Play ball

While Major League Baseball is in spring training, Eastern’s baseball team is ready to start its regular season this weekend with a three-game set against the University of Arkansas.

“It will be opening day, and that is always an exciting day for our kids,” Eastern’s head coach Jim Schmitz said. “(Arkansas) has one of the best facilities in the nation and it will be nice to get out of the cold weather for a while.”

The Panthers are coming off a sub-par season that saw them finish 22-33 overall, and exit in the first round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

But this season Eastern will look to come together and be one of the dark horse teams in the conference.

“This is one of the tightest teams that I have ever been on in my life,” junior designated hitter Ben Duke said. “Our expectations are high for the season, and hopefully we can come together as a team and we can surprise a lot of teams.”

The Panthers will return with a veteran lineup that consists of all juniors and seniors and one sophomore.

“One of the key things will be getting our core guys on offense going,” Schmitz said. “If we can get those guys hitting then we should be alright.”

One of the tough spots for the Panther skipper to determine this off season has been who will start at the catcher position.

The candidates included junior Tim Aurrichio and sophomore Bret Pignatiello. After a pre-season of deliberating, Schmitz decided that he had the best of both worlds and will use a platoon system.

“With Pignatiello being a left-handed hitter and Aurrichio being a right-handed hitter, we had to use both of them early on in the season,” Schmitz said.

Pitching was one of the downfalls last season as the Panther hurlers were unable to get the job done in 2000. But Schmitz is pleased with the pitchers he has for this season.

Schmitz will send a pitching staff that includes pre-season all-conference probable pick in Mike Ziroli to the mound. The senior will be used primarily as a closer to start the season, but may have many roles on the club this season.

“The nice thing about Mike is even though he wants to start, he understands what his role is on the team right now,” Schmitz said. “But you never know, he could end up starting in a couple of weeks.”

Other pitchers that will be looked at to help Eastern on the mound will be lefty Nick Albu, who is coming off rehab, Scott Metz, Pete Martin, Jared Marshall, who is also injured, and Andy Hoffman who is coming off of an injury.

“You know there are a lot of guys that we sat down after last season and told them to get some things done over the summer, and they did,” Schmitz said. “I think that Nick, Scott and Pete went out and accomplished a lot this summer.

“And Andy Hoffman, who not a lot of people have talked about, was a guy who we really missed last season. He can only hum it up there at about 80 m.p.h., but he has a great change-up and he throws strikes.”

Eastern was picked to finish fourth this season in the Ohio Valley Conference by the conference’s coaches. But the Panthers hope they will be able to turn things around form last season.

“I think that a lot of people have underestimated us as a team,” Aurrichio said. “We have some very good pitchers to go along with good hitting and outstanding defense.”

Eastern will have to worry about getting adjusted to playing outside after months of practicing in the fieldhouse. “I think that it will be tough to get over the first game jitters at first,” Metz said. “But I think that after we get a few innings under our belts, we can get back to playing some ball like we know we can.”

Even though the Razorbacks will have the advantage of already playing outside and being able to see pitching and hitting outside, Eastern players don’t see it as that big of a disadvantage.

“Sure they have been outside and have been able to do some things that we haven’t in preparing,” Aurrichio said. “But we just have to go out there and do the things we know we are capable of doing.”

The Panthers will get their first game test to see if they will be a competitive team this weekend when they travel to Baum Stadium to take on the Razorbacks in Fayetteville Ark.

The University of Arkansas has started the season on a good note, going 3-0 at home on their way to a 4-2 start this season.

Part of the 3-0 start at Baum Stadium came against Long Beach State, which was ranked No. 15 in the nation.

The Razorbacks have been extremely hot with the bat this spring as they have hit .313 as a team. Leading the charge on the offensive end for Arkansas has been Kyle Washburn.

The senior will catch and play third base this season. Washburn went 5-7 with four RBIs against Long Beach State this past weekend.

Brett Hagedorn, who is a redshirt freshman, has also been on a tear early on this season for the Razorbacks. The infielder has hit .333 with one homerun and seven RBIs so far.

“In the early series of the season, you try not to look at the scouting reports,” Schmitz said. “You try to pitch to them one time through, and then you decide who has their timing down.”

The offense hasn’t been the only spot of success for the Razorbacks this season. They have also had some good outings on the mound this season.

Arkansas has pitchers that have been very productive this season from both sides of the mound. Lefty Wes McCrotty has thrown 12 and 1/3 innings this season and has an earned run average of just 0.75 while going 2-0 so far this season.

Junior righthander Charlie Isaacson has compiled an 3.28 ERA through 13 and 1/3 innings to help the Razorbacks to a team era of 2.94 on the young season.

“We know that we are going to this weekend kind of blind,” Duke said. “But I think as long as we stick to our game plan, we will be in a good position.”