2005 Baseball Preview
February 07, 2005 10:47 AM | General
February 7, 2005
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U-92 To Air 21 Games |
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University’s student radio station U-92 will broadcast 21 Mountaineer baseball games this season, the station has announced. The first broadcast will take place on Wednesday, March 9, when West Virginia plays host to Duquesne in the 2005 home opener at Hawley Field set for 3 pm. Big East Conference games covered by U-92 include Boston College, Georgetown, Rutgers, St. John’s and Seton Hall. The games will also be provided for free on the Internet by going to U-92’s web site http://u92.wvu.edu/.
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University baseball team has a considerable mountain to climb in 2005 if preseason polls are to be believed. Coach Greg Van Zant’s Mountaineers were predicted to finish seventh in the 10-team Big East baseball conference this year by Collegiate Baseball Magazine.
Unfortunately, that represents the best of the projections.
Big East coaches predicted West Virginia to place eighth while Baseball America tabbed the Mountaineers ninth. Van Zant, 288-249-1 now in his 11th season at WVU, says the veteran players on the team will use those preseason predictions as motivation this spring.
“The new guys don’t know the difference really but some of the returning guys that have been through the league are not too happy to see us where we’re at,” Van Zant said. “We’re kind of consensus picked near the bottom but based on the returning players we have and what kind of seasons they had that’s probably pretty accurate.”
West Virginia slipped to 23-29 in 2004 after nearly earning an NCAA tournament berth in 2003 with a 36-19 record. The Mountaineers must find replacements for top pitcher Zac Cline and power-hitting shortstop Grant Psomas -- both lost to the major league draft.
However, Van Zant was able to hold on to junior first baseman Stan Posluszny, a 21st-round pick by Anaheim last summer who turned down the Angels to play another season at WVU and try to improve his draft position.
Posluszny batted .322 with six home runs and 33 RBI in 2004 and returns as one of the Big East’s top power hitters. Van Zant says Posluszny will move from right field to play first base this spring and will bat cleanup.
Hitting one spot ahead of Posluszny in the lineup will be senior centerfielder Lee Fritz, who had a team-best .364 average to go with three home runs, 28 RBI and 37 runs scored in 2004. Fritz was a .400 hitter as a sophomore in 2003.
Kyle Matuszek, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound junior leftfielder who is the son of former major leaguer Len Matuszek, batted .317 with five home runs and 26 RBI after transferring from Morehead State. Matuszek will either hit lead-off or bat second. In Fritz, Posluszny and Matuszek, Van Zant has three of his top four hitters from a season ago returning.
The coach will utilize either senior Travis D’Amico or sophomore David Carpenter at catcher. Both have considerable experience. Doug Nelms, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound junior from Bristol, Va., played 36 games last year and will start the season at short.
“We’ve got some fairly experienced players coming back and we’ve also got some new players that are a little bit better and maybe have been hidden under the radar screen a little bit,” said Van Zant.
The new players will probably go a long way in determining how successful West Virginia is this season. Van Zant will plug in newcomers at second, third and rightfield.
Impressive freshman Tyler Kuhn gets the nod at second base. The left-handed hitting infielder was two a two-time all-state selection at Trinity High School in Louisville, Ky.
“I went down to the Kentucky East-West All-Star game for juniors and he was the best infielder in Kentucky,” Van Zant said. “He didn’t want to stay home and Kentucky was in between coaches and we were able to get in there and sign him.”
Playing third will be Ridgeley, W.Va., resident Justin Jenkins, a Potomac State transfer where he earned second-team junior college All-America honors in 2004. Jenkins was a player Van Zant once targeted out of high school and the veteran coach believes the right-handed power hitter has the makeup to be a very solid Big East third baseman.
“We’ve never had a good team here when we didn’t have a good third baseman,” Van Zant said.
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| First baseman Stan Posluszny turned down the Anaheim Angels to return for his junior season at WVU. He will be one of the top power-hitting prospects in the Big East this spring.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Getting the first look in right field will be Moundsville native Chad McKown, a Western Carolina transfer who hit 10 home runs last year for the Catamounts. According to Van Zant, McKown has been working hard on cutting down his strikeouts.
“There are not many kids coming back on any Division I team that hit 10 home runs last year. He’s just a big, strong kid,” he said.
The designated hitter could come from a group consisting of juniors Casey Bowling and Dusty Woodring, sophomores Justin Richards and Trent Ridgeley, or freshman Michael Burger.
