USC Women's soccer coach on ACU campus helping with Wildcats' Soccer Camp

The University of Southern California's women's soccer coach, Ali Khosroshahin, is on campus helping ACU soccer coaches Casey Wilson and Thomas Pertuit with this week's high school soccer camp. Coach K led the Lady Trojans to a 2007 NCAA Division I National Championship; his local connection comes with Wilson, who hails from California and played soccer in high school and Coach K was his coach. Click here to see a brief interview with Ali K, which aired locally on KRBC Wednesday night.

http://bigcountryhomepage.com/content/fulltext/?cid=150022

Wiman to be a guest on Abilene's ESPN Radio 1560 AM show

Late notice, but I've been co-hosting the "Sports Overtime" show with McMurry sports information director Ben Dobson this summer, and we will have former ACU hurler and current semi-pro pitcher, Chris Wiman on the show from 4 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. on ESPN Radio 1560 AM. We will also interview former McMurry first baseman Stephen Derrick at 4:40 p.m. who plays for the St. Paul Saints, an independent professional team.

ACU minor leaguers stay hot; Malone's tryout with Bills begins Friday

Billy Malone, the record-setting ACU quarterback who exhausted his eligibility after the 2008 season heads to Buffalo Thursday to begin a tryout Friday. With mandatory camps just around the corner, Malone will need to prove immediately that he can play with the big boys to get a shot to make the roster or possibly the practice squad. More official details will be given later.

Four former ACU players are playing professional baseball this season, and three of those four athletes have had very solid performances over the past couple of weeks. Brenan Herrera (pictured from his ACU playing days in 2005) has raised his batting average 18 points in the past 10 games from .270 to .288 while helping the Wichita Wingnuts to a 21-11 record. The every day shortstop, Herrera, plays in the American Association of Independent Baseball league where former ACU players Ben Brockman and Ryan Barker have also participated in the past. For the season, Herrera has two home runs 14 RBI, seven doubles, and has scored 17 times. On a side note, another former Abilene player plays in the same league with Herrera as McMurry-ex Stephen Derrick signed with the St. Paul Saints Tuesday.

Trey Watten, nephew of ACU head coach Britt Bonneau, and a three-year player for ACU, has had five solid pitching outings as of late for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Watten, a seventh-round Major League Baseball draft selection by the Milwuakee Brewers is playing in high-A ball with the Rattlers this season. In his first eight outings, Watten surrendered 22 earned runs in his first 33 innings of work for a 6.00 ERA. However, since May 23, he surrendered just five earned runs in 28.2 innings of work giving Watten a 1.59 ERA over the five-game stretch. In his last start June 13, Watten gave up just one run in six innings and struck out a season-high eight batters in a no-decision. So far in 2009, Watten is 2-6 with a 4.01 ERA, he's struck out 59 in 60.2 innings and has recorded a save.

Since our last update, Chris Wiman of the independent Southern Illinois Miners in the Frontier League did pick up his first loss June 12. Once again, the Miners held Wiman to just five innings in the starting rotation and he gave up three runs, walked three and struck out four. However, Wiman responded in a big way Wednesday night in his first relief appearance. He tossed four innings of relief, allowed just two hits, one run and struck out three to pick up his first professional save. On the season, Wiman is 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA, and 22 strikeouts in 24 innings of work.

Jameson Maj, a former MLB draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals, and a teammate of Wiman's on the Miners hasn't pitched since June 5. He threw 1.1 innings of scoreless relief that game but hasn't seen the mound since. I will work on trying to get the official word on Maj to see if he is still with the team or maybe sitting due to injury and keep you updated.

Finally ... a Scott article not dominated by legal issues

For ACU fans, reading about Bernard Scott since he's been drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals hasn't been too thrilling. The media really focused in on Scott's legal history, which for many of the Wildcat faithful may have been a surprise. In his two years with the team, there weren't any incidents on or off campus and to many who were close with the team, Scott was nothing but a class act and a respectful individual who played hard and dazzled LSC fans at Shotwell Stadium on a weekly basis.

Unfortunately, the ACU Blog caught this article a little late, so many of you may have already been on top of it, but the Bengals' official web site wrote a nice feature about the rookie running back. The article projects that Scott will make the final roster, tells that he's picked the No. 28 for his jersey number, and features quotes from ACU's head coach Chris Thomsen and former quarterback Billy Malone.


Read the article link here.

And speaking of Malone, his tryout with the Bills should have taken place this weekend, so if there is any news to update you with, we will pass that along in the near future.

Trey Watten and Brenan Herrera update

After a little bit of a rough patch, former Wildcat Trey Watten (pictured) has put together three solid outings for the Milwaukee Brewers (A) affiliate, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. On the season, Watten is 2-6 with a 5.36 ERA in 10 appearances including seven starts. In his last three outings however, he's allowed six runs in 14.2 innings of work - good for a 3.68 ERA. In those three appearances, two were starts where he went 1-1. On May 23, he picked up the win in six innings of work where he allowed just three hits, one run, he walked five and struck out two. He should be on the hook to start tonight's game (June 3) against the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Watten's Timber Rattlers are 24-27 on the season. The Burlington Bees (Kansas City "A" affiliate) are also in the same league with the Timber Rattlers where former ACU player Cody Cure played for a season.

Brenan Herrera and the Wichita Wingnuts are 18 games deep into the 2009 season, and the team is a member of the American Association of Independent Baseball. The Wingnuts, the former "AA" affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, moved to independent at the start of the 2008 season. In 2009, Wichita is 12-6 with the former ACU shortstop starting 17 of the 18 games at short. So far, Herrera is batting .270 with five doubles, one home run and nine RBI.