What about Baseball?

[Brad]

Another rebuild or something better?

[Bull Dozer]

I think by his 3rd season coach Kingston will have us seriously competing for the conference title.  

[JTrue]

I don't think competing for the AAC title is out of the question. This was a .500 team last year and returns 9/10 top hitters from last year and loses maybe 1 pitcher who had an impact. Add in the new guys and Kingston, we can definitely compete right out of the gates.

[CPR]

Houston already has the conference on lock down this year with UCF probably being a distant 2nd place. The AAC is going to be weak this year outside of a great Houston team.

Edited January 23, 2015 by CPR

[Paisa el Toro]

We lack punch in the batting lineup. Absent some newbie going crazy with the batting statistics in the AAC, I'm just not seeing where we'll get that this season. The pitching staff is supposed to be solid, and I hope Kingston is able to rectify some of the defensive lapses we seemed to fall into last season. I think we're likely a few seasons away from being able to consider ourselves in the top-3 of the AAC.

[JTrue]

We lack punch in the batting lineup. Absent some newbie going crazy with the batting statistics in the AAC, I'm just not seeing where we'll get that this season. The pitching staff is supposed to be solid, and I hope Kingston is able to rectify some of the defensive lapses we seemed to fall into last season. I think we're likely a few seasons away from being able to consider ourselves in the top-3 of the AAC.

We finished in 5th place last year and 2 of the teams ahead of us are gone. I'll be disappointed if we're not in the top 3 this year.

[charsibb]

Who has the better year, baseball or softball?

[swamprat]

We've got the entire starting lineup back from last year. Teaf is solid, Levi Borders came on later in the season, as did Zach Gilcrease, and Luke Maglich was a solid threat until he got hurt. For some reason, if Alfonso hits out of the 9 hole, he's a more than capable hitter. Buddy Putnam or Austin Lueck at 1st, Luke Borders in center and Daniel Portales in right. I think the guys will be fine defensively and we may put some runs up. College baseball is all about small ball, now anyway. So I'm less concerned about power and more concerned about base running  and fielding errors. 

 

My major concern is with the lack of left handed pitching and consistent pitching in general. Unless improvement has occurred in the staff, once you get past Jimmy Herget and Casey Mulholland, grab the dice, cause anything can happen. Even Jordan Strittmatter had his moments, last season. The loss of Thomas, Serrallonga, and, especially, Pardo is huge. It left us with one LHP, Josh Walker. 

 

If we can find a consistent 3rd starter and Stritt can lock down the 9th, I believe we'll win more games than one might expect. Maybe the transfers, Valdes and Savarese, will help? 

 

I'm optimistic. 

 

Next year will be a challenge unless Coach Kingston can recruit some. I'm supposing there are not a pile of red shirts somewhere. We only have 3 freshman on the roster, at the moment. We have 5 seniors, all of them starters. 

[swamprat]

BTW, practice started, yesterday.

[smazza]

another sport in which usf underachieves