WKU Baseball Preview: Part 1 of 4
I know, it’s hard to believe.
If you’re a baseball fanatic, like I am, you are more than relieved to hear this; the college baseball season is 4 weeks away.
That’s right – four Friday’s from tomorrow, Matt Myers begins his 3rd year at the helm of WKU baseball, as the Tops will open at the Nick against the Salukis of Southern Illinois.
Starting today, we will begin a four week series previewing the Toppers 2014 baseball squad, and we will start inside the diamond with previewing the infield.
Key Players Lost:
While WKU will have a deep infield in 2014, they will be missing some key 2013 members for the upcoming year. The most notable loss will be that of 1st baseman Ryan Huck, who is now a product of the Oakland Athletics (taken in the 27th round of this past years’ draft). Huck was the most potent bat last season, as WKU struggled to put runs on the board for the 2nd straight year. Huck lead the team in all 3 major offensive categories, with a .367 average, putting the ball past the fence 16 times, and driving 56 men in a season ago.
Another infielder WKU is going to miss was in the lineup for his glove, and not so much his bat – Steve Hodgins. Hodgins hit for average, finishing 2013 by hitting .316 and drove in 15 men, but shined on the field, committing only 7 errors, assisting on 77 plays (including 14 double-plays) and put out 53 men, all equaling a fielding percentage of .949.
The final key loss in the infield for WKU is the backstop Devin Kelly, who finished last season hitting .259, 12 doubles and 27 RBI, while allowing 44% of attempted stolen bases.
Key Players Returning:
While WKU is losing a lot of power in Huck, and some great fielding in Hodgins and Kelly, they have some guys coming back that will look to fill those roles and capitalize on solid 2013 campaigns.
First, the guy who might replace the offensive productivity of Huck, Canadian senior Scott Wilcox, who finished 2nd on the team last year in batting average (.326), and helped drive in 26 men. Wilcox started all 57 games last year for WKU, and finished last year with a .940 fielding percentage (committing 14 errors), and helped turn 31 double-plays.
Redshirt junior Ryan Messex will look to be to Kelly what Wilcox hopes to be to Hodgins. Messex hit .275 last year, drove in 18 runs, and scored 19 runs himself. He could use some work behind the plate though – he allowed 71.1% of runners to steal a base, but did commit less errors. A few more innings under his belt, and hopefully the stolen base percentage will go down, and he will be the #1 backstop for the next two years.
Who Else Is Back?
There’s not a whole lot of returners in the infield. As a matter of fact, according to my count, there is only one returner who wasn’t redshirted last year or isn’t a transfer. And that one returner is Thomas Peter. Peter started 36 of the 39 games he played in, and hit .210 for the season. 6 of Peter’s 30 hits were doubles, and he drove in 11 runs. In his first year on the Hill, Peter had a .861 fielding percentage, and made 10 errors, which isn’t bad for his first year of collegiate baseball. It seems weird, but it’s true – Messex and Peter are the veterans of the infield, and it’s going to be fun to watch them grown in that role.
Who’s New?
With Thomas Peter being the only returning infielder, that means there will be 7 new full-time infielders and a player who will split time between the infield and outfield. Of these 8 total players, 2 of them are apart of the 2014 signing class that included 11 signees: Braxton Brinkley (Hendersonville, TN) and Clint Hardy (Evans, GA). The infield will also see 3 redshirted players (Leiff Clarckson, Andrew Stepp and John Gatinger). The rest of the infield through out the season will include Cody Wofford, Ryan Church and Harrison Scanlon.
Final Verdict:
The infield is young, and may have troubles in the beginning of the year. Luckily, with young teams, things usually begin to click right around time for conference play to begin, and the series just before that happens is at the University of Georgia. If this portion of the field can get things going, it’s going to be a fun stretch of WKU baseball.
Stand up and cheers.