SAINTS SWEEP DODGE CITY

DODGE CITY, Kansas (April 6, 2008) - Galen McSpadden won his 900th career game, and Seward County Community College swept a Jayhawk West Conference series on the road against Dodge City Community College this past weekend at Cavalier Field in Dodge City. The Saints have now won 15 straight games, following four wins against Dodge City (7-5, 16-2, 5-4, 2-0). McSpadden, the 27-year veteran coach of the Saints, won his 900th career victory at SCCC in game two on Sunday, and has now led Seward County to a 26-12 overall record this season. The Saints currently lead the Jayhawk Western Division with a 17-3 overall mark. Dodge City falls to 15-25 overall and to 6-14 in the Jayhawk West.

After sweeping their third straight conference series, the Saints now lead Hutchinson Community College (22-10, 15-5) by two games for the lead in the Jayhawk West Conference. Hutchinson was idle this past weekend and will play on the road at Pratt Community College this weekend.

In game one, the Saints used seven extra-base hits, including two home runs that help sophomore pitcher Tomas Cruz earn his seventh victory of the season. Sophomore catcher David Masters hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning, and sophomore Will Gowdy scored the final run for the Saints with a solo home run in the seventh inning.

Cruz struck out 10 batters, giving the Amarillo, Texas native 32 strikeouts in his last four outings. He is now 7-2 on the season with a 2.15 earned run average with a team-high 50.1 innings pitched.

Seward County completed the doubleheader sweep on Saturday with four big offensive innings in game two. The Saints scored two runs in the third, three in the fourth, five in the fifth and six runs in the seventh inning. Gowdy (2-for-5) led the team with four RBI while sophomore Michael Drzazga hit the games only home run with a three-run blast in the Saints' five-run fifth inning.

Sophomore left-handed pitcher Christian Kowalchuk picked up his fifth win of the season throwing six innings, scattering five hits, two runs and four walks with five strikeouts. The Saints also welcomed back center fielder Keegan Morrow to the starting line-up. Morrow has missed the previous eight games with an injury before going 2-for-4 with a triple, three runs scored and a RBI in game two.

Seward County won game three with a double to right field by freshman Caleb Nine in the top of the seventh inning, scoring sophomore Erik Hansen who reached base on a walk. Masters was the only Seward County player with multi-hits going 2-for-3 with a RBI. Masters also improved his hitting streak to 13 games with his two singles in game three of the series. Masters' hitting streak ended in game four of the series.

Sophomore Tyler Binkley started game three on the mound for the Saints where he pitched 5.1 innings, allowed five hits, four runs (three earned), two walks and posted four strikeouts. Sophomore reliever Jordan McClintick was the winning pitcher for the Saints pitching 1.2 innings. McClintick improves to 7-1 this season with a 2.08 ERA in 26 innings pitched.

Freshman left-hander Austin Terhune pitched his first collegiate complete-game shutout in game four. Terhune allowed three hits and three walks with six strikeouts in his second victory this season. The Perryton, Texas native finished the game recording all three outs in the seventh via strikeout.

Freshman outfielder Mikel Huston remained clutch for Seward County at the plate going 2-for-3 and recording the only two RBI of the game. Huston singled home Gowdy in the fourth inning to give the Saints a 1-0 lead, and he followed with another RBI single to center field in the sixth inning to score Nine for the final run of the game.

The game-four victory marked career victory No. 900 for Saints' head coach Galen McSpadden. During the last 15 seasons, McSpadden has
led the Saints to 10 Jayhawk West titles and to four conference runner-up finishes. McSpadden becomes the 25th head coach all-time in NJCAA history to win 900 games, and he is the 11th active head coach to reach the historic milestone.

Seward County will play its first mid-week doubleheader in three weeks on Wednesday, April 9, hosting Luna Community College (12-23) for a 12:30 p.m. non-conference doubleheader at Brent Gould Field in Liberal. This upcoming weekend the Saints will be back in Jayhawk West action hosting sixth-place Garden City Community College (16-18, 9-11) for a pair of doubleheaders on April 12-13.

