Could we be getting back to the MVC becoming the Valley of Doom? It should be noted that the conference RPI jumped from No. 15 up to No. 7 last season. While the soul-gashing continue on the inside, its the outside where these dogs need to grow more teeth. It starts with getting three teams to the Big Dance again.

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2011 in a Paragraph:

There was plenty of improvement conference-wide in the Valley last season. But the bugaboo continues in the fact that the Valley got only one team into the post-season (regular season champion Creighton) and had too many near-misses in teams like Wichita State, Illinois State and Missouri State. The Bluejays were certainly the bright spot, winning the titles of both the regular season and the MVC tourney in the same season for the first time ever. It was pretty much a mixed bag after that. There were six winning teams in the ranks last season, as programs like Southern Illinois, Indiana State and Evansville were expected to be much better, but joined Bradley on the underside of the standings.

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Conference ISR: 12

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HOW THEY’LL FINISH IN 2012:

- The Missouri Valley Conference.

1- Creighton

2- Wichita State

3- Missouri State

4- Illinois State

5- Evansville

6- Southern Illinois

7- Indiana State

8- Bradley

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2012 in a Paragraph:

Look for this to be a donnybrook season in the rugged Valley again as the top three of Creighton, Wichita State and Missouri State are all pretty interchangeable and should battle it out for the regular season title. The big key will be whichever of those three teams can find that one extra high-quality arm that will push their pitching staff to another level. All three have good fielders and a fair amount of offense to cause plenty of damage. Another big key will be how this Big Three can do outside the conference and raise the profile of the league another notch or two. The bottom of the Valley will be much improved as teams like Evansville, Indiana State and Southern Illinois finished below the Mendoza Line last season but could push into contention. The forgotten team seems to be Illinois State, who are projected just outside of contention, but remember that outstanding frosh class from last season? They’ve grown some teeth for this year. Don’t turn your back on anyone in the Valley this season. We’re back to old time fistfights for the title this year. Yes, the bare-knuckle variety.

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Favorite: None

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Contenders: Creighton, Wichita State, Missouri State

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Darkhorse: Illinois State

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Can’t-Miss Series of the Year: Any of the top three matching up.

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Best Non-Conference Series: Dallas Baptist vs. the 7 MVC opponents they’ll play.

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Hot Coach: Ed Servais, Creighton

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Hot Seat Coach: Elvis Dominguez, Bradley

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The “You Gotta See” Pitcher: LHP Ty Blach, Creighton

The “You Gotta See” Player: 2B Kevin Medrano, Missouri State

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Three Non-Conference Series MVC Opponents Better Take Seriously:

1- Long Beach State at Wichita State

2- Wichita State at Hawaii, March 1-4.

3- Missouri State at/vs. Oral Roberts, March 15-18

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- BRADLEY (22-32, 4-17)

2011 ISR: 204

Starters Returning: 8

Weekend Starters: 3

Mid-Week Starters: 1

Key Relievers (20+inns.): 3

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All Conference Candidates:

LHP Joe Bircher (6-6 3.00, .229OBA, 3CGs)

OF Mike Tauchman (.341, 16SBs)

SS Jason Leblebijian (.315, 12SBs)

3B Rob Elliott (.278-4-21, 28SBs)

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The Good News:

Year three of the Elvis Dominguez regime got off to a rollicking start as the Braves will hope to emulate that 18-8 start they raced out to last season. There is starting experience everywhere on this team, so hopes are much higher in Peoria this time around. LHP Joe Bircher is certainly one talent to keep an eye on, especially after leading the Cape Cod League in strikeouts last summer. He will be difficult to overcome on Friday’s if he stays on his game again this year. Joining him as returning weekenders are LHP Tory Doerr (2-4, 4.14) and RHP John Nasshan (3-8, 4.55). RHP Jacob Booden (3-0, 5.36) comes back after starting nine mid-week games and righty relievers Danny Gifford (3-6, 4.50) and Justin Ziegler (2-3, 8.17, 8svs) also return. Of those six pitchers mentioned, five are seniors. (You can almost hear head coach Elvis Dominguez smiling from here). Also, SS Jason Leblebigian was a Northwoods League All-Star last summer and will team with 3B Rob Elliott and 2B Jerrod Eigsti (.255) to turn the defense from a liability to a strength. C Derek Sprout (.232) is defensively stout.

