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2003 Season Outlook Head Coach Greg Hughes begins his fourth season at the helm of the Yellow Jacket baseball program with his most talented roster yet. After winning 15 games last spring, Hughes is confident that this year’s squad has the necessary skills to be competitive and add a few more games into the victory column. “I like this team,” noted Hughes. “This is a group of hard-working individuals with great work ethic. The chemistry amongst the team is excellent.” “We have set our goals for the upcoming season,” added Hughes, “and they include reducing the team earned run average, closing the walk to strikeout ratio, plus winning the ‘freebie war’, which means looking for more base on balls, stolen bases, hit by pitches, and taking advantage of opponent errors.”
The nucleus of the squad will be a junior class of nine players who have been together for the past two seasons. Josh Smith, a junior left-hander and Jon Oren, a junior infielder, will be captains of the 2003 squad and seek to provide quality leadership. Smith made 11 appearances last spring while recording 50 innings of work. Oren appeared in 43 games with 40 starts and a .216 batting average. The strength of the 2003 Yellow Jackets will be the pitching staff. T.J. Couch, a junior righthander, will be looked to for quality innings not only as a starter but coming out of the bullpen as the closer. Couch made a team-leading 20 appearances last spring with 31 innings pitched. He led the staff with 7 saves and 38 strikeouts and is arguably the best closer in the AMC. Other returnees that Hughes will send to the mound include sophomore Daniel Giddings, junior Jacob Richardson and senior John Myers, as well as Josh Smith. Also adding depth to the pitching staff will be freshmen lefthanders Matt Bonin, Andrew Noble and Brian Diercks.
Jameson Adams returns for his third and final season with the Yellow Jackets. The 6-4 senior first baseman led the team with a .338 batting average last season. He added 2 doubles, a home run and 13 RBIs to the offensive attack. Junior outfielder Forest Greetham, who led the Yellow Jackets in stolen bases while hitting .314, will anchor the defense from his centerfield position. Jeff Lowe, a sophomore catcher/DH, returns after posting some impressive numbers in his rookie season. He batted .310 last spring and led the team with 36 hits and 13 doubles. The 2003 schedule features fifteen home dates in addition to hosting the NCCAA Midwest Regional in May. The American Mideast Conference South Division schedule will slate home and away doubleheaders with Ohio Dominican, Shawnee State, Rio Grande, Tiffin and Urbana. The Jackets will also face NCAA Division I Morehead State as well as other non-conference games with Bluffton, Earlham, Georgetown, Mt. Vernon Nazarene, Taylor and Wittenberg. | |||||||||||||||
