Well it cannot be too early to look at last years stats and commenting on favorites etc.. for the NCAC
http://www.northcoast.org/ba/12stats/lgsumm.htmIf OWU wants to make it to the NCAC tournament again they need to improve there fielding and hitting they are 5 and 6 respectively. There is been some movement of positions on the field it looks like. One of the infielders who had a tough year defensively is moving to the outfield. He has the speed and looked pretty good out there in the fall. He is replaced in the infield by a freshman who looked really good in the fall. Looks like one of last years catchers may move to first to replace Tim Knezovich and Nathan Strome. It will be hard to relace Tim k's .989 fielding percentage. The other three options behind the plate, a sophomore and two freshman, looked very good. I do not believe there will be a drop off defensively at catcher. Well see how the middle infield does. Losing Gaydos could hurt he had a .925 fielding last year. I think Short or second is still up for grabs and the early spring will help work that out.
Losing Strome and Knezovich are really going to hurt in the hitting department. In the outfield we lost Seth Frentsos, he will be sorely missed. His bat was clutch in the tournament last year and when he was in a groove he was a very hard out. They lost DiBiasio last spring to a injury and he was missed all season at the top of the lineup. Lawson did well as a replacement defensively and was a surprisingly good hitter. , not a ot of power but he hit the gaps and got on base at a .382 clip. JJ Buckey is back and has a year more experience. Great defender and very good hitter.
There pitching hopefully should be fine. They return 3 of there 4 weekend starters and picked up some depth for the relief core which was sorely missed last year. Charles Cooper, a freshman who lead the league in Era will be back and hopefully can improve on his win record. Brandon Sega who was not full strength at the beginning of the year should be healthy to start the spring after a good season with the Paints in Chillicothe.Brandon had a .333 era and was 5-3. Steve Skarsten will be back he usually started the first games on the weekend series and had a 2.50 era and was 5-4. The only starting pitcher lost from last spring is Kevin Schindler, he had a .465 ERA and was 3-1. Kevin and Brandon did not only start on the weekend they also started many of the weekday games against the likes of Marietta and Heidelberg.
Good luck to all the rest of the winter. Baseball will be here soon!!!!!!!!!!!
