USD Baseball 2006

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teams in non- onference play that appear in Baseball lfmerica 's Top-20, No. 7 Rice and No. 17 USC. Long Beach State is rated as having the No. 1 toughest non- ~ conference schedule in the nation. ffl "Our non-conference schedule has been ranked No. 10 in the country, and that is by design ," said Hill. "We know we are not going to host a regional here, until we get a new stadium, so we know we will have to go on the road and play a regional against a Big West No. 1 or No. 2 team. Because of that, we will take these tough road games and try to prepare our– selves for what ever regional we get put in ." ◄◄ ABOUT THE CONFERENCE The West Coast Conference enters the 2006 season with three teams receiv– ing preseason rankings. Pepperdine Uni– versity checks in at No. 11 as the highest ranking member then , USO comes in at No. 36 and the University of San Francis– co comes in at No. 35. With these three teams receiving preseason rankings, coach Hill is excited about the strength of the conference. "This conference is as strong as I have ever seen it in my 15 years of coaching in the conference," said Hill. "Every week– end in the conference play is going to be a dog fight with the new format. Every single game now has a consequence. " Starting in 2006 the WCC will change its conference format and schedule. The WCC will abolish divisional play and will revert to a single eight-team conference with each team playing a 21-game confer– ence slate. This will be a departure from the two-division format, West and Coast, with a 30-game conference schedule that was originally implemented in the 1999 season . Under the new format in 2006, the top two teams with the best confer– ence record will compete in the wee Championship Series, with the regular– season series winner holding the home field advantage. "We understand that we have a tre– mendous amount of desire here, how– ever, once we step on the field it is all about the process and all about the tasks and winning that inning, just taking it pitch by pitch," said Hill. "The focus is always on our play. If we can do that I think we will achieve our goal of winning the wee championship. ,, ~ 0 z 0 C -I r- 0 0 :,;:

2005 Holzhauer posted a 10.29 ERA and a 1-1 record. Another one of the incoming freshmen to impress the coaching staff is left-hand– er Ricardo Pecina. As a senior in high school Pecina hit .466 with 112 strikeouts and was named the Harbor League Play– er of the Year. Senior Nicholas Cranmer is another possibility to do some relief pitching for the Toreros. In 2005 Cranmer posted a 0- 1 record with a 6.61 ERA in 16.1 innings of work. ◄◄ THE NEWCOMERS USO welcomes several newcomers to the 2006 squad . Making their first ap– pearance for the Toreros in 2006 will be freshmen Matt Sexton, Mike Lugo, Dylan Cohen , Nick McCoy, Serrin Jarvi , Scott DeNault and Brent Planck. Also making a debut in the USO uniform will be a trans– fer from San Diego Community College, Matt Petrucci. Sexton comes to USO after a standout year at Foothill High School in Las Vegas, Nev. in which he hit .389 with six home runs en route to a first-team All-Sunrise League selection . Lugo is a freshman from Glendora , Calif. who hit .375 as a senior en route to earning a first-team All-Serra League selection and a sec– ond-team All-San Gabriel Valley selec– tion. Cohen, a native of Venice, Calif., hit .603 during his senior season earning a first-team All-Marina Del Rey honor. Mc– Coy, from Westview High in San Diego, hit .300 during his senior season earning the teams' MVP award . Jarvi posted a 3-2 record as a senior helping his team reach the CIF playoffs. DeNault comes to USO after helping his team win the CIF Division I Championship and earning a first-team AII-CIF selection as a senior. Planck comes to USO from Madison High after hitting .432 during his senior season en route to a Harbor League Player of the Year award and being named first-team All-Harbor League. Petrucci comes to USO after posting a 6.00 ERA last season at SDCC. ◄◄ THE SCHEDULE The USO baseball team has the 10th toughest non-conference schedule in the nation , as stated by BoydsWorld.com. The Toreros, who open their 2006 slate with a three-game home stand against the defending national champions, Uni– versity of Texas Longhorns, will play eight games against teams that rank in the top- 10 for strength of schedule for all games - No. 4 USC, No. 7 Cal State Northridge, No. 8 UC Riverside and No. 9 Georgia . Besides Texas, USO will face two other

front runner fci"r the position . Matusz'joins the Toreros after a standout senior sea– son at Saint Mary's High School in Cave Creek, Ariz. As a senior, he posted an 8-1 record with an ERA of 0.50 en route to earning the state of Arizona Player of the Year award along with a Baseball America All-America distinction . Matusz was then drafted in the fourth round of the 2005 Major League Baseball draft by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, but turned down a lucrative contract offer to play collegiate baseball. The coaching staff is not focusing on just these three pitchers; they are also ex– cited about the development of Anthony Slama who joins USO from Santa Ana Community College . Last season , Slama posted a team-leading 2.51 ERA with a record of 4-4, while striking out 48 batters in 46 .2 innings of work. Slama could see a lot of time as a closer for the Toreros, but the coaching staff hasn't ruled him out as a starter. Coach Hill has deemed junior Nate Boman as the "X factor" for the Torero pitching staff. Boman had an impressive freshman year in which he posted a 1.16 ERA and a 3-1 record in 23.1 innings of work during wee play. Last season Bo– man suffered a season ending injury, but is on track to make a full recovery, and could see some playing time after the first month of play. "If he comes back with his full strength, he could be someone that takes us to an– other level ," said Hill of Boman. Along with Slama and Romanski , the Toreros will look to Russell Holzhauer to help give them some relief pitching throughout the season . As a freshman in www.usdtoreros.com