10 things you need to know before opening day of USCB's baseball season

Hello, hello, my baseball-loving friends. It has been a while since we got together over here, but USCB baseball season is here to save us from the winter doldrums. We'll have a full page and then some of preview material in Saturday's paper to get you primed for the season, but I wanted to formally kick off the season here on the blog, too.

I had a few things I couldn't fit into the preview package, and I also read somewhere that you folks who read things on the interwebs like lists, so I put together a little list of 10 things you need to know before opening day.

Without further ado, here they are:

1. Opening day isn't opening day anymore. You might have noticed the steady downpour that settled over the Lowcountry on Friday, and the rain washed out Saturday's scheduled opener against Benedict College. So the Sand Sharks' first game is now Monday's 2 p.m. home contest against Shorter College.

2. The lineup is subject to change ... a lot. If you followed the team last year, you know coach Rick Sofield loves to juggle the lineup and try to keep the hottest hitters in the order at all times. With that in mind, don't think for a second that the lineup will look the same in March -- let alone May -- as it does on opening day. Sofield will have even more flexibility with the lineup this year, because the team has more quality depth at every position.

3. The pitching staff is much improved. Remember last year's ace, Jared Campbell? Well, he's fighting to hang onto a spot in the three-man weekend rotation. Adding transfers Spencer Cromer and Adam Miller at the front end makes the rotation much better, at least in theory, and it also should improve the bullpen, as Jorge Olmo and Ryan Philpott move down there. Last year, if the Sand Sharks' starter got shelled in game one of a doubleheader, the coaching staff had its work cut out for it to get through the rest of the day. They have a little more leeway this year.

4. The new guys are legit. This year's recruiting class was loaded by NAIA standards. Consider this: The projected opening day starters at first base, shortstop and right field have supplanted incumbent starters; the top two starting pitchers are newcomers; and transfers are pushing for starting jobs at second base and catcher.

5. No one's job is safe. Like I said, Sofield likes to play the hot hand, and he also won't hesitate to bench a guy who isn't doing the right things on and off the field. It seems that internal competition has been a positive, so far, but we'll see what happens as the season progresses.

6. Remember the rules. NAIA has some goofy rules that seem more suited to Little League than college baseball, and though Sofield isn't a fan of them, he will use them to his advantage. You can re-enter any starter one time (so you could pinch hit for him with the bases loaded in the sixth, then put him back in for defense in the seventh, for example) and you can use courtesy runners for the pitcher and catcher (though USCB's pitchers never hit). USCB already gets plenty of mileage out of the courtesy runner rule, but look for Sofield to take advantage of the offense-defense switches a bit more this year.

7. Welcome the new rival. You'll notice a new team in the Sun Conference this season, as Southeastern joins the league (Ave Maria also joined on a provisional basis, but won't play a full conference schedule until next year). In addition to boasting one of the (figuratively) coolest nicknames in the league, the Fire could be a sleeper much like USCB was last year. They've won 40 or more games each of the past five seasons and return 18 players off last year's team. Not too shabby.

8. The schedule is front-loaded. USCB's conference schedule is ridiculously tough at the beginning of the season; the Sand Sharks face the top three teams (Warner, Embry-Riddle and SCAD) in their first three conference series, all before the end of February. So even if the Sand Sharks are sitting at 2-4 or 1-5 in the conference at the end of the month, there's no need to panic with some sweepable series waiting down the road. On the flip side, if they're sitting at 3-3 or 4-2, buckle up for a run at the conference title.

9. You can watch the games online. Yes, you read that right. You can watch every USCB baseball game online through collegecast.net (you'll find a link through uscbathletics.com). My understanding is there will be a nominal fee to subscribe for the full season, or you can pay to watch individual games, but I'm unsure of the price. Sadly, this will render my live blogs during the game somewhat pointless, but ...

10. We'll still have the best USCB baseball coverage around. In addition to covering most home games, we plan to continue our Monday notebooks, including the Shark of the Week. And I'm toying with the idea of doing a post-game blog hitting a few of the highlights from the game (an "instant analysis" type of thing is what I have in mind) as well as a weekly live chat if folks are interested. I'm thinking Monday afternoons might work for the live chat, but I would love to hear feedback on when interested parties would be available to join the fun, so post a comment here or send e-mail to jjarrett@islandpacket.com to let me know.

Until then, I'll see you at the "Shark Park".

Comments (0) |

---

By submitting your comment, you are agreeing to islandpacket.com's user agreement.

Views: