming; instead, a promotion.  Blackburn was heading to Double-A Arkansas.

Another injury had forced the Angels to shuffle the deck, and they wanted to keep Soto starting every day at rookie ball.  As an expendable piece of flotsam in the Angels’ system, Mitch had suddenly been thrust forward instead of backward.

He joined the Travelers on the road, knowing absolutely no one.

Mitch's new home ballpark, Dickey Stephens Park in Little Rock

“Most guys, when they get promoted, they have players on the team who they’ve played with in past years, spring training and all of that.  I hadn’t been in the organization for more than a month.”

He arrived to a chilly reception.  The minors aren’t like the big leagues in many ways, and clubhouse welcome is one aspect which is decidedly different.  In the big leagues, the first arrival is a rite of passage appreciated by everyone who’s made the journey before.  In the minors, every new face who arrives in the clubhouse could potentially be the one who takes your job, ends your dream.

“There are guys who are friendly, and guys who look at you like ‘who are you and why are you here?’  You get mixed emotions from people…some are nice, and some act friendly but they’re really not.”

Mitch played once on the road, got into a game late as a defensive sub.  Never got to hit outside batting practice.

A new surprise would be waiting when the Travelers arrived at Blackburn’s new “home”.

New minor leaguers are eased into life on baseball’s rocky road.  There are host families for players in rookie ball and low-A ball, home-cooked meals, and transportation to the ballpark.

This was Mitch Blackburn’s life in Tempe.  Little Rock would be a different story.

“When I got here, the clubhouse attendant told me in Double-A and above, the team gives you three nights in a hotel, and then the Angels stop paying and you have to find a place to live and transportation.”

From a wide-eyed newbie in baseball to a transient in Arkansas.  Blackburn doesn’t have the luxury of most pipeline players, teammates in AA who he has played with for years.  There’s no one to take him under his wing, no couch to crash on.

He’s renting a hotel, chewing into his modest salary.  It’s a cheaper one than the team would provide, but it’s doing just fine.  Staring at four walls in a town you don’t know, they might as well be any four walls.  No point in setting down roots when Mitch knows he could just as easily be on the road back to rookie ball, or worse, at any moment.

Does this sound like living the dream?  Ready for the secret?  It is.

“I’m very excited,” says Mitch Blackburn, “Couldn’t be happier right now.”

Mitch got to start a game at home, against Corpus Christi.  Picked up his first Double-A hit, a single (of course) over the shortstop’s head.

Then, a week without action.  A dusty bus trip all the way from Little Rock to San Antonio and back.  One game, in Corpus Christi, an 0-for-4.

Back in Little Rock, the weather’s skipped bad and went straight to worse.  91 degrees with humidity draped over your shoulders like a wet coat.  Mitch is 1-for-11 in Double-A, but he’s still here.

“I was talking to my dad on the phone the other night,” said Mitch,”Sure, I’d like to play more.  But if I get sent back down, if I never make it…I’ve played in a Double-A game.  I kind of wish I knew what was going on more, but I’m here, and I’m happy to be here.”

There are thousands of roads to The Show.  Most of them are dead ends.  This could be another one.

Leave it to Mitch.  He’ll keep walking that road all the way to where it takes him.

TOMORROW, PART TWO: Life in the independent leagues with Vance Albitz

EL CAJON—Tick tock on the clock.

It’s jury duty day for your humble scribe.  Yes, my chance to give back to the California legal system, mostly by sitting uncomfortably in my chair staring forward.

The inspirational training video is over, the coffee cart has been raided, and while I now feel proud and patriotic to be a part of our legal system, boredom is likely to set in soon.

I’ve got a book (or two), my laptop, and a gnawing dread that my name’s about to be called to go stand in the hallway.  The DVR is set to record the Germany-Spain World Cup semifinal, but I’m hoping for an early reprieve, in the form of the most glorious sentence you can hear inside these four walls:

“Please start to fill out your exit interview form.”

This is the type of place where your mind inevitably wanders, and you start to think about better times, happier times, great moments that help you escape the drudgery of the long wait.

We’ve crossed the six-month threshold for 2010.  Halfway home.  Has it been a good year for San Diego sports so far?

Our city has celebrated a championship and a near-title, the local nine is shockingly in first place, and March Madness brings back some great memories.

NOT a Top 5 moment

We can only hope the Chargers and Padres will fill the second half of the year with even greater moments, the types of which only a professional, major sporting championship could provide.  Certainly the Bolts left us with our worst memory so far of 2010, Shonn Greene’s scamper to the end zone, with Antonio Cromartie in his wake.

By year’s end, we’ll undoubtedly have a Top-10 list of San Diego sporting highlights.  But six months in, why not cut things in half and bring you the Top 5 moments of the San Diego sports scene?

Sitting here in the jury room, squirming and looking at a decidedly unkempt man to my left, I can’t think of a better way to spend the next few minutes, so here we go…all of these choices are mine alone, so feel free to offer your own Top-5 list in the comments section below:

5) SDSU men upset New Mexico and UNLV, win MWC Tournament

Heading into Las Vegas, the Aztecs appeared to be on the outside of the NCAA bubble looking in.  Without any marquee road or non-conference wins to point to, SDSU had the sheen of yet another 20-win NIT squad.  Running the table, in Vegas, seemed like the only sure option to make it to the NCAA Tournament.

So, the Aztecs went ahead and won the whole damn thing.

You might have forgotten by now, but the glorious dance to March Madness started with a near-stumble.  SDSU fell behind Colorado State 7-0 in the MWC tourney opener, and needed two free throws from D.J. Gay in the final 10 seconds to edge the Rams 72-71.  Keep in mind, this was an Aztecs team that did NOT make free throws (they missed 10 in the CSU game), and Gay had already missed in a similar key spot at New Mexico earlier in the year.  But, in what was to become the best run of his Aztecs career, Gay rose to the occasion and lifted the Aztecs into the semis.

This is where the odds-makers were sure the run would end, as San Diego State faced 8th ranked New Mexico.  Behind 28 points from Billy White and another key late shot from Gay, this time a three pointer, SDSU sprung the 72-69 upset and moved off the bubble and into the “last four in” column in the never-ending bracketologists’ predictions.

But could you ever truly trust the NCAA selection committee to do the right thing and select San Diego State?  Steve Fisher’s boys left nothing to chance, taking down UNLV on their home court 55-45 behind a 16 point, 21 rebound performance from precocious freshman Kawhi Leonard.

The Aztecs wound up traveling all the way across the country to Providence to face Tennessee, and gave the Volunteers quite a tussle before falling 62-59.  With all five starters and even more bench depth returning, the Aztecs are now a sexy Top-25 pick for the upcoming season, and we can dream of their adding to the list of great memories in 2011.

4) Padres beat Mets 5-1 in 11 innings on Adrian Gonzalez grand slam

Only one Padres moment on the list?  Is this another snub?  Have I already dozed off in the jury room?

Understand, it’s hard for me to compare any single game in the first half of a regular season with a championship moment like those which dot this list.  And we don’t know yet how the Padres’ story will end in 2010.

But it’s been a magical ride so far, as San Diego has exceeded everyone’s expectations (including our own) by leaping out to a 48-33 mark at the halfway point of the season.  They’ve done it with elite pitching, benefiting from surprisingly airtight defense.  Having already played 30 one-run games, the Padres have gone an MLB-best 19-11 in those affairs.

And if I were to pick one game which encapsulates what the Padres have been about this season, June 2nd would fit the bill.  In this one game, San Diego managed to feature every highlight of their remarkable first half.

The Padres got elite pitching, with Clayton Richard working six strong innings, allowing just one run.  Their bullpen troika of Luke Gregerson, Mike Adams and Heath Bell all appeared in the game, combining to allow just one hit over three innings with three strikeouts.

The Padres played great defense, with David Eckstein knocking down a ball that would have scored an extra run for the Mets.  San Diego (also highly representative of their first half) scuffled offensively, spinning their wheels against a struggling Johan Santana, who needed over 120 pitches to work through seven frames.

