Jan. 25, spectators will see new faces litter the field and dugout for the Wolf Pack in this baseball season.
At the helm of this new team in a strong conference is head coach Doug Faust in his first year coaching at the collegiate level.
The team seeks to improve upon their 18-33 record from last season. This will be difficult as they are in the Southern States Athletic Conference. A conference that contains three teams ranked in the Top 25 Coaches preseason poll with another that received votes falling just outside of the top 25, including last year’s fourth place at the Avista -NAIA World Series finisher Lee.
“We know it’s a difficult conference. I mean you have three games each weekend with every one of ’em – a three game series. Our goal is to win two out of three each weekend no matter who we play. And when you play the really good teams you just have to avoid getting swept,” Faust said.
Faust said that sweeps negatively impact the conference standings because if a team is swept then, they must sweep another team to stay in contention.
New assistant head coach Bobby Turnage with be in the dugout this season in his second stint as a coach of Loyola baseball. Under his coaching in 2000, the team had a 6.18 ERA, the second highest in the conference at the time.
To help these new coaches are a group of returning upperclassmen players that include senior finance major Jeffery Castille, management senior Evan Turkish, criminal justice junior Brandon Snow and marketing major Karson Cullins. Among players with at least 10 games played, Castille had the lowest ERA on the team last season, Turkish had the highest batting average and Cullins had the most runs batted in.
“We have a good nucleus after the fall going into the spring,” Faust said. “I don’t want to be too optimistic, but I think we’re capable of having a pretty solid team this year.”
Along with this group comes freshmen whom Faust considers talented.
“We got five freshmen pitchers. Four of them are going to play a key role this year, I believe,” Faust said “Whether it be starting pitching or in the bullpen.”
New players include freshman pitcher and outfielder Kevin Lindsey and freshman pitcher Daniel Posway. “Those two have a good chance to be in the starting rotation,” Faust said.
Other freshmen pitchers include Joel Buhler and Cameron Retif.
There are also two sophomore transfers from junior colleges, infielders John Nicholson from Grossmont College in El Cajon, Calif. and Carmelo LoSauro from St. Johns River State in Palatka, Fla.
The season begins with a two game homestand against Rust College on Jan. 25 and 26.
Etefia Umana can be reached at [email protected]
