Sharkbites

For the first time in the program's three-year history, a USC Beaufort baseball player's name has been called during the Major League Baseball draft.

The Arizona Diamondbacks picked Dexter Price, a 6-foot-7 right-handed pitcher who played for the Sand Sharks last season after transferring from Auburn, in the 30th round (the 904th overall pick) on Tuesday.

Six USC Beaufort athletes were named NAIA/Daktronics Scholar-Athletes for the 2010-11 school year. To be eligible, students must maintain a GPA of at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and be a junior or senior.

The Sand Sharks who earned the honor were David O'Neil (baseball), Aaron Hwang (men's golf), Kaitlin O'Sullivan and Adriana Saavedra (women's golf), and John Stanas and Frank Tinsley (men's track and field).

While USC Beaufort baseball fans are waiting this week to see whether right-handed pitcher Dexter Price will become the first USCB player selected in the Major League Baseball draft, two former Sand Sharks are already playing pro ball.

Zach Rossetti and Blake Sanders signed with the McAllen (Texas) Thunder of the North American Baseball League late last month, and both getting some playing time for the independent pro team.

Sand Sharks fans might not want to give up on the USCB baseball team's playoff hopes just yet.

The teams ahead of the Sand Sharks for the sixth and final playoff spot didn't do enough against the Sun Conference bottom-feeders this weekend to sink USCB's chances of making the conference tournament.

USC Beaufort announced this morning that Ed Heberling has been named the school's first women's soccer coach. The Sand Sharks will launch the women's soccer program this fall.

UPDATE: No wifi at the Shark Park. Come on over to Twitter or Facebook, folks.

Hey Sand Sharks fans,

We're going to try something new for the maiden voyage of the 2011 baseball season, as the Sand Sharks take on Brewton-Parker in their home opener at 2 p.m. today.

The nasty storm that kept USC Beaufort's baseball team from traveling to Tennessee to open its season Saturday against Union University was still lingering over that part of the country this morning, prompting the Sand Sharks to cancel their trip to the Volunteer State altogether. They were scheduled to play Freed-Hardeman on Sunday.

It turns out softball won't be the next sport to debut at USC Beaufort, after all.

Ty Rietkovich, the school's athletics director and softball coach, told me this morning the Sand Sharks will add women's soccer to their roster of sports teams -- and they'll do so in an expedited fashion, with plans to hire a coach next month, recruit throughout the spring, and begin play on campus in fall 2011.

It seemed at times last year as if the USC Beaufort baseball team would never be able to do enough to break into the NAIA Top 25 Coaches Poll, but the Sand Sharks apparently did turn some heads by season's end, because when they take the field in February, they'll do so as the nation's 18th-ranked team.

Results from Monday's first round of the Chick-fil-A Collegiate Invitational weren't posted in time for us to get them in today's paper, but USC Beaufort's women's golf team was in second place after the opening round at Stonebridge Golf Club in Rome, Ga.