Down 1-0 in the 9th, Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez ran into his old Angels teammate Eckstein again, and Capt. Clutch delivered a two-out, two-strike single to plate Tony Gwynn from second base.  Eckstein delivered more clutch hits in the first half than any human physically should be able to produce.

In the 11th, it was San Diego’s MVP candidate rising to the occasion, as Adrian Gonzalez (who else?) launched an opposite-field (where else?) grand slam to beat the Mets 5-1.  We talked to Adrian after the game:

So far, it’s been some kind of season, and magical moments like these are to be cherished.

3) UCSD advances to Division II College World Series championship game

The way the Padres have been playing in 2010, they’ve taken a page from the UCSD playbook.  That’s about as high a compliment as we can pay to Dan O’Brien’s UCSD Tritons baseball team, the best college team in San Diego.

Picked #1 to start the season, the Tritons never lost their steely-eyed determination to return to Cary, North Carolina, host city of the Division II College World Series.  They rolled through the regular season, won the CCAA going away, and then swept through the West Regional in three games, completing the first step of their goal.

Much like the Padres, this UCSD team did it with pitching, defense, and timely hitting.  Hustle over muscle.  Execution, little-ball, and dirty uniforms.  Senior shortstop Vance Albitz, three-time defensive player of the year, caught everything hit in his direction.  A starting staff led by Tim Shibuya and Matt Rossman went four-deep, giving the Tritons a luxury on the mound.

In Cary, UCSD proceeded on a phenomenal run to the championship game.  Each of their first three contests were classics.  First Grant Bauer provided the late dramatics with a walkoff single in the CWS opener, 3-2 over Georgia College.

Then, in the greatest pitching performance in UCSD history, senior right-hander Matt Rossman worked 11 pressure-packed innings, outlasting #2 Central Missouri 2-1.  It was a game that, due to rain, started after 9:30pm local time.  Rossman made sure it would last well beyond midnight, striking out twelve and retiring 34 of the 37 batters he faced.  In this, his final college start, Matt Rossman finished with a moment he will never forget:

UCSD would continue their season-long theme of team effort in their third game, as starters Kirby St. John and Guido Knudsen, the 3rd and 4th starters in the Tritons’ rotation, combined on a 6-3 win over Franklin Pierce.  619Sports.Net brought you exclusive highlights from the College World Series throughout the Tritons run:

While the Tritons’ run ended in a winner-take-all championship game against Southern Indiana, their brilliance could not be diminished by a single loss.  Dan O’Brien’s team set the standard for local college baseball, going further in his respective division than either the Toreros or Aztecs have been able to accomplish.

2) SDSU women upset Texas in Austin, go to Sweet Sixteen

Jene Morris is wearing the net SDSU cut down from Austin as the Aztecs prepare to fly back to San Diego (Photo: Beth Burns)

Halfway through their 2009-2010 campaign, the SDSU women’s basketball team was lost at sea.  Not playing as a team.  Underachieving in the Mountain West.  Unlikely to make even a ripple in the college hoops pond.

By the time March 2010 came around, the Aztecs made a Texas-sized splash.

Just like the men, Beth Burns’ Aztecs needed a MWC tournament run to even reach the NCAA field.  Unlike the men, they had virtually no chance to get in as an at-large.

After a sluggish start in the first round (just like the men), they pulled away from Wyoming 60-51, then trounced BYU 77-47 in the semis.  In the final, it took overtime, and a 22 point performance from tourney MVP Quenese Davis, but the Aztecs outlasted Utah 70-60 and punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament.

It was a ticket to Austin, where SDSU would have to face the host Texas Longhorns in the first round.  The Aztecs were the #11 seed, the Longhorns the #6.  A crowd of 5,000 in burnt orange greeted Jene Morris and the rest of the Red and Black.  It would take something insane to defeat this team in this atmosphere.

Something like, say knocking in seven of your first eight three pointers?  Done.  Jene Morris scored 32, and SDSU shocked Texas 74-63 to advance to the second round.

