Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor baseball team will open the 2012 season with a program first on Tuesday, February 7
th. The Cru will host Texas Wesleyan University for a non-conference single game at 6:00 PM as UMHB hosts the first on-campus night game in the history of the school's baseball program.
UMHB is scheduled to play three more games in a busy opening week. The Cru is set to follow up Tuesday's opener with a 2:00 PM single game at Southwestern University in Georgetown on Friday. Those same two teams will then return to Belton as UMHB hosts the Pirates for a noon doubleheader on Saturday.
UMHB returns six starting position players, two-thirds of the starting rotation, ten total pitchers and 21 total letter winners this season. The Cru went 19-20 overall and 9-12 in American Southwest Conference play and narrowly missed out on a fifth straight berth in the ASC Championship Tournament. UMHB returns six total All-West Division selections this season and will build around that nucleus this year. Third baseman
Josh Fredrick (Sr., Troy), Outfielder
Braden Embry (Sr., Reisel) and pitcher
Chance Ryan (Jr., Rosebud-Lott) were all Second Team All-West selections. Fredrick hit .320 with eight home runs and 33 RBI and Embry batted .319 with three homers and 27 RBI. Ryan was the Cru's ace, posting a 6-4 record and 4.13 ERA. Second baseman
Seth Mogavero (Jr., Robinson), catcher
Chris Joshlin (Sr., Rogers) and shortstop
Zach Young (Sr., Cameron Yoe) all earned Honorable Mention All-West honors. Those three players will join Fredrick, Embry and three-year starting first baseman
Seth Lynn to form the core of the UMHB offensive attack.
Zach Crosswhite (Sr., Temple),
Jeremy Sapp (Jr., Conroe) and
Tim Yan (So., Houston) were all valuable contributors last season and will have a chance to play their way into larger roles this season. The Cru will also rely on some talented newcomers to provide depth and compete for starting jobs.
Ryan will have help in the starting rotation from
Cameron Arnett (Sr., Belton). Arnett was 4-3 with a 5.27 ERA. The bullpen features a deep group of returners in
Andy Evans (Sr., Linden-Kildare),
Sam VanHoozer (Jr., Salado),
Trevor Alaniz (Sr., Belton),
Danny Horstman (So., Clifton) and
Kel Shannon (Sr., Katy).
Kreece Cooper (So., Jarrell) pitched well late in the season after recovering from early injury problems and could nail down the third starting spot. Several talented newcomers will also compete for time in the rotation and out of the bullpen this year.
Derek Dunaway is in his second season as head coach at his alma mater. He served as interim head coach before the interim tag was removed following the season. The Cru was picked to finish fifth in the ASC West Division in the league's annual Preseason Coaches and Media Poll. The UMHB athletic department will provide free live video and live statistics from Saturday's game at
http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/umhb.portal.
