Every Sunday, the Cal baseball team nominates a pitcher and player of the week based on performances in the previous week’s games. If Kevin Miller isn’t the Bears’ pitcher of the week tomorrow, somebody’s taken a few too many Blake Smith fastballs to the head.

Miller pitched two scoreless innings to get the win against Fresno State on Wednesday, then replaced Craig Bennigson in the top of the third today and proceeded to throw a career-high 6 2/3 innings of shutout baseball to lead Cal to a 9-3 victory and improve his own record to 5-0.

This was just the latest installment in what has been a phenomenal season for the right-hander from San Jose. As a true freshman, Miller has pitched 38.2 innings, struck out 38 batters and has yet to allow an earned run.
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A couple years ago, center back Steve Purdy made all the splash by signing with 1860 Munich a month or so following the end of his senior season with Cal. To put that in perspective, it’s like signing with the Clippers (Bayern Munich, stacked roster and all, are the Lakers of the Bundesliga), except the other team in Los Angeles play in the NBDL, except linking second division soccer in Europe to the NBDL is a faulty comparison. To be fair, half the teams play at a second-tier level in the United States’ fixed league systems, so it’s somewhat fitting to say he’s signed with a Mets-equivalent when they were irrelevant.

Midfielder Andrew Jacobson also grabbed headlines when he signed with French club FC Lorient earlier this year. He’s got all the tools to make it at the next level, and here’s hoping Jacobson will make an impact for U.S. soccer some time down the road (translation: for the National Team).

Now, it’s senior Luke Sassano’s turn. In a few minutes, the midfielder will likely start at midfielder for New York Red Bulls in their season opener, as injuries have given Sassano the chance to feed balls to forward Jozy Altidore. (Okay, that didn’t come out exactly the way I wanted it to.) If you subscribe to Fox Soccer Channel, tune in now for a 4:30 p.m. kickoff. Join me for some channel-flipping for the next 90 minutes between the New York opener and UCLA-Memphis. Read the rest of this entry »

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