Baseball | 2/12/2015 3:48:00 PM
ABILENE – When putting together a big puzzle, everyone has always been taught to put the borders on first and then work toward the inside. The borders give the puzzle stability and strength and provide a sense of direction for putting together the rest of the puzzle.
In a coaching sense, ACU head baseball coach
Britt Bonneau and his staff are putting the finishing touches on the border of the puzzle as the Wildcats enter their second season at the NCAA Division I level. Bonneau still has many pieces to put in the right places, but he can definitely see progress is being made.
"The experience of even just one year at the NCAA Division I level has been huge for me and our program," said Bonneau, who is 689-360-1 in 18 seasons as the head coach. "The understanding that we all have now of what it takes to prepare and to play at this level has been huge.
"For me, the biggest thing I've learned is the attention to detail during games," he said. "Knowing what to do regarding personnel. Stacking a team the right way and knowing how to use the bullpen and the guys on the bench. You have to specialize more kids and be able to use their strengths in certain situations. Then you have to figure out what your needs are and go put the puzzle together. Right now, it feels like we're putting together a 1,000-piece puzzle and we're just finishing putting the borders together."
The Wildcats were 18-36 overall last season and 6-18 in the Southland Conference in the baseball program's first foray into NCAA Division I baseball. The Wildcats endured a nine-game losing streak in early April where they didn't play very well. However, over the team's final 20 games, the Wildcats were 6-14 and lost six games by two runs or less as the Wildcats played a much better brand of baseball over the season's final six weeks.
ACU saved its best for two of its last games of the season as the Wildcats lost at nationally ranked Arizona State, 4-3, on May 20 in the final game of the historical Packard Field in Tempe, Airiz., and then beat Arizona, 6-5, in the penultimate game of the season in Tucson, Ariz., That was one night after the Wildcats dropped a 4-3 decision to Arizona.
The Wildcats return a bundle of experienced players from last season, including senior outfielders
Tyler Eager and
Colton Hall, as well as sophomore second baseman
Aaron Draper and pitchers like
Garrett deMeyere,
Ladgie Zotyka,
Nick Palacios and
Kevin Sheets.
But the Wildcats lost catcher / second baseman
Seth Spivey to the Texas Rangers, who drafted him last June in the 10th round of the amateur draft. Spivey led the Wildcats with a .341 batting average and five home runs, and was second with 33 RBI.
"You can't just replace a guy like
Seth Spivey," Bonneau said. "You just try to fill his shoes.
Alex Copeland behind the plate will be a solid catcher for us. He's very vocal and handles the pitching staff really well. He's a very confident player, and that's what Seth brought the team every day."
Eager is the most experienced player returning to the team and he'll be counted on as one of the handful of "core players" that Bonneau expects to lead the team. Eager will start in centerfield and bat near the top of the lineup as he has done since he stepped on the campus in August 2011.
He's played in all 161 games the Wildcats have played since his arrival, starting 160, including the last 122 straight dating back to his freshman season. The only game he didn't start in his career was an April 13, 2012, game against Cameron in a Lone Star Conference game. With another good season, Eager – a career .312 hitter – will break into the top 10 in several career categories, including runs scored, hits, doubles and total bases. He's already tied for seventh with 10 triples.
Other everyday players who will be part of the core players that Bonneau talked about are Draper (.309 with 21 RBI last year),
Russell Crippen (.223 with three home runs and 18 RBI in 2014) and Hall (.265 with 14 RBI in 2014). Draper – who bounced around the infield last year – will start at second base, while Crippen will start at first base and Hall in right field.
The left side of the infield will be new with shortstop
Kyle Carroll transferring in from Jefferson County (Mo.) Community College and third baseman
Brayden Gomez coming in as a freshman from Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks, Calif.
