Sports update: Hernandez to Gulf Coast League, Hofstra adds Ferrara, Bellore gets recognition from ESPN

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Baseball
Former Central Michigan pitcher Jesse Hernandez signed with the Toronto Blue Jays on June 15 as an undrafted free agent. The 6-foot-1, 200 pound right-hander began workouts with the Blue Jays in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday and will pitch for the organization’s Gulf Coast League team. He is the 16th player to reach the big leagues under coach Steve Jaksa’s tenure at CMU.

Former CMU catcher Dale Cornstubble was sent to the Kansas City Royals’ Rookie League affiliate Idaho Falls Chukars. He did not play in the team’s opening game on Monday. Cornstubble was selected by the Royals in the 40th round of the 2010 MLB Draft.

Football
Senior linebacker Nick Bellore was ranked No. 11 on espn.com’s Top 25 rankings of players in non-automatic qualifying conferences on Monday.

Bellore led CMU with 132 tackles in 2008 and was named first-team MAC linebacker over the past two seasons. He has also been named to the preliminary watch list for the 2010 Rotary Lombardi Award, awarded to the top lineman of the year.

Women’s basketball
Former CMU assistant coach Bill Ferrara was introduced as an assistant for the Hofstra women’s basketball team on Thursday. He told gohofstra.com, the school’s athletics website, “The first thing I thought of was that this team is on the cusp of the NCAA tournament and that was an extremely attractive opportunity for me, an opportunity to go back to the big dance.”

Central Michigan Life first reported the move three weeks ago. Hofstra is located in Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y. Ferrara is originally from Brooklyn, N.Y.

Track and field
Former CMU high jumper Erika Schroll and freshman discus thrower Alex Rose will compete in the USA Track and Field Championships and USA Junior Track and Field Championship, both events to be held today through Sunday at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.

Schroll, Marcus Breidinger, Greg Pilling and senior Raeanne Lohner earned Academic All-MAC honors last week by maintaining a GPA of 3.2 or higher and competing in at least half of the outdoor track and field competitions.