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The Bad News:

BU is still looking for its first winning record since 2007. In that case, too bad Bircher can’t start all three games on weekends. The first thing that the Braves need to do is avoid hitting a hostile rut like the one that saw them finish last season 4-24 from April 6th onward. That led to the horrible last place finish in the Valley. As mentioned above, the defense was atrocious, finishing last in the Valley at .958. The pitching at hitting both also finished dead last with 4.68 team ERA and a .275 team batting average. So even though there is experience galore, improvement is paramount or another last place finish isn’t out of the question. The injury bug must keep its distance too, especially for talents like Patrick Flanagan and Steve Adkins, who were both lost for the 2011 season on the opening weekend. Gah! What the hell?!

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Schedule Note:

Almost as tough as it gets.

All things being equal, and considering this is a team coming off a 22-win season, Bradley could face as tough of a non-conference schedule as anybody in the Valley (Yes, we see you Wichita, but you’re equipped to handle what you have). The Braves will go on the road and play teams like Virginia Tech, Kennesaw State, Arkansas-Little Rock, Belmont and improving Memphis in the first three weeks of the season. Then, to make matters worse, they’ll also play a three-game set with Dallas Baptist in mid-May too. Oy vey.

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- CREIGHTON (45-16, 15-6)

2011 ISR: 28

Starters Returning: 7

Weekend Starters: 1

Mid-Week Starters: 1

Key Relievers (20+inns.): 4

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All Conference Candidates:

2B Alex Staehely (.285-3-36)

OF Mike Gerber (.280-7-23)

LHP Ty Blach (10-3, 2.65)

RHP Kurt Spomer (3-4, 2.22, 13svs)

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The Good News:

How about the strides the Jays made last year? Epic man. They put to pasture that awful 27-25 season of 2010. They moved into that sparkling new downtown stadium that should be a huge recruiting draw in the years to come. They also proved once again that no matter how many returning starters or what the season or situation the Bluejays are going to have one of the top (if not THE top) defenses in the country, sweeping at a .980 pace (2nd in the nation). That’s just the Ed Servais way man. Get used to it. Four of the five infielders come back this year, led by Alex Staehely, a smooth fielding 2nd Baseman who led the team with 24 doubles. Five of the seven returning starters are seniors, so look for this to be another Bluejay unit that doesn’t beat itself. Catchers Scott Thornburg (.274) and Anthony Bemboom (.233-4-23) split the duties last season and will have 1B Nick Judkins (.227-3-20) and 3B Chance Ross (.218, 14SBs) to lock down the corner positions. On top of this, five of the top six pitchers coming back are four-year guys, led by staff ace Ty Blach, an All American candidate who held opposing batters to a rummy .239 average, and sledgehammer closer Kurt Spomer, who is a returning All MVC 1st teamer. Behind them, a brigade of experienced relievers will provide quality late innings to lock down wins, led high profile guys like LHP Mark Winkelman (1-1, 2.95. 224OBA) and RHP Reese McGraw (6-1, 3.00, .229OBA). Also watch for the blossoming of key reserve OF Jordan Mackovica, who hit .333 in part-time duty and is a former Cornhusker football fullback. You think he’s tough?

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The Bad News:

The Bluejays didn’t lose much off last year’s team, but what they did lose was some star-power as the teams’ best hitter, Trevor Adams (the only Jay to hit .300+ at .387), and the teams’ best pitcher, staff ace Jonas  Dufek (12-1) have both hit the road. Joining them in the exodus was No.2 starter Greg Hellhake (who started 16 games). Other than Trevor Adams, the offense was pretty weak, hitting just .267 last season (7th in the MVC) and striking out an unusually high 406 times (THAT’s not the Bluejay discipline I’m used to seeing). None of the returning starters hit better than .285 either. Some new reinforcements will have to hit the ground running for the Jays since this year’s squad will be so upperclassmen heavy. Bear down guys. Bear down.

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Schedule Note:

Still not an RPI-builder.

