June 22, 2006

VILLANOVA, Pa. - Head baseball coach Joe Godri has accepted an invitation to be a part of the coaching staff for the 2006 USA Baseball National Team Trials, it was announced this week. Godri will be part of a coaches' selection committee that will choose a 22-man roster from a pool of players during trials later this month.

"The team trials will be conducted during a 10-day evaluation period in which the team of 35 players will be cut down to the final 22-man roster," Godri said. "My role will be to assist [General Manager] Eric Campbell and head coach Tim Corbin (Vanderbilt) in evaluating players and picking the final team."

The USA Baseball team trials will take place from June 24 through July 1 at four different sites in New England. The tryouts are held in conjunction with the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) and consist of practices, Blue/Red intra-squad games and exhibition games against NECBL teams.

The team trials begin with a full-squad practice on June 24 at the Dan Duquette Sports Academy in Hinsdale, Massachusetts. The team will spend the next day at famed Wahconah Park in Pittsfield, with a Blue/Red game to be followed by an exhibition contest against the Pittsfield Dukes.

Leading up to the announcement of the final 22-man National Team roster on July 2, the trial squad will also stop at Alumni Field in Keene, New Hampshire, Fuessenich Park in Torrington, Connecticut and at two different fields in Newport, Rhode Island. In all, there will be four exhibition games and four intra-squad games in addition to the practices that make up the week of tryouts.

Of note for Villanova will be that the National Team tryout squad will play exhibition games against two NECBL teams with Wildcat connections. Villanova infielder Derek Shunk (Yardley, Pa.) plays for the Torrington Twisters, who will take on the USA Baseball squad on June 29 at 7 p.m. in Torrington. In addition, the team trials have an exhibition game against the Newport Gulls on July 1 at 6:35 p.m. at Cardines Field in Newport. The Gulls are owned by Villanova alum Greg Fader, while two current players - infielder Ryan Arcadia (Upper Saddle River, N.J.) and pitcher Mike Loree (Gillette, N.J.) are each on the Newport roster.

"I am looking forward to having a great experience as part of the team trials," Godri said. "It is going to be a neat situation to be able to have the trials team play against some current Villanova players in the exhibition games."

In his five seasons as head coach at Villanova, Godri has led the Wildcats to an average of more than 25 victories per season and at least a .500 record four times. Villanova has had seven players chosen in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft under Godri's watch, while more than a dozen Wildcats have gone on to play professionally in the United States and internationally.