If the story had ended there, it would have still been on this Top 5 list.  But probably not as high.  Facing 3rd seeded West Virginia, the Aztecs marshaled a defensive effort which will lead Beth Burns’ highlight reel for years to come.  Morris and Davis both poured it in from inside and out, and the result was a history-making 64-55 win, pushing SDSU into the Sweet Sixteen of a 64-team field for the first time in school history.

We talked to Jene Morris that night as she was about to board the plane and have the picture taken you saw at the start, with the net around her neck.  What a moment for Jene, a true example of a great student-athlete and an incredible human being:

Download audio file (032310-jene-morris.mp3)

The Aztecs had come all the way back from a season filled with doubts to fulfill the promise of a group of talented and committed women.  SDSU lost to Duke 66-58 in the round of 16, with dead legs.  The legs were dead from the longest and greatest run in the history of SDSU women’s basketball.

1) San Diego Sockers win the PASL-Pro North American Championship

Homer pick, you scream!  How could you put a minor league soccer team’s title over the great season of the Padres, or Jene Morris’ heroics, or…well, anything?

One simple sentence: flags fly forever.  And so do banners.

The Sockers will hoist an 11th championship banner into the Del Mar Arena rafters this November, and for a team starved for a taste of a title, the Sockers are the one place we can count on for a full meal.

Unlike everyone else on this Top 5 list, the Sockers not only had something to win, they had something to lose.  This was the fourth and possibly final incarnation of the indoor soccer greats.  Arena soccer, due largely to the rise of the MLS and outdoor soccer in the USA, had diminished from its national level of the ’70s and ’80s, when the San Diego Sports Arena would be packed.

Behind new owners Phil Salvagio, David Pike and Carl Savoia, the Sockers were reborn again, placed at the Del Mar Arena, and entered into the PASL-Pro.  Their players were a mix of old and new, with salty former Sockers vets Paul Wright and Sean Bowers being joined by a host of players who had trained for years with the San Diego Fusion, the developmental program which helped spawn players like Chiky Luna and Riley Swift.  Salvagio was the coach and GM.

Everyone involved knew that anything short of a championship could be the death knell once again for the franchise.  It had been years since the Sockers were great, and to recapture the imagination of the city, they would need to be great again.

But a championship was anything but guaranteed.  While the Sockers dominated the PASL-Pro with a 13-3 record, they would need to face the top teams from Mexico and Canada in addition to the United States in order to hang another banner.

Hosting the PASL-Pro North American Championships at the Del Mar Arena, the Sockers squared off against Mexico City in the semifinals and needed a Luna goal with :19 remaining to outlast the Sidekicks 6-5.  We broadcast the game live on 619Sports.Net and then caught up with Luna after the game:

Kraig Chiles (hat trick) swigs champagne on the field to celebrate the Sockers' 11th indoor title

The championship final was equally thrilling, as the Sockers jumped out to an early commanding lead but then had to hold on for dear life against a determined side from Guadalajara.

Paul Wright, the most recognizable veteran from the previous era of Sockers glory, recaptured his magic with a goal and four assists.  Wright’s clever passes set up San Diego’s current goal scoring star, Kraig Chiles, who netted a hat trick.

The end result was a 9-8 win which gave the San Diego Sockers their 11th major indoor championship.

It’s one thing to win but another to do so when a loss could cost you everything.  Now, the Sockers have recaptured their tradition, given themselves a championship platform to build upon this winter, and brought (at last) another title to the city of San Diego.

Championship?  Check.  Nobody else can say that so far this year in San Diego.  And thus, the Sockers top my half-year list.

(Hang on, they’re calling everyone back into the jury room.  What’s that?  Please fill out your exit interview form?!?!?! Sweet!  Add this to my personal Top-5.  OK, my public service is done, off to watch the World Cup!)

The 2009-2010 school year has come to an end, and at UC San Diego, so has a season of spectacular athletic achievement.  From the baseball team’s appearance in the national championship game to record setting seasons for women’s basketball and women’s volleyball, UCSD had a string of tremendous team performances.  Individual student athletes brought home national championships in swimming and track and field.