The Bluejays could have a problem come late May if they are still bubbling up for an at-large bid to the NCAAs. Pre-conference weekend sets against Central Arkansas (opening weekend in Conway), Portland, UC Davis, Pacific and North Dakota won’t help their cause a whole lot, unless they win 40+ games again. But on the good side, the Jays will host Dallas Baptist for three games in May and they will also have four of the seven MVC opponents coming to the Big Tiddy as the Jays will play their first full season in that new downtown stadium of which I speak.

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- EVANSVILLE (28-25, 7-13)

2011 ISR: 124

Starters Returning: 4

Weekend Starters: 2

Mid-Week Starters: 0

Key Relievers (20+inns.): 6

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All Conference Candidates:

2B/RHP Trentt Copeland (.308, 10SBs/2-2, 6.50)

3B Eric Stamets (.292, 27SBs)

LHP Josh Biggs (5-2, 2.25, .243OBA)

RHP Ryan Billo (3-1, 3.05, .222OBA)

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The Good News:

There is always a bright side to look at. For the Aces it’s that they may have finished 2nd-to-last in the Valley, but in that rebuilding season of 2011, EU still managed a winning overall record and pulled early wins against teams like Jacksonville, South Florida and Michigan State. And this year, things should get better as their pitching staff is stacked to the gills with eight of the top nine arms coming back off a unit that had a representative 4.21 team ERA. Last year’s two most-used pitchers both return in RHP Kyle Lloyd (4-6, 4.93) and LHP Cole Isom (5-6, 4.76) to get EU off on a good foot. Josh Biggs is a – pardon the pun – big story for their arms corps, starting five games a year ago and making 10 more appearances from the ‘pen. He’ll be joined in the reliever department by a number of high-potential returnees including Tyler Miller (0-0, 2.50, 14apps), Ryan Bello, Peter Spear (0-1, 5.17, 14apps) and James Kohler (0-0, 6.87, 10apps), who are all righties and are all sophomores. And that’s not all, saves leaders Jake Naumann (2-0, 3.79, 4svs) and Adam Culiver (0-1, 10.38, 5svs) also come back. Oh, and one more… RHP Sam Johns is back after missing 2011 with an injury. He was the No. 2 weekend starter for the Aces as a Frosh in 2010,  going 5-4, 5.71 in 11 starts. Whew. That’s a lot of able-bodies there.

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The Bad News:

Ran out of gas. The Aces showed their youth last year, going 3-10 down the stretch and having the offense go south on them. Must find some new punch for the 2012 season after last year’s team batting average sunk to .280 at the end. Only four returnees come back, let by Trentt Copeland and Eric Stamets, who both possess good baserunning skills as well. But other than those two, the cupboard is pretty bare. Catcher Chris Pearson and INF Jake Mahon, hit just .212 and .188 respectively as part-time starters last year. They’ll need some greenhorns off the recruiting trail to step up and play huge in the field and at the dish. And even though the pitching staff is chock-full of experience, keep in mind this is still a unit that had just 263 strikeouts all last year. So they’re not scaring the piss out of anybody (although the opponents .263 average was pretty good).

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Schedule Note:

Testing the waters in the Atlantic Sun.

The Aces will open the 2012 season with the first six games coming at A-Sun venues vs. Belmont, Lipscomb, Middle Tennessee in the opening weekend and at Arkansas State for three in the second weekend. They’ll also take on some Ohio Valley Conference opponents in Eastern Illinois (as part of weekend No. 3′s Diamond Classic with IPFW as well), Tennessee Tech (three games in week four) and UT-Martin and Austin Peay in single games, all in the weeks leading up to their MVC season opener on March 23rd vs. Indiana State. They’ll also have their mettle tested in the first weekend of May where they’ll travel for a weekend showdown at Dallas Baptist. So there’s a lot of easy and a lot of hard to this year’s slate. But luckily, the arms corps should be ready for anything.

