By Skye Tulio
Sports Editor
The baseball team begins its 2013 campaign with a trip to Port Charlotte, Fla., Feb. 23-March 4. The Bonnies will play the first of nine spring training games tomorrow at 11 a.m. against South Dakota State.
Last season, the Bonnies fell just short of the Atlantic 10 postseason, finishing in ninth place with a record of 23-25 and 10-14 in conference play. The Bonnies will return seven out of last year’s nine position players along with the addition of 10 freshmen and two redshirt freshmen.
Head Coach Larry Sudbrook said even though the team has a great freshman recruiting class, the rookies most likely won’t see a lot of playing time since the Bonnies are primarily a veteran team.
“If you’re playing a ton of freshmen, it’s not a good thing,” Sudbrook said. “Thad Johnson is going to play some centerfield and a couple freshmen pitchers, Connor Grey and Steven Klimek, are going to see some pitching action as well as Josh Martin, who is our number-two catcher. Those four freshmen look like they’re going to get to play a significant amount, but other than Johnson, none of them are planning on starting because we do have a veteran team.”
The Brown and White will also return most of their pitching staff, including redshirt senior and number-one starter Eddie Gray.
“Along with Gray, we also return Andrew Revello, who was injured last year,” Sudbrook said. “So far, he’s thrown as well as any number-one you’d see in the conference. We’re very pleased that we have two veteran guys at the top of the rotation that we think will throw well for us and give us a chance to win.”
Redshirt junior Revello and senior Robert Nalepa both suffered season-ending injuries during last year’s Florida trip. Nalepa returns healthy this year and will work out of the bullpen while Revello adds to the starting rotation, according to Sudbrook.
Junior right-hander Asa Johnson served as the Bonnies number-three starter in conference play last season. However, Sudbrook said the coaching staff has brought in some competition this year for the veteran.
“Asa hasn’t done anything this year but get better,” Sudbrook said. “Fortunately for us, Rosencrance is also a right-handed pitcher as well as a designated hitter. Klimek and Grey are both guys that throw in the upper 80’s with a good breaking ball, so we think there are probably four guys vying for that third conference spot and that’ll sort of shake itself out when we play nine games down in Florida and four games in North Carolina. Those 13 games should determine who the number three guy is going to the conference opener against Xavier.”
Second baseman Jason Radwan and third baseman Billy Urban will be playing their final years in a Bonnies uniform.
“Billy and Jay have been starters since they were freshmen,” Sudbrook said. “Both of them have hit over .300 every year they’ve been at St. Bonaventure. They’re both guys who are All-Atlantic 10 type of players — guys that certainly will merit consideration for an honor like that.”
Fellow senior first baseman Austin Ingraham will also be back manning first base for the Brown and White.
“Austin has started at first since he was a freshman,” Sudbrook said. “He hasn’t hit as well as them (Urban and Radwan), but I think he’s got as much talent and we think he’ll be one of the big contributors offensively.”
Sudbrook said left fielder Eric Jutca has started for the team for two years and will remain in top of the order.
“He hit over .300 last year and had over a .400 on base percentage,” Sudbrook said. “We think the top five people in the order — Jutca, Radwan, Ingraham, Urban and Rosencrance – should give us some pretty good pop at the top.”
Down in the Sunshine State, the Bonnies hope to determine the kind of offense they’re going to get from the six, seven, eight and nine hole, according to Sudbrook.
“Filling those spots will be T. Johnson and senior catcher Nick Lohrer,” Sudbrook said. “There are two outfield spots open—which will also be determined in those first 13 non-conference games. Redshirt sophomore Bret Heath and junior Mark Hutmacher, a transfer from Kansas, both look pretty good for those outfield spots as well.”
Sudbrook said redshirt freshman John Diaz, freshman Sean Sleigh and junior Brian Weightman will also be in the running for the outfield.
The Bonnies finished 11th in the preseason Atlantic 10 coaches poll, but Sudbrook said the Bonnies don’t let the numbers bother them.
“We certainly think we’re better than an 11th place team,” Sudbrook said. “We can be a top seven team, which is what it’s going to take to make the tournament this year — seven out of 15 go.”
This year, the A-10 will be a 16-team conference. However, last year Duquesne dropped baseball as a Division I sport, so for baseball, the conference cut down to 15 teams. The team will get the chance to face the newest conference addition, Butler, but will not play Virginia Commonwealth this season due to scheduling conflicts.
“In baseball, because there’s only nine weekends of what we would call acceptable weather, you really can’t have 12 A-10 weekends,” Sudbrook said. “You play nine of the 14 because you don’t play yourself, so we don’t only miss VCU — we miss some other teams this year too. You’re always going to miss some of the teams.”
This season, Sudbrook said he hopes to end on a high note — a trip to the A-10s.
“It would be extremely disappointing considering the amount of veterans we have if we’re not in that mix,” Sudbrook said.
