|
Baseball
fields many new players
The Savannah College of Art and Design baseball team will have a youthful look this season. Out of the 19 players on the roster, 14 are either freshmen or sophomores as the Bees look to improve last season’s 15-23 ledger. SCAD returns five starting position players and one starting pitcher from a year ago. Third-year head coach Doug Wollenburg, who has a 37-41 overall record at SCAD, feels very good about the 2004 edition. “Going into the season we have a very good cohesive unit that has worked really hard during the fall season,” Wollenburg said. “We should be better than last year as an offensive team,” Wollenburg said. “We have more returnees than we had before, and with some of our new guys we should put up better offensive numbers this season. Defensively we should also be better. With new guys and returning players, we feel pretty solid up the middle.” Last year’s team batted .264 with seven home runs, and 119 RBI. SCAD’s fielding percentage was .927. Leading the way for the Bees will be sophomore shortstop James O’Connell, who was named the team’s most valuable offensive player last season and is one of three co-captains for the Bees in 2004. O’Connell led the team with a .338 batting average, 17 RBI and 10 stolen bases. Sophomore Josh Eastwood is the other returnee in the SCAD infield, coming off a season in which he batted .220 and drove in 11 runs. Eastwood will split time between first and second base. Freshmen Steven Argo, Sean Barber, Bo Noon and Andy Welsh and sophomore Ty Mankovitch will play in the infield. Welch will play first base, while Argo and Barber will play second base. Welsh and Argo will also see time on the mound. Mankovitch and Noon will battle for the starting job at third base. Argo and Noon are switch-hitters and Welsh is a lefty. The balance of the lineup are right-handed hitters. Senior Jarrod Norrell returns at catcher. Norrell, the only returning player to start in all 38 games last season, batted .252 with eight stolen bases and six RBI and threw out 15 runners trying to steal. Newcomer Tony Ruggiero and sophomore Sean Mahaney will vie for time behind the plate. Junior Sean Smith anchors the SCAD outfield this spring in center. Smith was second on the team with a .326 batting average, 10 stolen bases and 10 RBI. Joining him in the outfield are co-captains Scott Frederick and Chris Tirro. Frederick, a junior, batted .167 with four RBI in 12 games before suffering a season-ending injury. Tirro, a senior, batted .232 with nine RBI and eight stolen bases. Tirro will also be a closer for SCAD. Senior left-hander Rich Fallat anchors the pitching staff. Fallat went 3-1 in 10 appearances (four starts) with one complete game. He had a 6.15 ERA in 41 innings of work. Joining Fallat in the starting rotation will be Argo and freshman Kevin McKesson. Sophomore Tyler King is the lone returnee in the SCAD bullpen. The lefty was 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in six appearances (one start) last season. The relief corps will include newcomer sophomores Mike Cahill and Craig Chaffee and freshmen Matt Courtright and Welsh. “We have a very young pitching staff,” Wollenburg said. “We haven’t been tested. We’re going to get tested early and see where we are.” The schedule will be challenging for the Bees in 2004. With the switch from NCAA Division III to NAIA, SCAD will play 52 games, 14 more than a year ago. “There is a good mix of NCAA Division III and NAIA games this season,” Wollenburg said. “The added number of games will put an increased premium on our pitching and the team’s overall health. However, our coaches have done a good job to prepare the team to handle a taxing schedule.” The assistant coaches are David Haverstick and Shawn Summe. The Bees open the season Jan. 30 with a 2 p.m. contest against Warner Southern College in Lake Wales, Fla. There will be 27 home games, all but four played at Grayson Stadium. The first is a 5 p.m. contest against Brewton-Parker College Feb. 3. The Bees will play games in five states: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and Texas. The Bees will play 12 games against teams that were ranked in the preseason from the NCAA Division III Top 25, NAIA national and NAIA Region XIV polls. Warner Southern is ranked No. 5 in the NAIA. The Bees will conclude the season May 7 with a home doubleheader against Faulkner University, ranked 23rd in the NAIA. The Bees will play four of the top six teams ranked in the preseason Region XIV poll. Besides Warner Southern, the Bees will have home-and-home series with Flagler College (No. 3 in region) and Edward Waters College (No. 6). SCAD will face Embry-Riddle Aero-nautical University, ranked No. 5 in the region, in a Feb. 13 game in Mount Vernon. The Bees have a home-and-home series against archrival Emory University, which advanced to the NCAA Division III World Series last season. Emory is ranked No. 12 in the NCAA Division III preseason poll. MacEachern is the SCAD sports information director. |
 |
||||