“DH is a question mark because Casey Bowling (hamstring) and Dusty Woodring are hurt (ankle),” Van Zant said. “If we had to DH right now it would probably be Justin Richards or Trent Ridgley against a lefthander and freshman Michael Burger against a righthander.”
Position depth will come from sophomore outfielder Brandon Drespling, freshmen catchers Justin Parks and Mike Schmidt, sophomore outfielder Rob Watlock and freshman outfielder Adam White.
Like the DH position, Van Zant also has concerns about his pitching rotation. The Mountaineers don’t have a proven workhorse that can go out every fifth day like it did last year with Cline, who threw 10 complete games in 12 appearances. But Van Zant believes that may actually turn out to be a good thing for his team.
He explains: “On a lot of teams I’ve been around sometimes when you have that one star pitcher that is so good then everybody else feels inferior. When he’s on the mound the team knows they’re going to win and when the rest of the guys go on the mound it’s a let-down. Sometimes when a staff doesn’t have one great pitcher the rest of the guys will step up and that’s what we’re hoping for this year.”
Senior Shawn Miller is penciled in as the team’s No. 1 starter. Last year Miller had trouble with his control and that led to a 5-6 record and a 6.18 earned run average. Van Zant says Miller has been much sharper in preseason workouts this year and expects him to be more consistent in the strike zone this season.
Senior righthander Chris Amedro owns a live arm and has pitched in some big games during his Mountaineer career. He shows a 4-6 career record. Todd Dunham, a senior righthander from Gans, Pa., has consistently put up good numbers throughout his career and could be West Virginia’s late-inning shut-down guy.
“Dunham has evolved into a pretty effective college pitcher,” Van Zant said. “He’s got a good breaking ball and he throws strikes. His career numbers are pretty good for the role he’s been in.”
Oklahoma State transfer Jimmy Rhodes, a Shepherdstown native, is another righthander who could give the pitching staff a big lift this season. Rhodes enrolled in school for the spring semester and is still working off some rust.
“It’s going to take him some time but he’s working hard and he’s going to help us,” Van Zant said. “He’s got good mound presence and he knows what he’s doing. He’ll definitely eat up innings for us.”
Redshirt freshman righthander Travis McGrath will be available in March after having successful Tommy John surgery on his elbow last year. McGrath is a Hurricane native.
The top lefthanders, according to Van Zant, are freshman Kenny Durst, sophomore Wes Osbourn and senior Marty Fagler. Durst, a Point Pleasant native, is one young pitcher that has really caught Van Zant’s eye.
“He has been impressive,” said Van Zant.
Big Connecticut righthander Mark Wyner, rated one of the nation’s top 100 players by Baseball America as a high school senior, is making solid progress and could be a factor in the rotation as well as Potomac State transfer Kevin Korzun, who started a game in last year’s Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, Colo.
Others who could see some important innings are sophomore lefthander Brendan Bergerson, juniors Ryan Lipscomb and Levi Maxwell, sophomore Trent Ridgley, and freshmen Ryan Gisolfi, Ryan Hill and Matt Yurish. Another freshman, Shawn Yearego, is a promising prospect that has been sidelined due to injury.
“We’ve got a lot of pitchers to pick from and it’s just a matter of which ones decide to go out and compete and throw strikes,” Van Zant said.
The Mountaineers are starting their regular season a week earlier than usual, opening at Norfolk State for a two-game series Feb. 12-13. After that, West Virginia has early non-league games against Clemson, East Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Citadel, N.C. State and East Tennessee State before opening at home against Duquesne on March 9.
“We went ahead and scheduled (the Norfolk State series) because when you look at that weekend would we be better at the end of that weekend playing or practicing? We felt we’d be better by playing,” Van Zant said. “We know they’re not going to be easy games but hopefully, win, lose or draw, it will help us be better prepared for the next weekend when we play Clemson, East Carolina and Coastal Carolina.”
In addition to Duquesne, West Virginia also has home games against Towson, Niagara, Toledo, Boston College, Georgetown, Coppin State, Savannah State, Rutgers, St. John’s, Akron, Maryland-Eastern Shore, Ohio and Seton Hall. The Mountaineers have 34 home contests scheduled for 2005.
If West Virginia can get through its early non-conference portion of its schedule with some victories then Van Zant believes his team will build the confidence needed to make a run at one of the top four spots to make it to the Big East tournament.
“I think we’re going to surprise some people,” he said.