Off the field, it is a time of exploration and transition for the UCSD athletic department.  The school is actively exploring a move from Division II to Division I.  A home in the Big West conference is a possibility.  But such a move would require a significant investment from a student body which has to date failed to come out and support their teams.

619 Sports sat down for an exclusive one-on-one interview with the athletic director of UC San Diego, Earl Edwards, to talk about all of these issues and more:

Download audio file (061510-earl-edwards.mp3)

A singular goal.  A single loss.  And just like that, a dream dashed for UCSD baseball.

The #1 ranked squad in Division II, a senior-laden team which had as its stated goal all season to become national champions, the UCSD Tritons reached the national championship game in Cary, North Carolina, and fell to Southern Indiana University, 6-4.

UCSD (54-8) jumped ahead of the 9th ranked Screaming Eagles (52-14) with a two-run first inning, highlighted by Kyle Saul’s solo homer.  Southern Indiana ace starter Trevor Leach was on the ropes, but the right-hander came back to escape a 2nd and 3rd, one-out jam, and pitched scoreless baseball from the 2nd through 7th innings.

Meanwhile, the Tritons made mistakes which they had avoided for almost all of their first 63 games of the season.  A pair of errors and three two-out runs put UCSD behind 3-2 in the second inning.  Starter Tim Shibuya (13-3) threw away a bunt attempt at second base, and Evan Kehoe’s two-out throwing error denied Shibuya an inning-ending double play.

Southern Indiana #9 hitter Todd Martin then roped a two-run double down the third-base line to put the Eagles ahead to stay.

“If this morning you told me we were going to make two errors and walk two guys in one inning, I wouldn’t have believed it,” UCSD coach Dan O’Brien said. “We just picked a bad day to have some uncharacteristic mistakes.”

Tim Shibuya allowed five runs, all with two outs, and three unearned runs in the loss (Photo: Darrin Lee for 619 Sports)

Shibuya’s two-out struggles continued in the 4th as he allowed a two-out, two-strike, two-run single to #8 hitter Brad Vance, putting Southern Indiana ahead 5-2.

Meanwhile, Leach was working on 13 days’ rest, as he and fellow Screaming Eagles starter Dan Marcacci had been suspended for four games, after a beanball war in the Midwest Regional.  Leach and Marcacci only became eligible for the national final when the Eagles lost in the semifinal round, forcing the team to play an extra game in the losers’ bracket.

“Maybe (I was) a little too rested,” Leach joked. “Emotions were high coming into the ballgame. I hadn’t pitched in 13 days. We finally got through it, and our hitters put up a three-spot (in the second inning) and took a lot of weight off my shoulders. I knew they were going to swing it behind me, and we just kept competing.”

The Tritons finally got to Leach in the 8th, as Brandon Gregorich (3 hits) opened the frame with a booming double.  Southern Indiana manager Tracy Archuleta turned to Marcacci, who gave up a pair of runs on Danny Susdorf’s sac fly and Blake Tagmeyer’s RBI single.  However, Marcacci was able to settle down and record the final six outs, getting Evan Kehoe on a flyball to right to end the game and start the Eagles’ celebration.

The Tritons outhit Southern Indiana 11-7 but failed to deliver the big blows when needed.

“(Leach) was leaving a lot of balls over the plate and I thought we hit a lot of balls hard, just right to guys,” Gregorich said. “I thought we got good pitches to hit, we just couldn’t come up with the clutch RBI in the middle innings.”

Dan O'Brien expressed pride in his team after the game (619 Sports photo)

It’s a bitter loss for the Tritons, who had romped through the NCAA tournament with a 6-0 record prior to Saturday’s championship game.  By advancing through the winner’s bracket with three straight victories, UCSD gave up the opportunity to lose a game in the double-elimination tournament.  It all came down to one game, and the Tritons did not play their best baseball on the day it mattered most.

“Our kids battled until the very end. They stayed resilient, stayed loose,” said O’Brien, “We just picked a bad day to make uncharacteristic mistakes. But our focus isn’t on the mistakes right now. Our focus is that these guys battled to make it to a championship ball game.”

