By Grant Abston, Sports Editor
Despite losing two all-America players and perhaps one of the best pitching staffs in ACU’s history in 2008, the Wildcat baseball team will look to build off last year’s success, which saw ACU win the Lone Star Conference regular-season championship as well as earn a bid back to the South Central Regional Tournament.
After adding a number of freshmen and transfers for the 2009 season, the Wildcats, ranked No. 11 in Collegiate Baseball magazine’s Division II pre-season poll, will rely on a powerful offense to help an inexperienced pitching staff that returns only one starter from last season. But with added depth, the Wildcats will have a good shot to reach the World Series as well as win their first LSC postseason championship since 2002.
“The thing we need to work on is getting out there and playing together and going through a season and developing our roles as a player and accepting those roles,” said head coach Britt Bonneau. “The sooner we accept those roles, we will be able to achieve a lot more.”
The Wildcats finished 44-17 last season, falling one game short of a LSC postseason championship after losing to sixth-seeded Texas A&M-Kingsville. However, ACU is favored to repeat as LSC regular-season champion after receiving 19 of the 28 first-place votes in the LSC preseason poll. Catcher Jordan Schmitt, shortstop Willie Uechi, centerfielder Thomas Bumpass and third baseman Cameron Watten will join pitcher Preston Vancil as the only returning starters from the 2008 season.
“We have good senior leadership and have some guys coming back from last year,” Bonneau said. “Jordan Schmitt is going to be a huge impact for us this year, and Uechi has started the last two years at shortstop, and Thomas Bumpass is in centerfield and has been with me for four years.”
Bumpass took over centerfield in 2008 after an injury and will return full-time in 2009, joining transfers Ruben Perez and Travis Latz in the outfield. Three-year starter Uechi finished third on the team with a .373 batting average and second on the team in hits (87) in 2008 and will join Watten as the only returning starters in the infield. Former Cooper High School player Chris Hall will join Watten and Uechi in the infield at second base after transferring from Texas Tech. Hall started all 55 games his sophomore year at Tech in 2008 and was third on the team with a .318 batting average while adding 38 RBI.
“A big transfer, Chris Hall, came in at semester and to have the opportunity to coach this kid is exciting,” Bonneau said. “[Chris] makes the middle of infield one of the best in the nation.”
One of the biggest question marks entering this season will be the pitching staff. In 2008, ACU lost three of its top pitchers in Wildcat history. Pitcher Trey Watten earned first team all-America honors as a designated hitter and was named LSC Pitcher of the Year before being drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the seventh round of the Major League Baseball draft. Watten finished his junior season with a 10-3 record and posted a team-high 2.56 ERA and 113 strikeouts. The Wildcats also lost senior pitchers Ben Maynard and Chris Wiman, two of the winningest pitchers in school history. Wiman set the single-season record for wins (13) and ended his ACU career with 32 victories, one behind Maynard who finished his career as the ACU and LSC all-time leader in wins with 33.
Vancil (6-2, 5.40 ERA) is ACU’s only returning starter and will be joined by returning relievers Matt Sullivan (2-0, 9.15 ERA) and Kevin Justice (0-1, 6.75 ERA). Two transfers, Cameron Aspass from Palomar College and Cooper Page from Tyler Junior College, will look to provide depth to the rotation and will be key to the Wildcats’ success.
“Most of the guys lack experience, but overall most of the guys coming in are from ‘Juco’ and have come college experience,” Schmitt said. “We need consistency from three to four starting pitchers. We have one to two solid starters but we’re looking for the third or fourth guy to step up.”
With a majority of their home games at the beginning of the season, the Wildcats will use the first part of the season to solidify the starting lineup and find different roles for a team loaded with depth. Despite the losses, the Wildcats know what it takes and are ready to put themselves in a position to win a LSC championship and make a postseason run.
“We want to get off on the right foot and coach Bonneau has been harping on us that we have a bunch of home games during the first half, and during the second half we have some road games against some hard teams,” Uechi said. “It’s important to get off to good start and win at home, and we know from experience how one or two games can affect a bid to regionals, so we don’t want to take any for granted.”
The Wildcats’ first game will be Tuesday at 2 p.m. against Incarnate Word in San Antonio before coming back home for their next eight games, beginning with New Mexico Highlands on Feb. 6 at 4 p.m.