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- ILLINOIS STATE (36-18, 13-8)

2011 ISR: 62

Starters Returning: 5

Weekend Starters: 0

Mid-Week Starters: 1

Key Relievers (20+inns.): 2

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All Conference Candidates:

RHP Kenny Long (4-1, 0.92, 6svs)

2B Kevin Tokarski (.282-3-30, 25SBs)

RHP Justin Hauer (3-0, 1.41, 28apps)

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The Good News:

The Redbirds won more games in 2011 (36) than they did in their NCAA tournament season of 2010 (32) and still contended for the MoValley title. A big reason for the success was because the pitching staff dropped its ERA down to 3.30 and held their opponents to a .247 average. Kenny Long is a solid bullpenner who locates his pitches as good as anyone (just seven walks in 39.1 innings) and also had a big summer in the prestigious Cape Cod League. He’ll be joined by mid-week starter Brad Sorkin (4-2, 4.27), who will probably move to the weekend rotation. Also, RHP Johnny Lieske (a 35th round draftee of the Rangers in 2010) returns after sitting out the ’11 season and will help the arms corps restock. Kevin Tokarski is still the straw that stirs the whiskey in Normal, despite seeing his average drop from .412 in 2010 to a more human-like .282 last year. KT also committed just seven errors in his 53 starts last season. Solid. He’ll team with Catcher Matt Mirabal (.247) and OF Brock Stewart (.259-3-16) as a base for rebuilding this team. Speaking of, the incoming recruits were pretty highly lauded, especially LHP Dylan Craig and RHP Chris Razo, a pair of crafty JC transfers who could end up filling the holes in the rotation. Also watch for immediate contributions from 1B Kyle Stanton and 3B Zac Johnson, who could be plus-defenders and will provide some bash (Stanton hit .468 in JC ball last year) and dash (Johnson stole 27 bases in JC ball last year) to the lineup.

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The Bad News:

Oi vey! ISU seemed primed and ready to go for 2012, but a pair of weekend starters in Dan Savas (who was 3-4, 3.92 as the Saturday starter) and J.D. Learnard (8-2, 4.04 as the Sunday starter) have both been unexpectedly lost to injury for the 2012 season and Friday stud Corey Maines (and his 110Ks last spring) was drafted to the pros last June. So now all-new mound leaders must step forward for the 30+ win seasons to continue. For the second year in a row the defense was rather average, fielding at a .960 pace. Bad hops aside, that should’ve been much better with all the experience they had. Now, new blood will fill three of the four infield positions. Offensively, the ‘Birds hit just .271 last year and will now have to venture on without Tyler McNeely and Ryan Court, the only .300+ hitters on the squad. Lots of work to do here for the Black and Red, but there is still a good bit of talent to get it done.

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Schedule Note:

… and the early schedule will help.

Though it may not win the Redbirds many RPI points, the early season slate will help ease some new talent into key spots for this team. The first three weekends are winnable ventures at Austin Peay, at Tennessee Tech and at Southeast Missouri. The following week (the second week in March), ISU will hit some speed bumps in teams like pitching-heavy Maine, improved Iowa, national-power Miami and South Florida. Early April is where the fit hits the shan for these guys as they’ll host Wichita State and go to Missouri State in back-to-back weekends. A trip to defending MVC champ Creighton arises in the last week of April.

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- INDIANA STATE (29-28, 8-13)

2011 ISR: 159

Starters Returning: 9

Weekend Starters: 1

Mid-Week Starters: 1

Key Relievers (20+inns.): 3

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All Conference Candidates:

C Jeremy Lucas (.333-3-28)

OF Robby Ort (.320-10-53)

3B Koby Kraemer (.318-4-39, 10SBs)

SS Tyler Wampler (.306)

LHP Reggie Hochstedler (4-1, 3.38, 1sv, .260OBA)

LHP Sean Manaea (5-5, 4.32, .241OBA)

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The Good News:

The rebuilding season of 2011 is done and the Sycamores hope the experience they earned will pay off handsomely this season. And even though it was a rebuilding season, they still ended up having a winning season, not bad. Things could get better from here as every hand on deck returns to the field/batting order as noted by the nine returning starters above. Four hitters that went .300+ come back, including team leader Jeremy Lucas, who is a two-time 2nd team All MVC performer, and power-bat Robby Ort, who was a 1st team All MVC selection last season. Koby Kraemer, the team leader in hits, and Tyler Wampler, who committed just 6Es in 50 starts as a frosh, head up what should be an outstanding defense (fielded at .976 last season with just 50 errors in 57 games). A pair of lefties will lead the mound brigade in Sunday starter Sean Manaea and relief ace Reggie Hochstedler, who made 30 appearances out of the ‘pen. A pair of seniors will lead a rebuilt bullpen in LHP Brandon Flora (0-0, 3.12 in 21apps) and RHP Chris Machado (5-3, 4.66, 2svs, .258OBA).