McSPADDEN'S MILESTONE VICTORIES:
Career Win #100: March 20, 1986 (vs. Pratt C.C. - 21-5)
Career Win #200: April 12, 1990 (vs. Colby C.C. - 10-6)
Career Win #300: April 11, 1993 (vs. Butler County C.C. - 4-2)
Career Win #400: April 8, 1996 (vs. Frank Phillips College - 5-4)
Career Win #500: May 2, 1998 (vs. Cloud County C.C. - 10-5)
Career Win #600: March 23, 2001 (vs. College of Southern Nevada - 5-2)
Career Win #700: March 30, 2003 (vs. Lamar C.C. - 6-5)
Career Win #800: April 27, 2005 (vs. Garden City - 4-3)
Career Win #900: April 6, 2008 (vs. Dodge City - 2-0)

For more information on Saints Baseball check out their official website @ http://athletics.sccc.edu/bbnews.html

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (March 31, 2008) - The NJCAA and its Baseball Coaches Association are proud to announce that a 2008 NJCAA Baseball All-Star Team will play for national pride this summer, representing the United States in a three-game series versus Taiwan. The international sporting event will take place June 20-22, 2008, at USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn.

The NJCAA All-Stars will be led by Seward County Community College (Kan.) head coach, and 2008 NJCAA Baseball Hall of Fame Inductee, Galen McSpadden (left). He will be assisted by Jeff Willis, head coach at Louisiana State University - Eunice, and Marc Rardin, head coach at Iowa Western Community College.

"This is an opportunity to be involved in baseball at a level that I have never been involved," explained McSpadden on taking the job, "to play against a national team that is going to represent Taiwan in the Olympics is exciting. It is going to be a lot of fun to work with a couple of very good coaches and players from the NJCAA."

Last year, McSpadden along with and Glendale Community College (Ariz.) head coach Dave Grant (NJCAA Baseball Coaches Association President) and others helped organize and coach the NJCAA Freshman All-Star Series. The event, which was also held at USA Stadium, featured two talented rosters full of NJCAA freshman competing over three days in front of many professional and four-year college scouts.

"Having had the experience last summer being an assistant in Millington (NJCAA Freshman All-Star Series) will help with this event," McSpadden said.

"The way that this will be administered by Dave Grant, Harry Tholen (NJCAA Baseball Coaches Association), Richard Hitt (South Florida Community College head coach) and those at USA Stadium will be first-class, and a lot of fun."

The yet to be determined roster for the NJCAA All-Star team will consist of freshman and sophomores currently playing on NJCAA baseball teams for the 2008 season. Players will be nominated by their (NJCAA) head coach, with all nominations and roster positions to be analyzed and selected by Coach McSpadden and his staff.

Compiling a final roster will be a challenge as many NJCAA baseball players are expected to be selected in this year's Major League Baseball Amateur Draft (June 5-6), thus making their participation in the series doubtful. However, McSpadden and his staff are confident that they can put together a very competitive roster.

"Having already talked with Jeff (Willis), Marc (Rardin) and Dave Grant, we are going to have some challenges in the selection process. We have to have the best talent that we can select. Fortunately, we are going to be able to take freshmen and sophomores, but I explained to them we will need a pre-(MLB) draft roster and a post-(MLB) draft roster. We will do our best to put together the top players that will best represent the NJCAA."

Those players selected for the NJCAA All-Star team will go up against some of the best players from the Far East. The roster for the Taiwan National Team, also known as Chinese Taipei, will feature many of the players that will be making up their roster for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Taiwan's visit to the United States will also include a series versus the USA National Team, which will take place the week following their series with the NJCAA All-Stars.

NJCAA Baseball All-Star teams have historically faired very well against international competition, especially at USA Stadium. The last time an NJCAA squad faced an opponent from a foreign country was in 2002 when they won three out of five in a series against the Chinese National Team.

In the summer of 1999, an NJCAA All-Star Team triumphed over Canada's National Team, winning four of the five scheduled games. Both events took place at USA Stadium in Millington.


Links: USA Stadium; Millington, Tenn.


To reach Coach McSpadden for comment please contact:
SCOTT LACEFIELD
Sports Information Director, Seward County Community College
scott.lacefield@sccc.edu
Office: (620) 417-1553


FOR NJCAA COACHES ONLY!!!
Nominate Your Players for the NJCAA All-Star Team