NEWS DIGEST, NOVEMBER 5

NCAA goes to flat-seam baseball
The NCAA Division I Baseball Committee has voted to use a flat-seam baseball beginning with the 2015 championship. The change from a raised-seam baseball is expected to boost offense and help offset the impact of the BBCOR bat standards introduced a couple of years ago. The bat standard was designed to reduce the speed of the ball leaving the bat - with the intention of improving player safety - but had the by-product of balls not traveling as far and decreasing offense.
NCAA

Clemson alters N.C. State series
Clemson's home series against N.C. State has been pushed back a day to April 5-7 (Friday-Monday), likely because of TV plans

Furman reveals schedule
Six games at Fluor Field in downtown Greenville are part of Furman's 2014 schedule announced Tuesday. The Paladins have games against Clemson, USC and USC Upstate at Fluor Field. The other three downtown appearances are against Norfolk State, Xavier and Toledo in the First Pitch Invitational.
Paladins

Powell honored
Furman volunteer assistant coach Landon Powell has been named Volunteer Coach of the Year by USA baseball. Powell, a member of three College World Series teams at USC and a former Major League catcher, joined Furman's staff earlier this year. He worked with the U-14 National Team over the summer.
Powell

2009 Gamecocks rise in retro-rankings
Baseball America took a look back at its 2009 recruiting class rankings and gave the University of South Carolina the No. 3 overall rankings in the in-hindsight evaluations. USC's class was not in the newspaper's top 25 at the time, but several of the recruits played key roles in the Gamecocks' 2010 and 2011 national championships. Clemson's class was retroactively upgraded from 20th to 18th.
Hindsight

Camo (Purple) Tigers win
The Camo (Purple) team won two of three games in Clemson's Orange & Purple Fall World Series held over the weekend, based on Tweets from the @CUTigerBaseball account. The school has not posted stories on the games.

PC Garnet wins
The Garnet team beat the Royal team, two games to one, in Presbyterian's fall World Series.
PC

Witherspoon featured
Baseball America recently posted a feature on former Spartanburg Methodist standout Travis Witherspoon. Witherspoon recently was picked up by the Seattle Mariners organization from the Los Angeles Angels.
Witherspoon

Sand Sharks picked fifth
USC Beaufort was picked to finish fifth in The Sun Conference in 2014 in a recent vote of league coaches. Embry-Riddle was picked to win the NAIA league.
Sun

Recruiting
TheDiamondProspects.com reported the following player commitments:
* Carolina Forest C Robert Jolly has chosen Clemson.
Jolly
* Spartanburg Methodist 1B Collin Stegall picked South Carolina. He's from Lexington High School.
Stegall
* Dorman OF Ike Thalassinos selected Spartanburg Methodist.
Thalassinos
* Greenwood Christian RHP Noah Hinzman has decided to play for Erskine.
Hinzman