Durham, N.C. - USA Baseball announced a list of the next 18 collegiate players invited to participate in the 2003 USA Baseball National Team Trials - to be held June 21-27 in Tucson, Arizona. The list includes Rice pitcher Wade Townsend who is 6-0 with four saves and a 1.62 ERA. He leads the WAC with 108 strikeouts.
The USA National Team will be selected from a pool of 36 players, of which an additional 10 have yet to be determined and eight have already been announced. Of those eight, three were from Rice; pitchers Philip Humber and Jeff Niemann, and shortstop Paul Janish.
USA Baseball's final selection of the athletes that will comprise the team that will represent the USA at the 2003 Pan Am Games, is subject to the approval of the United States Olympic Committee. The official team roster will be determined and announced on June 27. For a full roster of the first 26 invitees, log on to
www.usabaseball.com.
The 2003 USA Baseball National Team will open play on Wednesday evening, July 2 at Durham Bulls Athletic Park at 7:00 pm vs Japan. Team USA will also play an additional seven games in Durham, along with several more domestic exhibition games prior to representing the United States at the Pan Am Games in the Dominican Republic in August.
The list of the next 18 players invited to the 2003 USA Baseball National Team Trials is shown below:
Player, Pos, Yr, School, HometownBuck, Travis, IF/OF, Fr, Arizona State, Richland, WA
Clement, Jeff, C, Fr, USC, Marshalltown, IA
Devine, Joey, RHP, Fr, NC State, Junction City, KS
Greene, Tyler, IF, Fr, Georgia Tech, Plantation, FL
Head, Stephen, LHP/IF, Fr, Mississippi, Raymond, MS
Jaramillo, Jason, C, So, Oklahoma State, Franksville, WI
Larish, Jeff, IF, So, Arizona State, Tempe, AZ
Lillibridge, Brent, OF, Fr, Washington, Everett, WA
Owings, Micah, RHP/IF, Fr, Georgia Tech, Gainesville, GA
Patterson, Eric, IF, So, Georgia Tech, Kennesaw, GA
Pedroia, Dustin, IF, So, Arizona State, Woodland, CA
Register, Steven, RHP, So, Auburn, Columbus, GA
Romanczuk, Mark, LHP, Fr, Stanford, Newark, DE
Smith, Seth, OF, So, Mississippi, Terry, MS
Tankersley, Taylor, LHP, So, Alabama, Vicksburg, MS
Teagarden, Taylor, C, Fr, Texas, Carrollton, TX
Townsend, Wade, RHP, So, Rice, Dripping Springs, TXTurner, Justin, IF, Fr, Cal State Fullerton, Lakewood, CA
South Carolina's Ray Tanner will serve as the head coach for Team USA. He will be assisted by Dick Cooke of Davidson, Mark Scalf of UNC Wilmington, and Mike Weathers of Long Beach State. Chris Gebeck will serve as the Team USA Athletic Trainer, while Andrew Kitick will serve as the Team USA press officer.