2012 Case Western Reserve University Baseball Preview: Hitters
The 2011 Spartans baseball team went 33-15, shattering school records and making their first-ever playoff appearance, and a big part of that was due to the offense. They finished third in all of Division III (367 teams) with 409 runs scored. I never felt like the Spartans were completely out of a game last year, the offense was good enough to make a comeback at any time. The first playoff game against Adrian College exemplified that, the walkoff grand slam showing that ability in, ahem, grand style.
The offense lost four starters from last year (shown below), but returning players appear quite capable of filling in the holes left behind. A couple of notes before reading on: the stats I place in parentheses are (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage), and are from last year unless noted. I found HS stats for a couple of incoming freshman, and my judgments are solely based on those stats, so take them with the largest grain of salt you can find.
Key losses: 3B Chad Mullins (.437/.504/.658), C Steve Bills (.312/.398/.429), CF Matt Richards (.326/.442/.378), DH Cory Pecoraro (.272/.333/.377)
Infield
Senior Peter Zak is the incumbent behind the plate, and will likely get most of the playing time after the graduation of Bills from last year’s team. His career batting line of .243/.339/.456 is not bad at all, and when you consider he posted his best numbers last year, he could be in for a big year. Three freshmen will battle for playing time behind Zak: Ethan Pickering, Jordan Swisher, and Robert Winemiller. Winemiller is also listed as a pitcher, and my guess is as the season progresses, it will become clear which position coach Matt Englander views Winemiller at long term. The last non-freshman to play a significant number of games in the field and on the mound was Kevin Haley in 2008, Englander’s second year as coach. That year, Haley was Case’s pitching ace and their best option at 2B, which shows you how far the program has come.
The infield, despite than the graduation of Mullins, the D3Baseball.com player of the year last year, will be an area of strength, especially offensively. Junior Brett Ossola (.308/.408/.448) will remain the starter at 1B, and in the middle of the lineup. Senior Bobby Marko (.280/.361/.352) returns at 2B, and will be very solid on offense. Junior Matt Keen (.381/.457/.510) stays at SS, and near the top of the lineup (likely leadoff or third). Sophomore Andrew Frey (.422/.454/.511) is the probable starter at 3B, and if he can build on a fantastic freshman year, will be a top-three hitter on this year’s team.
There are several freshmen listed as infielders: Will Meador, Kerrigan Cain, Caleb Parker, and Andrew Gronski. I would keep an eye on Cain; he batted .597/.646/.1.015 last year at Archbishop Hoban High School. Anyone who can hit .597 in 79 ABs at the high school level with that kind of power has a chance to succeed at the collegiate level. Of course, I could not find stats for Meador, Parker, or Gronski, so I have no way to compare the four.
Outfield
There are four favorites for playing time in the outfield, three of which are returning players. The probable LF is senior Jimmy Abed (.257/.408/.372). Senior Sam Alexander (.368/.427/.580), who had the best 2011 hitting stats of any returning starter, will either play RF or DH. Sophomore Jordan Dague (.571/.684/.786 in 19 plate appearances), a speedster who made plenty of pinch-running appearances last season, has good potential as a hitter and defender as well, and could end up playing most of the innings in RF. Junior transfer Paul Pakan (.262/.339/.421 in two seasons) is very intriguing. He had a good freshman season at Division I George Washington University, but stumbled a bit last year (I think he suffered an injury during the March 16 game vs. William & Mary, only appearing in six games the rest of the year. I could not find anything to confirm this, so if I am wrong, please let me know!). He played third base most of his time at GWU, but will play CF this year. If he sticks in CF, and hits like a player who previously played for a Division I school, he could be the pleasant surprise of the season.
There are freshmen listed as outfielders: Matt Diehl and Alan Long. I could not find any HS stats for either, so I have no clue what their strengths and weaknesses as hitters are (a speedster with good defensive chops, or a slugger with a powerful arm? No idea). I do know that both will likely get some playing time, with four outfielders and a DH spot in front of them.
I suspect there will not be a true starting DH this year, unless Abed, Pakan, and Dague jell as an outfield, in which case Alexander would be the DH starter. My guess, though, is that coach Matt Englander rotates players at DH as a way of resting them while also giving them ABs.