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The Bad News:

This was a streaky team in 2011, which wore its youth on its sleeve. As mentioned above, everyone and their brother comes back to the batting order and the field, but the pitching staff has some big holes to fill in 2012. Both Friday starter Colin Rea (team-high 8wins) and Saturday starter Jason Van Skike (who threw a no-hitter vs. Central Arkansas), who were the two most-used pitchers on the roster, have both said sayonara and must be replaced. Also leaving the coop was saves leader Blake Drake, who takes his 26 appearances and 49 innings from last season. Now that I think about it, there are two other things that bother me, the newfangled pitching staff must show overall improvement after issuing an MVC-high 244 walks last season and the running game only stole 48 bases as a team, which is actually pretty low for MoValley play.

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Schedule Note:

Look for a return to 30+ wins.

The Sycamores will have some time to mend their pitching staff as the early season schedule is pretty lilly-soft, opening at rebuilding Southeastern Louisiana, then playing teams like Western Illinois, UMES, Alabama A&M, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois, Tennessee-Martin, SIU-E, Houston Baptist and Illinois Springfield. The best part of the slate will be the back end when 15 of the Sycamores final 20 games will be right there at Bob Warn Field.

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- MISSOURI STATE (33-23, 11-9)

2011 ISR: 68

Starters Returning: 8

Weekend Starters: 2

Mid-Week Starters: 1

Key Relievers (20+inns.):

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All Conference Candidates:

2B Kevin Medrano (.325, 1st team All MVC)

1B Luke Voit (.286-6-35, 2nd team All MVC)

3B Brent Seifert (.289-9-43)

RHP Nick Petree (9-2, 2.81, 2svs, Freshman All American)

DH Brock Chaffin (.344-6-37, 2nd team All MVC)

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The Good News:

Despite winning one less game than the previous year, the Bears had their profile make a major jump with its RPI going from No. 186 in 2010 to 64. This team comes into 2012 with a lot more confidence as longtime skipper Keith Guttin feels they’re ready for bigger and better things. Guttin is also just eight wins away from the 1,000-win mark for his career. It should’t take long for that to happen with a full eight returning starters coming back for 2012 in a batting order that led the MVC with a .292 average. What’s more? Seven of those eight regulars are going to be seniors. So not only is there abundant experience, most of them are four-year guys that will be playing with a mission in mind. The biggest news of the off-season was when 2B Kevin Medrano decided to come back for his senior year, despite getting drafted in the 14th round by the Cardinals. He’ll solidify a star-studded infield of 1B Luke Voit, SS Travis McComack (.288) and 3B Brent Seifert. DH Brock Chaffin will also add an extra punch to the order from the left side of the dish. Nick Petree acclimated to D1 baseball big time as a frosh last year and will have fellow weekender RHP Pierce Johnson (6-5, 4.76, 2svs) and mid-weeker Clay Murphy (3-3, 5.64) to deal the dough. Also, reliever RHP Grant Gordon (4-2, 4.66, 7svs) will fill in the closer role just fine this season.

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The Bad News:

Has it really been nine years since the Bears even sniffed the post-season in the month of June? Gah! Just doesn’t seem right. They also got a bite of it last year after jumping out to a 2-and-0 mark in the MVC tournament. But the Bears sunk a pair of one-run games to Creighton and ended their season in bitter fashion. Hopefully that just serves as motivation and not a soul-crusher for this team. The Bears don’t lose much from last year, but what they DO lose is pretty significant in two huge losses on the mound – weekend starter Blake Barber (team-high 15 starts) and ace reliever Dan Kickham (team-high 13 saves and team-low 1.84 ERA). They’ll also miss the services of scrappy OF Aaron Conway, who set the school record in stolen bases and also hit .332 last season. Last year’s squad was a streaky one that tended to lose when they weren’t expecting to and win when the pressure was off. In their final eight losses of last season, the Bears lost by one or two runs in seven of them, so it’s time to take on a little tougher mentality late in games.

