■ Wake Forest: Bill Cilento was named an assistant coach yesterday by head coach Tom Walter. Cilento will work primarily with the Deacons' hitters and infielders.
Cilento joins the Wake Forest staff after coaching the previous three seasons at Brown University, where he was the hitting coach and infield coach.
Brown hit .308 during the 2009 season, finishing the year with a 24-19-1 record.
Cilento helped lead the Bears to their first-ever Ivy League Championship and NCAA regional berth. Brown led the Ivy League in nearly every offensive statistic in 2007, including winning the batting-average category by 39 points.
Walter and Cilento coached together at New Orleans for two seasons. Cilento worked with the Privateer infield during his two seasons at UNO and also assisted with recruiting.
During his tenure, he helped to recruit 38 future Privateers. In his last season, New Orleans improved its record by 11 games, finishing fourth in the Sun Belt Conference. Cilento coached three All-Sun Belt players while at New Orleans.
Cilento was a four-year starter at Siena and was a member of two MAAC regular-season championship teams. He was also a part of the 1999 Siena team, which competed in an NCAA regional at Ernie Shore Field.
Cilento, a native of Brookeville, Md., graduated from Siena College in 2003 with a degree in accounting.
■ San Diego State: On the day pitcher Stephen Strasburg was voted the Golden Spikes Award as the top amateur player in the United States, baseball's commissioner, Bud Selig, predicted that the Washington Nationals will make "a very meaningful offer" to the No. 1 draft pick.
Selig also hinted that management will propose major changes to the amateur draft during collective-bargaining in 2011. It's possible baseball will propose a firm slotting system of signing bonuses.
Amateur draft picks currently are free to negotiate any contract they can, but management has a system of slotting recommendations and tries to get teams to adhere to it. Some do, and some don't.
Strasburg, who has a fastball that's been clocked at 102 mph, was 13-1 with a 1.32 ERA. He beat out Dustin Ackley (North Carolina), Mike Leake (Arizona State), Kent Matthes (Alabama), and A.J. Morris (Kansas State) for the Golden Spikes Award.
Strasburg is represented by adviser Scott Boras. Talks are expected to go up to the Aug. 17 deadline, and Strasburg could receive a package worth more than the record $10.5 million pitcher Mark Prior got after the 2001 amateur draft.
■ U.S.-Japan: Christian Colon drove in four runs yesterday to lead the United States past Japan 8-4 in the U.S.-Japan college-baseball championships and give the Americans a 2-1 lead in the best-of-5 series in Sendai, Japan.
Colon put his team ahead 7-3 in the fourth inning with a three-run homer.
Sonny Gray took the mound in the fourth and held Japan scoreless on one hit the rest of the way to pick up the win, his second of the tournament.
Relief pitcher Yusuke Nomura of Japan took the loss after giving up three runs on four hits in 41/3 innings.
■ Southern Miss: The Golden Eagles have hired a new assistant baseball coach, continuing a cycle that's been in place for more than a decade.
Coach Scott Berry announced Michael Federico's hiring in a news release on Monday. The move must be approved by the state College Board, usually a formality.
Like former coach Corky Palmer, who retired after the season, and Berry, Federico is a former head coach at Meridian Community College. He has been the top assistant at Memphis in the four seasons since he left the school.
Federico, 34, is a former team member (1995-97) and graduate assistant (1998-99) at Southern Miss, and served as an assistant under Berry at MCC. He will handle pitching for the Golden Eagles.
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