"We have a true shortstop, which is something we haven't had here since 2010 (all-time hits leader Willie Uechi)," Bonneau said. "And we've got an experienced and well-rounded second baseman in Draper, who's only going to get better at that spot. Watching those two work together in the middle of the infield reminds me of the great combos we've had at those two spots in the past. The sleeper in the whole group is Gomez. He's a left-handed hitter and is a solid player. As he matures and grows, he could make a big impact on this program."
The other outfield spot (left field) will be taken by
Heath Beasley to start, while a pair of hard-hitting freshmen in
Jeff Clarke and
Taylor Fajardo figure to share the designated hitter spot.
The Wildcats scored just 246 runs last year (4.6 per game), part of a recent downward trend across college baseball in run production. The trend began in 2011 when the NCAA banned the "hot" bats that had prevailed throughout the college game for the better part of 20 years. However, this year, the ball has been changed with the hope of injecting a little bit more offense into the game. This season, teams will use the same ball used across minor league baseball, and Bonneau said he can already see a difference.
"I think that baseball will really help offensive production in the college game," he said. "The ball is used in the minor leagues and has flatter seems, which give the ball less resistance when it gets up in the air. You're probably going to see 20-30 percent more distance on everything that's hit. I really like them, and I think it will give hitters more confidence at the plate."
All of that leads the mound where Bonneau believes the Wildcats will be much better than the group that posted a 5.52 team ERA last year and gave up 543 hits in 459 2/3 innings of work. New pitching coach
Brad Flanders – ACU's third pitching coach in the last three seasons – takes over a group that will be fronted by senior
Thomas Altimont, who transfers to ACU from Arkansas.
Altimont and Flanders were at Arkansas together, and Altimont figures to be the ace the Wildcats desperately needed in 2014. He'll be joined in the weekend starting rotation by
Aaron Mason (junior left-handed transfer from Fort Scott, Kan., Community College) and junior right-hander deMeyere.
The Tuesday starter right now is
Austin Lambright with Palacios, Zotyka and Sheets filling in at the backend of the bullpen. But the Wildcats also have experienced middle-relief / spot-start arms in
Brandon Lambright,
Ty Walker,
Nate Cole,
Mack Morgan and
Joe Gawrieh, as well as
Landon Holifield, who also transferred to ACU from Fort Scott C.C.
"Our pitching staff this year will give us a chance to stay in games and win them on the mound," Bonneau said. "We have guys who can not only compete against teams in the Southland Conference, but against the teams we're going to be playing from the Big 12 (Texas Tech and TCU), SEC (Texas A&M) and Pac-12 (Arizona State and Arizona).
"Altimont and Mason are older and more mature guys than we had last year, and that will make a big difference for us," Bonneau said. "Both of those guys can throw three pitches for strikes. deMeyere ate up a lot of innings last year and is a great competitor for us in that No. 3 spot. And it's good to have those three guys at the back-end of the bullpen because they all have experience in tough situations."
The season gets started this weekend when the Wildcats take on a Nevada team that has been picked to finish third in the Mountain West Conference. The Wolfpack will be in Abilene for a three-game series at Crutcher Scott Field. Friday's season-opener will start at 4 p.m. with Saturday's game set for 2 p.m. and Sunday's contest slated for a 1 p.m. start. Sunday's game will be heard locally on 98.1 FM The Ticket, and all three games can be viewed on acusports.com.
Nevada is led by senior first baseman Austin Byler, who was recently named the top senior in collegiate baseball.
After earning all-Mountain West honors and leading Nevada in seven offensive statistical categories in 2014, Austin Byler was drafted in the ninth round of the MLB draft by the Washington Nationals. However, he turned down the Nationals to return to Reno, Nev., for his senior season.
Byler is a unanimous preseason All-American and was named the top senior in college baseball by
Perfect Game. The Peoria, Ariz., native has posted a .318 batting average, 180 hits, 114 runs, 109 RBI and 26 home runs in his collegiate career. Aside from the honor by
Perfect Game, Byler is a first team pre-season all-America by
Baseball America, a second team pre-season all-America by the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association and third team pre-season all-America by
Collegiate Baseball.
