Author Topic: KSU Booze Cats  (Read 557255 times)

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Offline SdK

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5100 on: May 20, 2017, 11:17:28 PM »
I thought it hinged on a game tomorrow?

Offline SdK

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5101 on: May 20, 2017, 11:18:14 PM »
Nevermind

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5102 on: May 21, 2017, 08:56:48 AM »
Not a good look. That early conference swoon where we couldn't score a run ruined a decent end of the season.

On a positive note for the conference, we have 6 teams ranked 23 or higher by rpi. TTECH and TCU are certain to be top 8 seeds.
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Offline PIPE

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5103 on: May 21, 2017, 01:11:56 PM »
Time to throw the poop over the Hill and start fresh
Awaiting the inevitable KITN

Offline Dugout DickStone

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5104 on: May 21, 2017, 04:26:24 PM »
Not a good look. That early conference swoon where we couldn't score a run ruined a decent end of the season.

On a positive note for the conference, we have 6 teams ranked 23 or higher by rpi. TTECH and TCU are certain to be top 8 seeds.

That's not positive, it just means we have no excuse

Offline sonofdaxjones

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5105 on: May 21, 2017, 04:28:14 PM »
Always next year.

Offline 09emaw

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5106 on: May 21, 2017, 06:15:49 PM »
Season review and looking ahead to next season.

This season can be really be split into three different parts and in reality we played well in two of the three parts and played awful in the middle portion of the season.  The non-conference season was highlighted with a win at South Carolina, champions of the Diamond 9 tournament with Pitt, Ohio State, and Delaware, a two game sweep of Liberty (who is actually good at baseball), a series win over Iowa. We started the season as a surprise team with a 15-5 record heading into conference play.

The start of conference season is where we forgot how to win games and could not score runs to save our lives, from March 24 through April 15 we went 2-12 with a 2-10 conference record during that span. We started conference play by getting swept by Texas and TCU. In the Texas series we lost two of the three games by 1 and 2 runs and did not score a run in the first 2 games of the series, and against TCU we took the first two games of the series into extra innings before losing them both by failing to score a run in either game before getting swept in the sunday finale.

We got our first conference win at Oklahoma State in the series opener and then followed that up with a subpar pitching performance on saturday before regaining our offensive struggles in the sunday finale losing the series 1-2.

The Texas Tech series brought a lot of the same as the Oklahoma State series. we were able to steal the series opener at home before losing two back and forth affairs in games 2 and three.

April 18 through the end of the season we went 12-8 and went 6-6 in conference play with two conference series wins against NCAA tourney teams. We started getting our act together again with a midweek double header sweep over New Mexico (who will win the mountain west conference) what started as a nightmare in game 1 with falling behind 8-1 we came back to win the game 12-10. Game 2 was a pitchers duel that we took 3-2. 

We followed up the Midweek sweep with our first conference series win over West Virginia. We took a two run lead into the 8th inning in game one before giving that up and dropping the opener before taking games two and three of the series.

The following week we had a non conference series against Abilene Christian who we easily swept.

The next series against Oklahoma we took the middle game of the three game set.

The series at KU was a series we could have easily won or even swept but came up short in games 1 and 2. Game 1 was mostly even for the entire game with KU scoring a run to take the lead in the bottom of the 8th. Game 2 we were up 4-1 going into the bottom of the 7th where we gave up 5 runs in the 7th and 8th combined. Game 3 brought a masterful pitching performance and a win.

The final conference series against Baylor opened with a slugfest as we opened the game by taking a 12-3 lead before falling 21-13. Kstate swept a day night double header 10-8 & 6-5. We left the series with a game and a half lead over struggling Oklahoma State needing Oklahoma to split a double header the following day to make the conference tournament, unfortunately OU failed to win a game in the double header ending our season.

Next Season

What We lose:
our entire infield

First baseman Jake Scudder, a former JUCO transfer who was second in the big 12 in homeruns, first in RBIs graduates and is likely our biggest loss of the senior class.
Second Baseman Jake Wodtke, a fifth year senior, who caught fire the last few weeks of the season but other than that provided more in terms of leadership and experience than he did production.
Third baseman Josh Either, a former JUCO transfer, similar to Wodtke, had a great last month in a wildcat uniform but was mostly a defensive specialist.
Short stop Quinton Crandall, a former JUCO transfer, a decent player with the leather and the bat, did some good things but is not irreplacable.
Designated Hitter Steve Serratore, a former JUCO transfer, had an outstanding final weekend as a wildcat, had an above average bat at times, was considered more of a defensive liability when he did play the field as he lacked foot speed.

