Craig Steltz Named to All-Spring Team

BATON ROUGE -- LSU strong safety Craig Steltz has been named to the Sporting News’ All-Spring Team, which was announced this week.

Steltz, a senior from New Orleans, capped his final spring with the Tigers by being named the recipient of the Alvin Roy Fourth Quarter Award as well as the Mike Miley Leadership Award. The Alvin Roy Award was for outstanding performance in LSU’s off-season program, while the Miley Award was given to the defensive player who displayed outstanding leadership skills during spring drills.

In LSU’s annual spring game, Steltz posted five tackles, including a tackle for a loss, in the Purple’s 20-14 win over the White team.

Steltz, who takes over as LSU’s starting strong safety this year, was joined on the All-Spring Team by wide receiver Early Doucet, who was an honorable mention selection.

Doucet capped a tremendous spring with a team-best nine receptions for 115 yards and one touchdown in spring game. Doucet, who ranked second on the squad a year ago with 59 catches for 772 yards and eight touchdowns, was given the Jimmy Taylor Award at the conclusion of spring practice. The Jimmy Taylor Award is given annually to the player who displays the best effort, leadership and performance during the spring.

Justin Henry Named to All-SEC Tournament Team

Justin Henry, a junior outfielder and team captain for Ole Miss, was named to the Southeastern Conference Tournament All-Tournament team following the conclusion of the event as selected by the media the league office announced on Sunday.



It is believed to be the first time a player has been named to the All-Tournament team three straight years at three different positions. Henry was named to the All-Tournament team as a designated hitter in 2005 and as a second baseman in 2006.



Ole Miss advanced to the semi-finals of the Tournament before falling to top-ranked and eventual tournament champion Vanderbilt in a pair of games on Saturday.



“Justin is very deserving of being named to the All-Tournament team at the Southeastern Conference Tournament,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco. “Justin has been a big part of our success this season and in the tournament it was no different. For him to have been named to the All-Tournament team three consecutive years is an amazing thing, but to do it at three different positions truly speaks to his athleticism and talent as a baseball player.”



Henry led the Rebels at the SEC Tournament as the junior from Vicksburg, Miss., hit .400 for the four games in the tournament with two RBI and three runs scored. He also posted a .667 slugging percentage with two doubles and a triple as well as posting an on base percentage of .471 for the four games. He also drew two walks in the tournament.



The Rebels and Henry will return to the field this Friday when Ole Miss will play host to an NCAA Regional for the fourth-straight season as the 2007 NCAA Tournament opens play.

Marquis Hill Body Found in the Lake

Officials in New Orleans found a body in the area where New England Patriot Marquise Hill and a young woman fell while jet skiing yesterday on Lake Pontchartrain, but have not confirmed that the body is Hill's.

However, Capt. Brian Clark of the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department told the Associated Press, "The family will have to make positive identification ... but the body we found was that of Mr. Marquise Hill."

The body was found at about 2:26 p.m. today by crews who have been searching for Hill since he was reported missing yesterday evening.

Hill, a 24-year-old defensive end and native of New Orleans, was operating jet skis with a young woman on Lake Pontchartrain when they fell into a strong current, said Albert Elias, Hill's agent.

US Coast Guard officials involved in the search said they received a call at about 9:30 p.m. last night reporting screams for help on the lake. People on a boat heard the woman's screams and found her floating on a pylon. After talking with her, they learned that Hill was still in the water.

"They spotted him and then lost sight of him while trying to position the boat," Atkeson said.

The woman was taken to Tulane Medical Center, while Coast Guard rescue boat and helicopter crews searched Lake Pontchartrain near an industrial canal.

"I spoke with the girl and her mother this morning and they said he helped her stay calm. He ended up saving her life, keeping her calm until she could grab onto a buoy,"said Elias said, who added that neither Hill nor the woman was wearing a life preserver.

Patriots teammate Randall Gay of Baton Rouge, who also played with Hill at Lousiana State University, was at the scene when authorities found Hill, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He said, "I know it's going to be hard in that locker room seeing his locker" when practice resumes Thursday.

The 6-foot-6-inch, 300-pound Hill was a second-round draft choice of the Patriots in 2004, and has served as a backup for his first three seasons, appearing in 13 career games.

Sox Sweep Rangers for first time since 1973

Jason Varitek hit a three-run home run and Boston rallied in the eighth and then held on to beat the Rangers, 6-5, to complete their first three-game sweep in Texas in nearly 34 years.

Trailing 6-4 and down to their final out in the bottom of the ninth, Mark Teixeira hit an RBI single into left field, scoring Victor Diaz from second base.

However, Hideki Okajima got Sammy Sosa to fly out to center for his third save of the season.

J.D. Drew went for 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored for the Red Sox, who swept the Rangers for the first time in Texas since August 20-22, 1973.

Kevin Youkilis went 2-for-5 with a run scored to extend his hitting streak to 19 games. Joel Pineiro (1-0) pitched 1 2/3 hitless innings to pick up the win.

Teixeira hit a three-run home run for the slumping Rangers, who have dropped five straight.

Down 4-3 in the eighth, Youkilis singled off Texas reliever Akinori Otsuka (1-1) and stole second as Manny Ramirez struck out. Drew followed with a single to right, scoring Youkilis with the tying run.

Drew went to second on the throw home and then scored on Mike Lowell's single into left field.

Dustin Pedroia gave the Red Sox what proved to be a much needed insurance run in the ninth with a leadoff homer off Texas close Eric Gagne.

Boston struck in the fourth inning on Varitek's fourth home run of the season. Drew and Lowell led off with back-to-back singles and Varitek crushed a 1-1 pitch over the right field wall to make it 3-0 Boston.

Red Sox starter Julian Tavarez, meanwhile, gave up just one hit through five innings before running into trouble in the sixth.