Matt Rossman, Vance Albitz, Kyle Saul and Aaron Bauman were named to the all-tournament team from UCSD.

All season, the UCSD Tritons have stated that their only goal was to dogpile in Cary, North Carolina, as the champions of Division II college baseball.  Now, they are one game away.

Evan Kehoe’s 2-run double spurred a 3-run 6th inning, as the #1 ranked UCSD Tritons came from behind to beat Franklin Pierce University 6-3 and claim a berth in the Division II College World Series championship game.  It’s the first-ever appearance in the national championship for UCSD (54-7), which has won 20 out of 21 games, including a perfect 6-0 record in the NCAA tournament.

“We found a way to win tonight and that’s the bottom line,” head coach Dan O’Brien said. “We didn’t play our best baseball, but we did a lot of things really well and these guys have just been incredibly resilient all year.”

Watch exclusive highlights of UCSD’s 6-3 win over Franklin Pierce:

During the Tritons’ recent dominant run through the playoffs, one of their greatest strengths as a team has been allowed to atrophy.  A starting rotation that is four deep hasn’t been needed, nor has the UCSD bullpen, as Tim Shibuya and Matt Rossman have been racking up complete game victories.

O’Brien on Thursday chose to start Kirby St. John, a senior 11-game winner who hadn’t pitched since the CCAA regional finals on May 8th.  The rust showed as St. John struggled through 4 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and three runs.

Trailing 3-2 in the 5th, O’Brien turned to his 3rd starter, Guido Knudsen.  The junior was seeking redemption in the College World Series after allowing a pair of late home runs last year as a closer, including the walkoff blast that knocked UCSD out of the semifinals.

Guido Knudsen closed out the semifinal with 4 1/3 shutout innings of relief (619 Sports photo-Darrin Lee)

Knudsen more than redeemed his past performance, working 4 2/3’s innings of shutout relief, allowing only one hit and no walks while striking out four.  In doing so, Guido (10-3) became the fourth 10-game winner on the UCSD starting staff.

“Kirby was battling out there and I just wanted to come in and pick him up,” Knudson said. “I was just trying to focus on one pitch and pound the strike zone. Kellen (Lee) did a great job back there and we got the job done.”

In the 6th, Aaron Bauman singled and cleanup hitter Brandon Gregorich followed with a base hit.  It was the first hit for Gregorich, the West Region player of the year, snapping an 0-for-10 in the College World Series.

“I have been struggling a little bit this week,” said Gregorich, “but if you keep battling, good things are going to happen.”

Kehoe then tied the game with an RBI double to right center.  Gregorich scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch, and Kellen Lee’s sac fly made it 5-3 UCSD after six.

Lee continued his tremendous World Series with a triple in the eighth, scoring on Grant Bauer’s squeeze bunt.

“It was just a great team win tonight,” O’Brien continued. “We got a dominant performance from Guido and we found a way to score some runs. This program’s all about playing team ball and that was a great team win.”

The Tritons now get one last day of rest and await the winner between Southern Indiana (50-14) and Georgia State and College (42-16) in Saturday’s 9am championship game.  UCSD is seeking its first national championship in any sport since women’s soccer in 2001.

An all-time pitching performance from an All-American pitcher has given the #1 ranked UCSD Tritons one of their greatest wins in program history.

Tritons senior Matt Rossman pitched an 11-inning complete game two-hitter, and Kellen Lee’s RBI single in the 11th helped UC San Diego (53-7) to a 2-1 win over #2 Central Missouri in the Division II College World Series.  The Tritons have won their first two games in the double-elimination tournament, claiming a berth in the national semifinals on Thursday.

“I’m excited about going to the semifinals, but right now all I can talk about is the courageous outing that Matt Rossman just gave us,” head coach Dan O’Brien said. “He’s a senior, he’s a veteran, he’s our team captain, but most importantly, he’s a flat out winner.”

