While the snow continues to pile up in Morgantown, the WVU baseball team has traveled to South Carolina for the start of the season this weekend. WVU is scheduled to open with games against No. 12 ranked Coastal Carolina Friday, Southeastern Conference member Kentucky on Saturday and former Big East rival Virginia Tech on Sunday.
"That is what you want," pre-season Big East Player of the Year Jedd Gyorko said about the early season schedule. "To be the best team, you have to beat the best. We are heading down there to play some great competition and hopefully we will see where we stand right away."
The Mountaineers also will take part in the Big East/Big 10 Challenge in Florida for a second consecutive season and they have another game scheduled against a ranked East Carolina team early in the season.
The 2010 Mountaineers will have a different look from the team that finished 37-18 a year ago. The Mountaineers led the Big East Conference in several offensive categories including batting average, runs scored, doubles and home runs . This season, pitching quality and depth will be keys.
"It will be very difficult to score as many runs as we did last year," Mountaineer coach Greg Van Zant said. "We lost five of those hitters. We probably won’t score as many runs, but hopefully the other teams will not score as many runs."
The Mountaineers do return their top two hitters from a year ago in Dan DiBartolomeo and Gyorko. Dibartolomeo hit .439 with 90 hits including 18 doubles and eight home runs . He played third last season, but Van Zant says following off season shoulder surgery, DiBartolomeo will open the season as the designated hitter on the team. That means there will be new full time starters at first base, second base and third base.
Veteran Colin Durborow started 16 games last year hitting .351. He seems a natural fit for second base. Freshman T. J. Cuban could play third. Redshirt sophomore Justin Ellis and freshman Matt Frazer are candidates for first base.
A group that includes senior Michael Knight, freshman Matt Malloy and Humberto Melendez, juniors Kevin Griffin and Justin McDavid will compete to replace Tobias Streich at catcher. Streich was a 5th round draft choice of the Minnesota Twins following last season.
Redshirt junior Grant Bucker will anchor the outfield as he is back in right. Junior Mark Dvoroznak is the top candidate to replace Austin Markel in center. Jeremy Gum of Bridgeport will also compete for time in the outfield along with Clark Sambuco of Wheeling and newcomer Dom Hayes. Speedy freshman Brady Wilson is a potential leadoff hitter as he can play the outfield and second base.
"Jedd, Dan and I are back to hit in the middle of the lineup," Buckner pointed out. "We are going to be relied on to produce a lot of runs.
"There will be other guys who will emerge," Buckner continued. "A lot of guys have experience but have never been able to play full time before. And we have a lot of good young hitters that people don’t know too much about yet."
Some of those new guys will be asked to begin to produce immediately.
"We are going to have at least four hitters in our lineup that have virtually no college experience," Van Zant said pointed out.
What the coach is excited about is the potential of his pitching staff.
"We have a very solid 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation with Jarryd Summers and Jon Jones," Van Zant said. "We are going to run those two guys out there. "
Summers had a break through season as he won seven games with a 3.06 ERA and 99 strikeouts. He was a first team All-Big East Conference selection last year. Jones finished his freshman season with a 6-2 record.
Van Zant also has an established closer in Chris Enourato of Bridgeport. Enourato had six wins and six saves as a junior. He is the all time saves leader at WVU with 17 in his career. Enourato developed a change up during the off season and he may see some spot duty as a starter this year.
"What Chris has is guts and determination," Van Zant said. "Those are the qualities that have made him such a great closer. But if you don’t have closing situations in the first two games of a series and you don’t end up using him in a series, that would be a waste. So if we haven’t used him in the first two games, he could possibly be a candidate to start a third game of a series on Sunday."
Veterans Andy Altimus and Chase Pickering are also candidates to start along with a hand full of newcomers.
"I really like Andy Berry (from Potomac State) and I like Jared Hill," Van Zant said of the freshman from Columbus, Ohio. "We have more options than we have in recent years. We go 7-8 deep in good pitchers."
The Mountaineers will play on the road for the first three weekends. The event in South carolina is this weekend followed by the trip to Florida to face Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State and Purdue next weekend. West Virginia will then play Western Kentucky, East Carolina and Illinois in North Carolina starting the weekend of March 5. The home opener is scheduled for Tuesday, March 9 against Duquesne.