Baseball

Two big innings sunk the Zips 10-5 in a soggy conference opener against Ball State.

The teams will play two tomorrow.

Track

Akron had a big day down at Wake Forest.

Ten athletes qualified for the NCAA Regionals.

Baseball

The Zips will wait another day to measure themselves against the MAC Champions.

Weather washed out game one at Ball State. Game two of the series is still set for today at 4 p.m.

While you're biting your nails, awaiting the results of that game, read this fascinating interview with first baseman Doug McNulty.

Track

Larisa Arcip was Akron's top finisher on day one of the Wake Forest Open.

She took third in the 800. A bunch of Zips placed in the top 10 in the event, which includes 50 teams.

Football

Jon McClain performed well in limited action last night for the Canton Legends.

Technically, he was one-for-two on extra point attempts. The "miss" was actually a bad snap that the holder tried to turn into a two-point conversion.

The Legends fell to the Reading Express, 50-19.

I'm Mike Rasor, your Canton Legends beat writer.

Baseball

Akron is Pedro Martinez. Memphis is the Yankees.

It's clear who fathered whom in this relationship.

The Zips (9-4) fell for a fourth time to the Tigers today, 12-6. UA's promising freshman Steven Zemanek took the loss, surrendering eight runs (five earned) in 3 2/3 innings.

Akron will open conference play Friday against Ball State.

Tennis

I didn't plan to write about the tennis team today.

Then I saw the Zips beat Connecticut College. That's not UConn or even Central Connecticut State.

Well, Akron took care of the creampuffs, 8-1.

With a strong reliance on sophomores, the Zips (6-4) are still a young team. This season, it would be nice to see a few more than last year's one conference win.

Baseball

The way Akron has played Memphis, the Zips should hope for rain to wash out game three of their series against the Tigers tomorrow.

Memphis beat Akron a third time this season, 5-4.

I'll have more tomorrow. It's St. Patty's Day night.

Baseball

Memphis pumped balls over the fence to start the seventh and eighth innings to take the lead from Akron and finish the Zips' nine-game winning binge with a 3-2 win.

The Tigers held Akron to just five hits — a season low. Billy McKinney pitched another solid game for the Zips, giving up one run in six innings.

Memphis (10-6) is still the only team to beat Akron (9-2) all season. The teams will meet again today at 3 p.m.

Baseball

This may have slipped under your radar (as it has mine), but the Zips have won nine straight.

This has become a theme for the secondary sports (track and men's soccer not included). They tear up the nonconference schedule, then lay an egg against MAC opponents. See women's soccer, women's basketball, volleyball and last year's softball teams.

The Zips have some serious firepower behind Kurt Davidson, aka Akron's version of Pronk.

Now that the basketball season is over, I'm interested to know what kind of sports Zips fans would be interested in reading about.

In case you were wondering, the Buchtelite used to write almost exclusively about national sports, and even other colleges. We transformed it from Buckeyes and USC to pure Zips.

Anyhow, Buchtelite sports editor Adam Ferrise and I were wondering what the heck to do now that our cash cow was slaughtered. Given the success of the track team, that's one subject.

Please shoot me an e-mail or leave a comment.

Baseball

It's too bad for Tom Farmer that the Zips opponents use aluminum bats.

That's because Farmer has been pitching very well in the wood-bat Cape Cod League this summer.

He is sixth in the league with a 1.26 ERA and has struck out 25 batters in 29 innings. Coach Pat Bangtson probably will rely on Farmer to step in for Ross Liersemann as the team's ace in 2007.

Football

Akron lost out on a four-star quarterback target today.

Chris Smith committed to Marshall, turning down offers from Akron, Iowa, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Bowling Green and Ohio.

• Ever wonder how Charlie Frye got so dang tough? Zac Jackson hung out with Frye at his home in Willard and wrote a bit about it for the PD and ClevelandBrowns.com.

Softball

For the second season in three, Akron will have a new coach in the dugout.

This time it's Julie Jones, who comes to the Zips after a 10 years career as Cleveland State's head coach.

Jones took the Vikings to last year's Horizon League championship. The team finished the season at 38-15. Her overall record is 206-245-2.

It's cliche — and pretty meaningless in a sport where athletes are usually good students anyhow — but Jones' players have traditionally done well in the classroom.

Here is another interesting facet about Jones' career: Her fundraising topped $25,000 each year.

Jones is a local product, too, playing at Garfield High School and Baldwin-Wallace College.

Jones replaces Julie Wright, who unexplainably bolted to Wisconsin to be an assistant coach. Despite her noggin-scratching exit, Wright's teams overachieved while rebuilding.