Exclusive video: Rossman gets the last out in the 11th

Rossman (10-0) allowed just two hits, walking two and striking out twelve.  The right-hander walked Central Missouri’s leadoff man, then retired 21 straight batters before allowing his first hit in the bottom of the 8th, a Tyler Ruch double.  Jon Wegener followed with a double to left to score Ruch, but that was all the Mules (52-10) could muster against Rossman.

With UCSD the road team in this winner’s bracket second round matchup, the pressure intensified as the Tritons stranded runners at second and third in both the 9th and 10th innings.  Rossman responded by seemingly getting even stronger, retiring 12 of the final 13 batters he faced, including the last nine in a row.

“I felt good and I had three pitches going today,” he said. “My change-up was extra effective and the cutter got me through the last four or five innings. I was keeping it down and they couldn’t hit it.”

In the 11th, Danny Susdorf singled and advanced all the way to third with nobody out courtesy of a balk and wild pitch from losing reliever Nick Phillips (2-3).  UCSD catcher Kellen Lee followed with a clean single to center, scoring Susdorf to break the 1-1 tie.

Exclusive video: Watch Kellen Lee’s game-winning hit

With two away, senior shortstop Vance Albitz singled to right.  Lee came around to score, colliding with Central Missouri catcher Albert Selanders at home plate.  Home plate umpire Robert Wilson invoked a D-II rule against crashing into the catcher at home, calling Lee out and ejecting him from the game.  On replay, it appeared that Lee did drop both knees into a slide before contacting Selanders.

Last year, the UCSD Tritons got off on the wrong foot in the Division II College World Series, having to battle out of the losers bracket after dropping their series opener.  This year, Grant Bauer made sure the Tritons would not have to suffer the same fate in 2010.

UCSD’s second baseman delivered arguably the biggest hit in school history, a walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the 9th inning, giving the Tritons (52-7)  a 3-2 win over Georgia College & State on Saturday night in Cary, North Carolina.

“We played a very solid, very well-coached Georgia College ballclub tonight,” head coach Dan O’Brien (pictured) said. “That’s a ball game that could have gone either way. Both teams scraping and clawing, two number one’s throwing their hearts out… that’s what college baseball is all about.”

Exclusive video: watch Bauer’s game-winning hit and the UCSD celebration:

“It’s easy to get excited in that situation,” Bauer said after the big hit, ”I tried to stay relaxed, see the ball up and put a good swing on it.”

Bauer’s knock made a winner out of UCSD ace Tim Shibuya, who pitched a complete game for his school-record 13th win of the year (13-2), allowing eight hits and two runs, walking none while striking out four.  The senior was stretched to throw 138 pitches in the victory.

Tim Shibuya threw a complete game for his 13th win of the year (photo: Darrin Lee, 619 Sports)

“I felt really good out there,” said Shibuya, “the arm felt loose all day.”

Kyle Saul drove in the first two runs for UCSD with a sacrifice fly in the first inning, and a two-out RBI double in the 5th.  Georgia College answered with a two-run sixth against Shibuya, tying the game on a slow infield roller by Matt Pitts.

Georgia College’s Richard Pirkle followed with a single to left, but Tritons outfielder Aaron Bauman threw out Shawn Ward at home to end the inning and preserve the tie.  UCSD catcher Kellen Lee held on after a stand-up collision at the plate to record the out.

In the bottom of the 9th, UCSD third baseman Evan Kehoe was hit by a pitch from losing starter Martin DeWald (11-3), who also threw a complete game.  Chris Fung sacrificed Kehoe to second base with two outs, setting up Bauer’s big hit.

The Tritons now face Central Missouri in a winner’s bracket second round matchup.  The game will be played on Monday at 4pm Pacific time, and can be watched live on NCAA.com.  Check back in on Tuesday to 619Sports.Net for more exclusive video and photos from UCSD’s run to the national championship!

COMPTON–Ranked #1, winners of 51 games, and NCAA Division II West Region Champions, the UCSD Tritons are just now getting to where they wanted to be all season long.

The College World Series in Cary, North Carolina.

