Vols on Team USA Vols on Team USA
Tennessee Players Enjoy Recent Streak of National Team Success Red, white and blue. And orange. Since 1993, numerous Tennessee Volunteers have become integral members for the USA Baseball National Team, representing UT and the Stars and Stripes nearly annually in the tryout process and in international competition. Overall, 17 Vols have either played for Team USA or been invited to tryouts. This past summer, Blake Forsythe completed a stint with the USA Collegiate Baseball National Team where he hit at a .293 clip with a pair of home runs and nine RBIs. He also walked 21 times in as many games, en route to an impressive .500 on-base percentage. In 2008, Freshman All-Americans Kentrail Davis and Bryan Morgado were invited to tryout for the national team. Davis made the squad for the first time after leading the team in nine different offensive categories during the 2008 National Team Trials. The freshman hit .450 with 11 runs, six homers, 19 RBI, a .925 slugging percentage and a .542 on-base percentage. UT sent three Vols to tryouts for the national team in the summer of 2006. Sophomore Tony Delmonico earned an invitation after a banner freshman campaign, and he was joined by juniors J.P. Arencibia and Julio Borbon. Arencibia made the team for the second consecutive year, and Borbon made the squad in his first time after earning his first invitation to the trials. Arencibia split time at catcher and designated hitter during his second stint with Team USA, hitting .306 and leading the team with 21 extra-base hits and nine home runs during the 31-game exhibition schedule. The All-SEC performer was equally impressive in his first stint with the squad, joining the 2005 team just days after Tennessee’s elimination from the College World Series and leading the American squad in batting average (.404), hits (23), RBIs (12), total bases (33) and slugging percentage (.579) while helping it to a 16-4 overall record. Borbon led the 2006 team with 44 hits and 15 stolen bases while hitting .364 for Team USA. The outfielder also blasted four homers and scored a team-high 38 runs to help the squad to a 28-2-1 record over the summer. While making the elite squad is among the highest honors in college baseball, just earning an invitation to try out for Team USA is a tremendous accomplishment in itself. Generally, USA Baseball extends offers to the trials to approximately 35-45 of the top collegiate players in the country before paring down the final roster to around 21 athletes. With so few players participating in the process—and with a relatively large number of Vols in the mix over the last 17 years—UT stands out as one of the top sources in the country for the Team USA talent pipeline. Borbon became the ninth Vol—and first UT outfielder—to don the Red, White and Blue, joining Arencibia, Chris Burke, Nick Crowe, R.A. Dickey, Todd Helton, Javi Herrera, Luke Hochevar and Augie Ojeda as Stars and Stripes selections. First baseman and pitcher Doug Hecker became the first Volunteer to ever try out for Team USA in the Olympic year of 1992. The following year, Todd Helton became the first Vol to play for Team USA as only one of two freshmen on the squad. In 1994, pitcher Tim Miller and R.A. Dickey tried out, with Dickey making the team. Following the 1996 season, three Vols—pitchers Dickey and Ryan Meyers and infielder Ojeda—were all invited to try out for the Olympic team. Meyers was released early in the tryouts, but Tennessee was one of only four schools that sent as many as three players to the Olympic tryouts. Team USA claimed a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and
Dickey and Ojeda became the first—and only—baseball Olympians from UT. Dickey was a three-year member of Team USA (199496), while Ojeda joined the team in 1995 as the only non-Division I player to make the team when he played at Cypress (Calif.) College. Dickey and Ojeda were part of the 20-member bronze medal-winning team. Kurt Keene was invited to the 1998 camp and participated in the national trials during the fall of 1997. Chris Burke made the national team in 2000 as the only SEC player to make the squad. He finished as the second-leading hitter with a .376 average as Team USA won the gold medal at the Honkbal Tournament in The Netherlands. The U.S. finished 27-3-1, setting a Team USA record for best winning percentage that was tied by the 2006 team led by Arencibia and Borbon. In 2001, freshman catcher Javi Herrera was the only SEC player to make the national team, marking the second straight year Tennessee was represented on the squad. Also in 2001, signee Nick Crowe played with the Team USA Junior National Team that won the silver medal in Cuba. Pitcher Luke Hochevar made the 2004 national team and—like Herrera in 2001—was the SEC’s lone representative on the squad. Hochevar retired 18 straight batters while pitching seven innings and earning a victory in Team USA’s 4-2 victory over Japan in the gold-medal game of the FISU II World University Baseball Championship in Taiwan. USA Baseball has been operating and selecting the U.S. National Team since the mid-1970s, and the team first came into full fruition at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Calif. Legendary collegiate and Team USA head coach Rod Dedeaux was instrumental in organizing the first-ever Olympic Baseball Tournament after baseball was given “Demonstration Sport” status in 1984. A total of eight countries took part in the tournament held at Dodger Stadium that year, with Japan capturing the gold medal by defeating the heavily-favored Americans. Every summer since then, USA Baseball has held invitation-only trials at its training facility in order to select that year’s national team. After the roster has been chosen, the team performs on a USA Baseball Red, White and Blue Tour each summer—a schedule of exhibition games all across America versus the world’s top baseball talent. A notable part of that summer tour is Team USA’s annual fivegame series with the Japanese Collegiate All-Stars. The Americans currently lead the all-time series between these two countries by a 26-17 margin, and the U.S. has never lost a five-game set to the Japanese on home soil. The 36th consecutive meeting in this series recently took place during the summer of 2007. The national team is now considered to be USA Baseball’s elite pipeline of Olympic Athlete Development. In fact, current New York Yankees first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who was a member of the 1994 USA National Team, and current Minnesota Twins shortstop Adam Everett, who played on the 1997 USA National Team, both were part of the 2000 USA Baseball Olympic Team that captured the gold medal. Other players who have worn the Red, White and Blue for the National Team and gone on to Major League Baseball success include such notables as former Vols Helton, Dickey, Ojeda and Burke, as well as Pat Burrell, J.D. Drew, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Giambi, Troy Glaus, Mark Kotsay, Barry Larkin, Tino Martinez, Mark McGwire, Matt Morris, Mark Prior and Robin Ventura.
Tennessee’s Team USA Members/Invitees Year Player Status Pos. 1992 Doug Hecker ..................................................Invitee...................................................................1B 1993 Todd Helton ...................................................Player.....................................................................1B Todd Helton ...................................................Player.....................................................................1B 1994 R.A. Dickey ......................................................Player..................................................................RHP Tim Miller .........................................................Invitee................................................................RHP 1995 R.A. Dickey ......................................................Player..................................................................RHP Augie Ojeda ....................................................Player..................................................................... SS 1996 R.A. Dickey ......................................................Player..................................................................RHP Augie Ojeda ....................................................Player..................................................................... SS Ryan Meyers ...................................................Invitee................................................................RHP 1997 Kurt Keene ......................................................Invitee................................................................... SS
Year Player Status Pos. 2000 Chris Burke ......................................................Player..................................................................... 2B 2001 Javi Herrera .....................................................Player....................................................................... C Luke Hochevar ...............................................Player..................................................................RHP 2004 2005 J.P. Arencibia ..................................................Player....................................................................... C 2006 J.P. Arencibia ..................................................Player....................................................................... C Julio Borbon ...................................................Player.................................................................... OF Tony Delmonico ...........................................Invitee................................................................... SS 2008 Kentrail Davis..................................................Player.................................................................... OF Bryan Morgado...............................................Invitee................................................................ LHP 2009 Blake Forsythe................................................Player....................................................................... C
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