With Jones and women's basketball coach Jodi Kest, Akron hired winning head coaches from Division I programs. This makes me believe athletics director Mack Rhoades is offering salaries that are quite competitive.

Baseball

Here is a GoZips.com update on how players are faring in the wood bat summer leagues across the country…

• Starting pitcher Tom Farmer has a 1.59 ERA in the prestigious Cape Cod League.
• First baseman Kurt Davidson is an All-Star in the Valley Baseball League in Virginia.
• Outfielder Charlie Lenhard has a .559 slugging percentage in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League, which is also quite prestigious.
• I reported that outfielder Rashard Graves would participate in the Midwest Prospect Baseball League in Indiana. He has decided not to play, after all.
• To find out what's up with these leagues, you can read my Indianapolis Star story on them by clicking here.

Men's soccer

So you're asking: Who will replace star forward Ross MacKenzie.

Don't be disappointed, but his successor did not play one minute last season.

Pablo Moreira missed the entire season with a knee injury, but coach Caleb Porter is asking him to step into a large role, Jennifer Long of GoZips.com reports.

If Moreira wins that spot, his success will be one of the biggest keys to the Zips' return to the nation's elite.

• The Chicago Fire Premier won the Great Lakes division of the United Soccer League's Premier Development League. Players on the team include Evan Bush, Sinisia Ubiparipovic, Matt Tutich and Jonathan McClain.

Miscellaneous

Remember to add the new GoZips.com to your Favorites list.

The URL no longer includes CSTV. All you need to type is www.gozips.com. If you haven't seen anything new on the site for a while, that's probably why.

Football

A running back from Warren, whom Akron offered a scholarship, verballed with Ohio State on Monday.

Daniel "Boom" Herron is the No. 21 running back in the country, Scout.com says. Neither recruiting site mentions Akron as a serious candidate for Herron.

I hope he enjoys riding the bench behind Antonio Pittman and Chris Wells. Nice career move, Boom. See you in the CFL.

Golf

How to be Ben Curtis Instruction Manual

• Step One: Win the Ohio Amateur golf tournament.
• Step Two: Sign an endorsement deal to wear ugly NFL polo shirts.

Zips players Ryan Gutowski and Vaughn Snyder will start the process this week. Curtis, who gets paid to be the worst dressed non-Euro on Tour, won the state am in 1999 and 2000. The Stow resident went on to win the 2003 British Open.

I covered the Indiana Amateur for the Star two weeks ago. It was a lot of fun watching how good the players are. If you're in Beachwood, drop by Canterbury Golf Club.

This information comes courtesy of the great Tom Gaffney, who covers Zips basketball pretty darn well for the ABJ.

Baseball

Todd Fleming earned membership on the Northeast Inland Area all-district team, the Canton Repository reports.

Fleming, a right handed pitcher from Lake High School, committed in March to play for Akron's second-year coach Pat Bangtson. He also is the brother of Buchtelite sports columnist Kiel Fleming, who probably would be playing Division I ball if his right (CORRECTION, left) arm wasn't as fragile as a Faberge egg.

Miscellaneous

I know I promised not to bring up "The Voice" Paul Rodgers on my blog for a while. But I can't help myself.

His show Saturday at the Grand Prix of Cleveland was outstanding. He can wail like no other man.

For those of you who don't know, Rodgers was the most debated topic ever on this blog. He is the former lead singer for Free, The Firm, Bad Company and recently toured with Queen.

Let the storm of comments begin.

Baseball

I just got home from a college summer league game in Indianapolis. Ironically, GoZips.com updated fans on how some Zips are doing in similar leagues.

• Pitcher Tom Farmer threw six shutout innings for the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod League — one of the nation's most prestigious. Look for Farmer to possibly step up and be the Zips ace in 2007, despite poor numbers this year.
• Outfielder Charlie Lenhard hit two home runs in ONE inning for the Jamestown Jammers of the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate League — also a very prestigious league. Lenhard is hitting .292 this season, good for 14th in the league. This is a wood-bat league, so it means all the more that Lenhard is excelling.
• First baseman Doug McNulty is not so hot, hitting .118 in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League.
• GoZips.com doesn't mention outfielder Rashard Graves, who is playing in the Midwest Prospect Baseball League in Indianapolis. Graves is taking a summer course at UA, so he hasn't joined his team yet. However, I spoke with the league director Mike Eagen today. Eagen mentioned Graves as one of the league's stronger players, despite his lack of playing time for Akron in 2006.