Louisville Baseball Represented at 2009 USA National Team Trials
June 15, 2009 | Baseball
June 15, 2009
CARY, N.C. - The 2009 USA Baseball National Team Trials officially started on Sunday at the National Training Complex and the University of Louisville baseball program had its strongest representation ever with Cards' head coach Dan McDonnell serving as an assistant coach and players Phil Wunderlich and Tony Zych competing for spots on the squad.
Players will participate in daily practices and drills at the trials, as well as in modified intrasquad Blue vs. Red games, while the trials will conclude on June 24 with the announcement of the final 22-man roster.
The 2009 National Team Trials roster features 41 players from colleges across the country, including three members of the 2008 National Team that went unbeaten (24-0) and won a gold medal at Haarlem Baseball Week in the Netherlands and at the FISU World University Baseball Championship in the Czech Republic. Tulane leads all schools with three players on the trials roster, while Louisville is joined by Cal State Fullerton, Clemson, LSU, Rice and UCLA with two players each.
Once the official roster has been announced, the National Team will stay in Durham and Cary, N.C. as it competes in two international friendship series against Canada and Guatemala from June 25-29 and July 1-4, respectively. Team USA will then travel to Japan to participate in the 37th annual USA vs. Japan Collegiate Championships before traveling to Prince George, British Columbia, Canada for the 2009 Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline World Baseball Challenge.
Last December, McDonnell was selected to serve as an assistant coach for the 2009 USA National Team. He is joined by USA Baseball head coach Rick Jones (Tulane head coach) and assistant coaches Rob Cooper (Wright State head coach) and Mike Kennedy (Elon head coach). In three seasons as the Cards' head coach, McDonnell is 135-63 overall with three straight NCAA Regional appearances, two NCAA Super Regional appearances, one NCAA College World Series appearance, two BIG EAST Tournament titles and one BIG EAST regular season title.
Wunderlich, a sophomore utility player from Chicago, was a Second Team All-American selection by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association in 2009. He led the Cardinals in hitting with a .367 average, was second on the team in home runs with 18 and RBI with 78, and was third on the team with 18 doubles. A Second Team All-BIG EAST selection, Wunderlich started 63 total games for the Cardinals at designated hitter and in left field and spent the entire season batting in the No. 5 spot in Louisville's batting order behind Dominguez.
Zych, a freshman right-handed pitcher from Chicago, was 6-2 overall with two saves, a 3.25 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 44.1 innings pitched in 2009 and opposing batters hit just .235 against him. After spending most of the season in the Cards' bullpen, he moved into the Cards' starting rotation in May with wins in all three of his career starts. After winning starts against Ohio State on May 6 and Connecticut on May 24 in the BIG EAST Tournament title game, he pitched six strong innings against Vanderbilt to earn the victory in the Cards' NCAA Regional title game win over the `Dores.
Last summer, Louisville lefty starter Justin Marks was invited to the USA Baseball 2008 National Team Trials, while former Cards' outfielder Mark Jurich was a member of the 2002 USA Baseball National Team, winning a silver medal at the 2002 FISU World University Baseball Championship and capturing the 2002 Haarlem Baseball Week Championship.
The Cardinals closed out their 2009 season on June 6 with an NCAA Super Regional loss at No. 2 Cal State Fullerton. Louisville finished with a 47-18 record overall after sweeping the BIG EAST Conference regular season and tournament titles. U of L advanced to its second Super Regional in three years after earning a 5-3 win over Vanderbilt in the title game of the NCAA Regional at Jim Patterson Stadium, the first ever NCAA Baseball Regional in Louisville.