Starting Pitcher Parker Rigler, a former JUCO transfer, he was our most consistent pitcher through the entire season, he was named national pitcher of the week when he threw a no hitter against Eastern Illinois early in the season, had his struggles at times but will probably the second most missed player in the senior class.

Closer/relief pitcher Jordan Floyd, started the season as untouchable but became less consistent as the season went on, he did get the win in the first game of the double header on Friday, which was likely the highlight of the last half of the season for him.

Nick Jones, a former Juco transfer submarine pitcher, he was nice to have in spots to induce a ground ball out and at one point in the season he led the nation in number of appearances but became less effective as the season went on and got less and less time on the bump.

Pitcher Colton Kalmus, showed flashes of talent but never really put it all together during his kstate career. Had good stuff at times but lacked control and was consistent injury risk, he would likely either strike a batter out or walk them and in most cases it was the latter.

*Catcher Josh Rollete, we could lose the draft eligible sophmore, his numbers were not that great this year and went down significantly from his freshman season, this is a likely wait and see how much he is willing to sign for decision.

What we return:
The core of the Kstate baseball team lies in its Freshman class. Five freshman saw significant playing time and a sixth played well when given the opportunity. It could be argued that the two best bats and the best pitcher were all freshman for the Wildcats this season.

Will Brennan, Leftfielder-started most games for the cats this season, was recruited as a two way guy but saw limited time on the mound with his bat being to valuable to leave out of the lineup. Finished the season in the top 5 in the Big 12 conference in batting average while hitting .350 and on base percentage with a .453 OBP. He is a lock for the all big 12 freshman team, likely a freshman all american, and a candidate for big 12 newcomer of the year. He hit lead off for the team most of the season.

Cam Thompson, second on the team in batting average hitting .318, started every game for the wildcats, mostly as a center fielder, likely big 12 all freshman team member.

Kasey Ford, really blossomed once put into the starting rotation and has locked up a weekend rotation role, he finished the season with a 4.03 ERA but a 2.73 ERA in games started. He was the first freshman in K-state history to be named conference pitcher of the week for his performance against Kansas. He is likely a future Ace of the team, all 6'6 290 pounds of him.

Jared Marolff, like Ford, he finishes with a 4.03 ERA and really only had one bad outing the last two months of the season and that was against KU.  A ground ball specialist that has a nasty change up.

Tyler Eckberg, finishes with the best ERA on the team, struggled a little towards the end of the season but rebounded the last three weeks of the season. Eckberg has some nasty junk that is hard to hit and is the future closer of the team and had just about taken that role over completely by the end of the season.

Connor Rule, didnt get enough at bats to really get a feel for what he could really do at the plate, but was the best defensive catcher on the roster and is the future of the position.

Other players that will be significant contributors to next years squad are Kyle Barfield, Hanz Harker, Justin Heskett, Hudson Treu, and Bryce Ward.

We will likely rely again on juco transfers to fill holes in the lineup and we have already locked up Rainer Ausmus from a Arizona Juco, who likely will play third base for us. Incoming freshman expected to play a big role are pitchers Jake Webb, Alex Belch, and Andrew Stratman and field players Jordan Maxon and Noah Hemphill. Our biggest needs going into next year is left handed pitching and and hitting for power. I believe that if the the incoming class can have near the impact of the current freshman class the future of the cats looks bright.  However, I am a realist, Brad Hill is entering next season in the final year of his contract and securely on the hot seat, I think he will survive this season and give the new AD a full season to evaluate him.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2017, 09:12:16 PM by 09emaw »

Offline Shooter Jones

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5107 on: May 22, 2017, 02:06:02 PM »
Thanks for that, 09maw.

Brad should take the Oscar route and schedule an insanely easy non-con schedule next year, and talk about post-season play being the "goal".. and by post season, he means actually making the conference tourney

Offline 09emaw

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5108 on: June 14, 2017, 06:14:29 PM »
Senior LHP Jordan Floyd was drafted in the 10th Round by the Royals.

Senior 1B Jake Scudder was taken in the 16th round by the Nationals.

Senior LHP Parker Rigler was taken in the 31st round by the White Sox.

Draft eligible Sophmore Josh Rollette was taken in the 39th round by the Indians, i doubt he signs.

