The Seattle University baseball team held its first full team practice of the 2012 spring season Friday, Jan. 27, three weeks away from the team's season opener against Utah Valley at Bannerwood Park. Head coach Donny Harrel, now in his fourth year at Seattle U and his third competitive season at the helm, gives his preview of the 2012 campaign.
We are extremely excited about our third year of baseball at the Division I level at Seattle University. We won just 11 games in our first season and basically doubled that total in 2011. We are finally in a position in our program where we have true experience. In our last game against St. Mary's in 2010, we had eight freshmen on the field trying to beat an experienced Division I program. Last year, we won our last game of the season against St. Mary's and did not have a freshman on the diamond. Our first freshman signing class in the program is now in their junior years and our junior college transfers are seniors. Put that experience with a tremendously hard working freshman class and the formula should equal more wins in 2012. Our team goal for the season is to reach the 30-win mark. If we play like our staff thinks we can, that goal is very reachable.
We've added 12 new student-athletes to our roster to help fill the problem areas that were exposed over the past two seasons. Pitching depth is a key and especially left-handed pitching. Freshman Garrett Anderson established himself in the fall as a guy we can count on to earn some starts. Freshmen Jake Chutney, Kyle Doyle, and Bret Hartnett will help out of the bullpen with second-year lefty Cory Mack coming back from a prosperous freshman season.
Senior righthanders Brandon Kizer and Seafth Howe should anchor the pitching staff and should pitch the Redhawks into each weekend this season. Senior Bryan Dalton, redshirt junior Evan Ewing and freshman Grant Gunning will all be competing for time in the starting rotation. Righthander Eric Yardley brings experience to the bullpen, while freshman Mason Stidham and junior Blaine Jones will take the closing roles for the Redhawk pitching staff.
Offensively we return our team MVP in senior second baseman Trent Oleszczuk. Senior Doug Kincaid, who was second on the team in RBIs last season, returns in the outfield and should be complemented in the middle of the lineup by juniors Josh Kutz and outfielder Sean Narby, along with seniors Riley Tompkins and Jace Sloan.
Setting the table for the Redhawks will be a mixture of young and experienced players. Senior outfielders Marcelino Morales and Michael Tevlin, who is coming back from a broken wrist but had an excellent fall before getting hurt, should both compete at the top of the order. Returning infielders Cullen Hendrickson, Nick Latta, and Nate Roberts add experience to the front end of the lineup, while junior outfielder Bryndon Ecklund could set the table or mix into the middle of the lineup after adding strength to his frame this past summer. Newcomers Zach Aaker, Eric Koenig, Grant Newton, and Adam Yunker should compete for at bats after showing promise in the fall.
Behind the plate, we are finally in a position to start shutting down opposing teams running games. Experienced redshirt sophomore Ryan Somers and junior Steve Kirbach lead the team with the most experience behind the plate. Senior Tyler Sustare continues to improve and new freshman Brian Olson led all catchers in hitting during the fall season. The combination of the four players gives us depth and great leadership to draw from during the grind of the season."
Our program and alumni have been hard at work to enhance all of our facilities and get us up to speed with Division I expectations. We built two new dugouts and bullpens at Bannerwood Park, while the city enhanced the park with new lighting. The city also added new drainage in the outfield and created room behind the home dugout for new batting cages.
Our schedule is once again tough and will prepare us for the WAC in 2013. We once again have more home games than away games and we are excited for our team and fans to see us play high quality institutions. Home games against the likes of UConn, Portland, UW, Santa Clara, BYU, and others, complimented by road series against top teams like WSU, Oregon, and Ohio State, should challenge us greatly to get to our goal of 30 wins.