Tavarez walked Kenny Lofton to start the inning and Michael Young singled to center. Teixeira followed with his ninth homer of the season to tie the game at 3-3. Frank Catalanotto, Marlon Byrd and Ian Kinsler then hit three consecutive singles, with Catalanotto scoring on Kinsler's base-hit to give Texas the lead.

Tavarez finished with four runs allowed on six hits through 5 2/3 innings. He also struck out six and walked one batter.

Rangers starter Kameron Loe pitched six innings, yielding three runs on seven hits.

Texas had a chance to build on its lead in the seventh, but Red Sox center fielder Coco Crisp made a sensational grab on Catalanotto's line drive to center with two outs and runners on first and second.


Game Notes

Lofton finished 2-for-3 with a double for the Rangers...Sosa remains two home runs shy of 600 for his career...Attendance was 40,323.

Ole Miss Awarded Regional

Ole Miss has been named one of the 16 NCAA baseball regional sites from June 1-4, as just announced on ESPNEWS. The entire NCAA bracket will be officially released Monday morning at 11:30 a.m. CT on ESPN.

The Rebels (37-23) will be making their fifth straight postseason appearance and are hosting a regional for the fourth consecutive season.

Tickets for the tournament are available on a standing room only basis as all reserved seating has been sold out. Fans can purchase general admission ticket books for standing room only for $50 for the entire Regional. Each book gains admission to every game of the Oxford Regional.



General admission tickets for standing room only will also be available on a game-by-game basis for $13 for adults and $7 for college students with ID as well as high school age children and younger.



Tickets and pre-paid parking passes will be available for pick up beginning at noon on Wednesday at the Tad Smith Coliseum ticket office through 11 a.m. on Friday, June 1.



After noon on Friday, tickets and parking passes must be picked up at the football ticket office located next to the Starnes Center on All-American Drive.



Any tickets that go unclaimed after Friday’s games must be picked up at the Oxford-University Stadium/Swayze Field ticket office, and will be available two hours prior to game time on Saturday.



Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling the Ole Miss Ticket Office at 662-915-7167 or 1-888-732-8857 for in-state calls. The ticket office will be closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.


The 15 other regional sites, with host institutions and records through Saturday, May 26, are as follows: Arizona St. (43-13), Tempe, Ariz.; Arkansas (41-18), Fayetteville, Ark.; Coastal Carolina (48-11), Conway, S.C.; Florida St. (47-11), Tallahassee, Fla.; Long Beach St. (36-18), Long Beach, Calif.; Missouri (40-16), Columbia, Mo.; North Carolina (47-12), Chapel Hill, N.C.; Rice (48-12), Houston; San Diego (42-16), San Diego; South Carolina (42-18), Columbia, S.C.; Texas (44-15), Austin, Texas; Texas A&M (43-16), College Station, Texas; Vanderbilt (50-11), Nashville; Virginia (43-14), Charlottesville, Va.; Wichita St. (49-19), Wichita, Kan.

By virtue of being awarded a regional, Ole Miss is one of eight host institutions that has been selected as at-large teams to the 64-team field, along with Florida St., Long Beach St., Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wichita St.

Arkansas, North Carolina, Rice, San Diego, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt, would clinch automatic berths by winning their conference tournament championship, which are scheduled for Sunday afternoon. A loss in those tournament championship games makes them an at-large selection. Arizona St. and Coastal Carolina have already clinched automatic berths by virtue of winning the Pacific-10 and Big South Conference, respectively.

Each regional field features four teams, playing a double-elimination format. All 16 regionals are scheduled to be conducted from Friday, June 1, to Monday, June 4.

The remaining at-large teams, top-eight national seeds, first-round regional pairings and site assignments will be announced Monday during a live, 30-minute program on ESPN. The committee will set the entire 64-team bracket through both the super regionals and the first round of the Men's College World Series, and will not reseed the field after play begins. Selection of the eight super regional hosts will be announced on www.NCAASports.com, Monday, June 4 at approximately 10 p.m. CT.

Thirty Division I conferences receive an automatic berth in the field of 64, along with 34 at-large selections. The 61st Men's College World Series begins play Friday, June 15, at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska.

New Bolster enters the Blog

Evan "Beau" Bolster entered the World on May 25, 2007 at 9:25. Weighed in at 7'11".

Perrilloux Commentary

The news out of Baton Rouge regarding Ryan Perrilloux is disappointing at best. It seems as though his current scrape with the law is the 9th infraction of team regulations in his 3 year career at LSU, and this may be the most flagrant. Seems he had borrowed a friend's ID to get into one of the local casinos and was caught by a guard.
Instead of just turning around and walking away, the back-up Tiger QB asked the guard, “Do you know who I am?”
This bit of hubris on his part resulted in the summoning of the police and his arrest.
If you can remember back to the recruitment of Perrilleaux, at first he had committed to Texas. Nick Sabin, LSU’s head coach at the time wasn’t interested in Perrilloux because "he was a nut case." It was only when Sabin left LSU for Miami that Perrilloux’s signing became a cause celebre for the new coach, Les Miles. Well, now that Perrilloux is off the team it is probably good news for Miles who was facing the possibility of a QB controversy. Now he may be faced with a different kind of QB problem because LSU may not have an adequate back up.
But the Tigers seem to have a more than adequate starter who backed up the #1 draft choice for 3 years and who guided LSU to a lopsided win over University of Miami in the Citrus bowl.
For Perrilloux, this is a real tragedy of major magnitude. As my source in Baton Rouge has pointed out, the NFL will put up with spousal abuse, larceny, bar room brawls and sometimes even homicide; the one thing they will not tolerate is gambling and it appears the Perrilloux has a gambling problem. LSU is well off with out him.
Duke