USD Baseball 2001

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2C!JC!J1J Torero Baseball 2001 Torero Baseball Preview

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product who find s hi s way to San Di ego via the Uni– versi ty o f New Orlea ns . Versati le sophomore Mike Oseguera also has ex perience at first, but will mostly see action in middl e relief. Rou nding out the crew of infi e lde rs are re turners Tobias Herrera (Spring Val– ley, CA) and Joey Prast (Poway HS ), along wi th newcomers Jesse Jones (San Diego, CA) and Eric Verdugo (Phoe ni x, AZ) , and catcher Luis Diaz– Miron (Mex ico City, Mexico). With the loss of six pitc hers that accounted for 5 1 starts and 2 1 w in s, pitching is a q uest ion mark head– ing into the new season. A tri o of sophomore re– turners wil l play key ro les w ith the pitc hng corp -– LHP Ricky Barrett , RHP Patrick Lucy and RHP Aaron Wilson . Barrett (3-6 record; 25 appear– a nces). who saw most of hi s work coming ou t of the bullpen , and Wilson (2-1 in seven appearances)

wi ll compete for starting slots . wh il e Lucy (5-2 record: 27 appeara nces) will aga in be one of the team 's c lose rs. "We have talented people in the pitching area, but no one is a proven Division I starte r," sa id coach Hill . "There is a tremendous amount of parity within our staff from 1-1 2. I'm a nxi ous to see who grabs the starting spots and holds onto them." Newcomers ex pected to push fo r a start ing nod in the pitching rotation inc lude transfers Chris Martinez , a 5- 11 junior RHP from Dixie State Coll ege, a nd Tom Caple, a 6-0 sophomore RHP from San Diego who pl ayed hi s fre shman year at Texas. Cap le, a former San Diego Player of the Year. wi ll also see playi ng time in the outfie ld . Compe ting for a c losing role wi ll be fresh man Kevin Clausen . a hard-throwing righthande r from Lake Oswego, Oregon. Middle re li ef w ill be provided by a quartet o f ret urners -- senior LHP Bryan Bealer. juni o r RHP David Dunn. and sophomore LHP 's Mike Oseguera a nd Tony Perez. Newcomers Matt Coy (Mate r Dei HS). Tim Dean (Santa Margarita Catho li c HS ), Brett Gillespie (West Linn HS) and Greg Simonetti (Thousand Oaks HS ) rou nd out the pitching staff. Once again the Toreros will play a tough nonconfere nce schedule. On the road the Toreros w ill play at Cal Po ly, UC Riverside . CS Nort hridge, USC, San Diego State and Long Beach State. Nonconference home date s w ill inc lude games with UC Rive rside. Sacrame nto State, CS Northridge. Easte rn Michigan. UC San Di ego, Purdue . Long Beac h State , UCLA , San Diego State and USC. In mid-February the To reros wi ll take part in the San Diego Baseball Invi tati ona l w ith the likes of Texas Tech. Oklahoma. Oregon State. San Diego State a nd UC Ri ve rside . USO w ill ope n up WCC play w ith a three–

game homestand against Po rtland beg inning on March 9 th . a nd wrap- up WCC play wi th anothe r three-game se t w ith Sain t Mary"s Co ll ege. May 11- 13 . The be st two-of-three WCC Playo ffs. betwee n the win ner of the Wes t Division and Coast Division. w ill take place May 18-20. In the WCC Coaches Preseason Poll. US O was pick ed to place th ird overa ll behind Pepperdine and Loyola Marymount. The fo ll owing is the coaches picks wi th first place votes in paren– thesis: I) Peppe rd ine (7). 49 points: 2) Loyola Marymoun t ( I) 43 points : 3) San Diego. 34 po ints: 4) Gonzaga. 33 points: 5) San Francisco. 2 1 points: 6) Portland. 18 po ints: 7) Sant a C lara. 17 points: 8) Saint Mary"s. 9 points .

2001 Torero Ouifielders