Incoming Freshman RHP Jake Webb was taken in the 19th round by the Pirates, lets hope he decides to put the draft off for a few years to pitch for the cats.

Congrats to all players that were drafted, definetly an exciting day for all of them.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2017, 06:17:32 PM by 09emaw »

Offline 09emaw

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5109 on: June 14, 2017, 10:57:25 PM »
From what I read Jake Webb is signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates, no word on what his bonus will be yet. Hard part about recruiting in baseball is that you need to recruit good players but not to good that they will leave for the minor leagues before ever making it to campus. I'm very familiar with the MLB draft process and I wouldn't recommend players signing out of high school unless they are at minimum $500K signing bonus. I've seen to many kids sign for what seems like a lot of money at the time that is pretty much gone after they pay taxes and buy a new truck (which they all do). MLB teams promise them the allure of playing in the bigs, but the truth is only 11-13% of kids drafted in the range Webb was drafted in will ever put on a big league uniform and less than 4% of kids drafted in his range play in the bigs for 3 seasons or longer. Good luck to the young man, I hope he is informed of the risks and I wish him well.
« Last Edit: June 14, 2017, 11:12:49 PM by 09emaw »

Offline 09emaw

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5110 on: June 16, 2017, 12:22:58 PM »
Former K-State catcher Rob Vaughn has been named the head baseball coach for Maryland. At 29 he is one of if not the youngest head coaches of a power 5 program in the country.

Offline sonofdaxjones

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5111 on: June 16, 2017, 01:49:56 PM »
Well, I'd say it's NCAA or bust for Brad Hill next season.

The program trajectory is decidedly negative.


Offline Dugout DickStone

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5112 on: June 17, 2017, 08:23:40 AM »
Well, I'd say it's NCAA or bust for Brad Hill next season.

The program trajectory is decidedly negative.

Please don't ask Gene to make any decisions, he's just here for the check

Offline joda

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5113 on: June 17, 2017, 11:31:44 AM »
Former K-State catcher Rob Vaughn has been named the head baseball coach for Maryland. At 29 he is one of if not the youngest head coaches of a power 5 program in the country.

Damn, that's crazy I remember him playing

Offline 09emaw

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5114 on: August 25, 2017, 04:44:36 PM »
Future baseball schedule: The cats will open the season with a tough tournament in Myrtle Beach, SC playing one game each against South Alabama, Indiana, Coastal Carolina, and Virginia Tech.  They will bus north after that and play at Elon (one game) and then play at Old Dominion (three games).  Cats have a conference bye to end the regular season and will play at the University of San Francisco. 

Offline Shooter Jones

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5115 on: October 16, 2017, 10:19:52 AM »
Should be a pretty neat little stade.






Offline 1863

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5116 on: October 16, 2017, 11:36:53 AM »
Personally would have preferred more of a collegiate gothic look for baseball but this still looks amazing and I'm excited to watch the Bat Cats in it.


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Offline cfbandyman

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5117 on: October 16, 2017, 12:00:44 PM »
I just like that we are going to have a lot of hot ass limestone down college ave.
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Offline Shooter Jones

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5118 on: October 16, 2017, 01:16:09 PM »
If anyone cares, for camparison, these are the renderings KU released for Hoglund's reno.




Offline Dugout DickStone

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5119 on: October 17, 2017, 12:23:06 PM »
They will field a better team so bfd.

Offline PIPE

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5120 on: October 17, 2017, 03:33:09 PM »
How awful will the cats be this year?  Is this Hill's last year finally?

Awaiting the inevitable KITN

Offline 09emaw

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5121 on: February 10, 2018, 01:02:16 PM »
We're less than a week away from the start of baseball season and so I'll give my season preview and Ill do my best to keep everyone updated through out the season. I strongly suggest people try to attend ball games though, the team always needs your support.  This year's baseball team has been picked to finish last in the Big 12 in the pre-season rankings, yes that sucks, that being said nothing irritates me more than people who do not follow the team making blanket statements like "we suck" "were shitty" I do not mind criticism but at least give intelligent criticism. I say this because I'm not going to bother posting about the team if that is the only response anyone has, I'd rather have no response at all. This is the final year of Brad Hill's contract, while 2014 to the present has certainly not met anyone's expectations, he did lead us to the best years in K-State baseball history from 2009-2013.  I do not know if there is a magic number of wins that will keep his job, so we will see how the season plays out.