Using a complete game from junior right-hander Guido Knudsen and a seven run, two-out fifth inning outburst, the Tritons (51-7) beat Hawaii Pacific 9-4 to sweep the West Regional at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton.  The win clinches back-to-back trip to the College World Series for the first time in program history.

“I’m proud of our guys,” said UCSD head coach Dan O’Brien, “we didn’t come out playing our best baseball today but the guys found a way.  It’s just a great day and a great weekend.”

Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, the Tritons rose up for five straight hits with two away.  Aaron Bauman’s two-run single put UCSD ahead 2-1, a lead they would never relinquish.  After a Brandon Gregorich single, Evan Kehoe tripled into the right field corner to make it a 5-1 game.

Designated hitter Danny Susdorf followed with a sinking liner to left that Hawaii Pacific (39-12) outfielder Blake Amaral made a diving attempt at but missed.  The ball rolled all the way to the wall for another RBI triple.  Kellen Lee then launched a flyball off the top of the left-field fence and over for a two-run homer to cap the rally.

It was more than enough support for Knudsen (9-3), who allowed seven hits and four runs in his fourth complete game of the year, walking two and striking out five, including Rylan Morihara to end the game and begin the wild celebration.  The Tritons dogpiled on the pitcher’s mound, leaving Knudsen with a balky left shoulder afterward but a big grin.

“This is just the start,” said Knudsen, “Our goal is nothing less than to win the College World Series.  We’ll go after it one game at a time just like we’ve been doing all year.”

Right fielder Kyle Saul set the tone for UCSD offensively out of the two-spot in the batting order, reaching base four times (2-for-2, 2B, 3B, 2BB) with two stolen bases, two runs scored and a sacrifice.  Saul sparked the seven-run 5th with a two-out walk that came after falling behind in the count 0-2.

“We had a wave of contagious hitting going on in the fifth,” said Saul, “we made a good concerted effort to have a better approach with two strikes and it paid off.”

The Tritons now get a week off before opening College World Series play on May 22nd in Cary, North Carolina against the Southwest Region champions.

COMPTON–Brandon Gregorich was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th, forcing across the game-winning run from third base in a 4-3 UC San Diego walkoff victory over Cal State Dominguez Hills.  The win gives #1 ranked UCSD (50-7)  a berth in the NCAA Division II West Regional finals tomorrow afternoon at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton.

Tritons starter Matt Rossman, the CCAA pitcher of the year, locked horns with CSUDH ace right-hander Bret Montgomery in a tense pitchers’ duel in front of a packed house in Compton.  UCSD scratched across single runs in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings to take a 3-2 lead, and Rossman protected that advantage into the 9th.

Dominguez Hills (41-19) mounted a desperate rally against a tiring Rossman, keyed by a leadoff hit batsmen and an 11-pitch one-out walk to Toros first baseman Steve Carrillo.  Having thrown 135 pitches, Rossman was lifted for UCSD closer Danny Simmons (5-0), who allowed a game-tying pinch hit RBI double to CSUDH reserve catcher Derrek Duarte.

In the bottom of the 9th, Toros closer Matt Phillips (8-1) walked leadoff man Robert Sedin on four pitches, then balked the winning run to second base with nobody out.  After an intentional walk, Kyle Saul bunted the runners into scoring position.  The Toros elected to intentionally walk Aaron Bauman to re-load the bases for Gregorich, the conference player of the year who set the Tritons’ single-season RBI record with 80 in 56 games.  Gregorich was nicked on a breaking ball in the dirt to force across the game-winner.

A brawl nearly broke out at the end of the game, as UCSD’s dugout poured out to celebrate the win.  The Tritons bowled over the Dominguez Hills catcher Duarte on their way to mob Gregorich at first base, and Duarte emerged from the dust enraged, leading both benches to clear.

The Tritons now await the winner of tomorrow’s losers bracket final between CSUDH and Hawaii Pacific.  They will play the winners bracket final at 4pm tomorrow, a game you can hear live right here on 619Sports.Net.  A win would place UCSD in the Division II College World Series for the second straight year.  A loss would force a one-game championship on Sunday afternoon.