We lost a lot of seniors from last years team that was better than their 29-26 record indicated and this team is much younger than last years team. In addition we lost catcher Josh Rollette to the MLB draft who signed for a bag of peanuts, all kidding aside Rollette was not the greatest defender and struggled at the plate for much of last season but had a great freshman campaign and great last month as a wildcat, being a draft eligible sophomore I believe he should've returned for his junior year but he decided to begin his pro career. During the off season we lost talented wildcat Bryce Ward who made the all big 12 freshman team in 2015 but dealt with injuries throughout the course of his career and decided to hang it up.  This team is led by the sophomore class, all three team captains are sophomores.

Lets start with position players, some of the positions have not been cemented and competition will continue during non-conference season to see who become mainstays in the lineup.

The catcher position appears to be heading into the season with competition still ongoing between RS Junior TK Mcwhertor and sophomore Connor Rule. Mcwhertor red shirted last season after under going tommy john surgery and is a juco transfer from California, he appears to be in the lead heading into the season and will get the first opportunity, Mcwhertor has the better arm of the two while Rule is more athletic. Rule played a decent amount last season and was the superior defensive catcher on the team over Rollette. McWhertor hit .303 in the JUCO ranks but I don't know what he can do at the plate yet at the Big 12 level. Connor hit .222 last season in only 45 at bats, I heard that he had a really good fall at the plate and that number should improve.

First base loses two year starter Jake Scudder to graduation and the Washington Nationals organization. Another position where competition will rage on into the season between Freshman John Sorenson and Senior Trent McMaster with McMaster looking to get the first shot. McMaster hit .238 last season in only 42 at bats but had a nice summer in the Prospect league batting .318, originally from Topeka he transferred in from Coffeyville CC.  John Sorenson comes from Fort Collins Colorado where he was named 5A player of the year last season has never had a college at bat obviously but has played well enough to challenge the senior.

Second base appears to be one of the few infield positions that is locked down with Oklahoma freshman Brett Owen, don't let his lack of size fool you 5'9 170, this kid was a high school all American last year as he hit .571 and had 17 homeruns, coaches are expecting similar results from Owen as they did from last years freshman Will Brennan and Cam Thompson who were freshman all americans.

Speaking of Cam Thompson, he makes the switch from center field to his more natural position in the middle infield as the starting short stop, perfect game named him pre-season all conference as a short stop. Thompson hit .314 last season and started every game for the cats. He played his summer ball in Alaska where he had some struggles but was named team MVP for the fall.  Cats look to rely heavily on Thompson, a team captain.

Third base is another battle between Manhattan native and Fort Scott transfer Jake Biller and Arizona JUCO by way of Tulane transfer Rainer Ausmus  Rainer, a Texas native batted .381 in Juco last season and played summer ball in Alaska appears to be in second as of now to Biller who reminds me a lot of Josh Eithier from last years squad, Biller batted .222 but only had 18 at bats last season for the Cats but was told he had a strong summer in Colorado summer league.

Outfield seems pretty set to start the season, Will Brennan returns to leftfield where he batted .350 last season with a .453 OBP. Will returns to be the leadoff man for this team as we was most of last season. Will along with Thompson won a ton of awards for his performance last season 2nd team all big 12, freshman all big 12, freshman all American. Brennan does not hit for power but is great at getting on base and has wheels on the base pass once he does, he has a great eye for the baseball as he drew 34 walks last season in 49 games to go along with his 64 hits. Played summer ball in Alaska where he was named an all star, also a team captain.

rounding out the outfield will be seniors Kyle Barfield and Hanz Harker, both of which were part time starters last season as juco transfers. Barfield appeared in 40 games with 20 starts last season and hit .291 and had a nice summer the Jayhawk league, he should take over the full time duties in right field, where he nearly taken over completely at the end of last season.
Harker should be the everyday centerfielder, he will be unavailable the first weekend of the season but should be back after that. Harker appeared in 51 games and batted .246 with 34 starts a season ago. I expect both Harker and Barfields numbers to increase after getting a season in the big 12 under their belts and becoming everyday players.
Drew Mount, a juco transfer from California started his college career on the San Jose State football team will start the season as our centerfielder in place of Harker but should be our everyday DH. Mount is an athletic specimen that hit .333 and 9 hrs last season in the california juco ranks will provide much needed power to our lineup.
Other freshman that should see some playtime are Jordan Maxon and Dylan Watts. Maxon was the Kansas 4A player of the year last season but will be hurt by being a catcher with 2 older talented catchers ahead of him, he should also get some play time in the outfield. Watts, a DFW area recruit, was a Texas All State 6A player can play almost anywhere on the field and should get some opportunities at some point.

I did a full break down of the pitchers as well but some reason that didn't load and I lost it. Don't feel like re writing it today but will before the season starts.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2018, 01:05:40 PM by 09emaw »

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5122 on: February 10, 2018, 02:31:03 PM »
 :thumbs:
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Offline fun muffin

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5123 on: February 10, 2018, 07:02:54 PM »
good stuff!

Offline 09emaw

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Re: KSU Booze Cats 2015
« Reply #5124 on: February 11, 2018, 12:11:27 AM »
Pitching wise is an interesting mix, the only left handed pitcher on the roster is starting leftfielder Will Brennan who will likely see very little time on the bump because of his bats value. Left handed pitching is on the way as the cats have signed 4 LHP in the 2018 class but they wont help us this season. 

The weekend starting rotating rotation to start the season will be Friday sophmore Kasey Ford, Saturday Junior Gabe Littlejim, and Sunday senior Justin Heskett, our midweek starter is likely freshman Quinton Potter, and our closer will be sophmore Tyler Eckberg.  Key relievers will be Jared Marolf, Hudson Treu, Brogan Heinen, Mitch Zubradt.

Kasey Ford 6'6 290 heads the rotation, the sophmore worked his way from the backend of the bullpen last season to being the Sunday starter the last month of the season, he finished the season with a 4.03 ERA but had a 2.73 ERA as a starter and was first freshman in Kstate history to be named Big 12 pitcher of the week for throwing 7 scoreless innings against Kansas. Kasey throws in the mid 90s and has been developing his secondary pitches, he is the best pro prospect on the team and should be able to keep us in games. Also a team captain.

Gabe Littlejim is a transfer from seminole juco in oklahoma, the brother of sophmore pitcher Caleb, he finished last season at Seminole with a 5-4 record and a 4.5 ERA, that leauge in generally high scoring. I have not seen Gabe pitch, I will next week so I really cant say much about what he brings.

Justin Heskett was last years friday starter will be moved to the sunday sport this season. The former JUCO transfer from California finished the season with a 4.80 ERA and a 5-3 record.  Justin will not blow you away with his fastball but he has good placement of the baseball, he struggled toward the end of last season but his ERA is a little inflated from his last start of the season when he gave up 7 earned in 2 2/3, when on Justin is a quality starter that should do well in the sunday slot.

Sophmore closer Tyler Eckburg finished the season with the best ERA on the team last year and had secured the closer role from 10th round draft pick Jordan Floyd. Eckburg is a junk ball specialist that will hit about 90 on the gun gets people out with his breaking stuff. Eckburg averaged slightly over a strikeout an inning a year ago.

Sophmore Jared Marolf is a ground ball specialist that also does not have a blazing fastball but puts good movement on every pitch he throws, finished the season with a 4.03 ERA, should get quite a few innings of work thsi season.

Junior Mitch Zubradt is a quality pitcher that throws low 90s has had some injury issues throughout his career but has a chance to play pro ball, he had a slight dip in production from his freshman year but that could be contriubted to less of a workload he had as a sophmore due to injury, strong strikeout pitcher.

Junior Brogan Heinen moves from the starting rotation back to the pen where he was his freshman year when he enjoyed a successful season, he struggled last season when moved into the starting rotation and went from sunday starter to midweek starter last season hopfully he has a quality season in long relief for us.

Senior Hudson Treu was tried out as a starter last season when we were trying to figure out who our sunday starter would be but he is better as a reliever and will stay in that role this seson, his numbers were not eye popping last season (5.54 ERA) but he made some big pitches in big spots.

Quinton Potter, freshman from Moorepark, California, he had a 7-0 record with a 1.72 ERA as a senior, even more impressive with the quality of prep baseball in california, Potter throws low 90s and has the best chance of working his way into the starting rotation at some point this season if one of the starters struggles or gets injured.

The Cats open the season with a difficult weekend tournament in Myrtel Beach against ranked opponents South Alabama and Indiana along with Virginia Tech and Coastal Carolina.  Cats also have likely NCAA tournament teams Mercer and College of Charleston on their schedule along with a road series at Old Dominion, with a young team I believe we need to be patient and not waive the white flag to soon. In all honesty this team is built for 2019 but Hill does not have the luxory of waiting until 2019 I believe the most important thing this season is to develop younger players and show improvement.