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Schedule Note:

A little extra help come June.

The Bears are getting some pre-season love (No. 31 in Collegiate Baseball, for instance) and if they are going to make that quantum leap into the Big Dance for the first time since 2003, the non-conference schedule will be a friend to them. Before MVC play kicks in on March 23 (at home vs. Creighton), the Bears will play teams like Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Oral Roberts and Purdue to help their RPI. They’ll also travel to Dallas Baptist the weekend after the Creighton series for a three-gamer. Tough stretch in mid-April as they’ll host Illinois State and travel to Wichita State in back-to-back weekends.

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- SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (23-34, 11-10)

2011 ISR: 167

Starters Returning: 7

Weekend Starters: 2

Mid-Week Starters: 1

Key Relievers (20+inns.): 6

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All Conference Candidates:

OF Jordan Sivertsen (.302-9-48)

C Austin Montgomery (.291-2-18, 2Es)

LHP Cody Forsythe (8-5, 2.35, 3CGs, .258OBA)

LHP Tyler Dray (1-2, 3.41, 8svs, .251OBA)

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The Good News:

Hopefully the less-daunting non-conference slate will allow the Salukis to ease into the season a lot easier than last season, where they took on South Carolina in weekend No. 2. And better yet is having nearly everyone back for this year, including a staunch horse on the mound in Cody Forsythe, an All American candidate who gives the ‘Dogs a chance at a near-certain W each Friday night. Senior weekender Cameron Maldonado (5-7, 6.19) also returns after making 15 starts last year. The most valuable arm on the squad could well be Tyler Dray as he was used in so many varied situations and is a potential hammer in the late innings. Soph RHP Matt Murphy (0-0, 4.22, 16apps) threw well as a frosh last year and will be joined by LHP Drad Drust (2-4, 6.02, 8starts) to provide some quality depth. SIU was pretty disciplined on the mound, issuing just 173 walks in 2012. The Salukis have a pair of great senior leaders in OF Jordan Sivertsen (2nd team All MVC) and in the return of 1B/DH Chris Serritella, who was a 1st team All MVC performer in 2010 but had to sit out 2011 with a wrist injury. Also, Serritella was selected in the 31st round by the Royals last June, but chose to return to Carbondale. Last year’s first baseman Wes Neece (.283), 2B Brock Harding (.282) and part-time starting 3B Donny Duschinsky (.200) come back as well as catcher Austin Montgomery. So if they can get accustomed to the bounces early on, the Maroons could have a vastly improved defense.

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The Bad News:

There’s a lot of growing up to do for the Dawgs this year as the yearlings will have to learn how to win early. Last year’s 4-16 start shot down the confidence of the Salukis and got the season off on the wrong foot. Part of the growing process will be improving on that .271 team batting average, which included just 21 home runs (though the return of Serritella should help that). And this is no misprint, the Salukis stole a grand total of just 23 bases all last year, getting thrown out 18 times. There must be some kind of running game influence to provide some pressure on opposing defenses. Of the nine pitchers of note coming back, only three of them had an ERA below 6.00, so they’ll need to string together more quality innings this time around. And yes, with all the returning experience, that .961 fielding percentage will have some attention paid to it this year. Seems to me that all the makings of a big bounce-back season are here, but implementing it will be a question.

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Schedule Note:

Lets hope this mild winter continues, huh?

The Salukis will play a lot of early home games in newly renovated Abe Martin Stadium (new bowl design, new dugouts, new clubhouse, new press box, etc.). After opening the season with weekends at North Florida, Western Kentucky and the Bright House Invitational at Stetson, SIU will spend nearly the entire month of March playing 14 home games in Carbondale. So the hope is that the (relatively) mild winter continues and Mother Nature allows for some comfortable games in their new home.

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- WICHITA STATE (39-26, 14-7)

2011 ISR: 67

Starters Returning: 6

Weekend Starters: 1

Mid-Week Starters: 2

Key Relievers (20+inns.): 3

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All Conference Candidates:

1B Johnny Coy (.275-7-59)

RHP Josh Smith (7-4, 3.00, .250OBA)

RHP Cale Elam (4-1, 1.23, 5svs, .159OBA)

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The Good News:

Incredible to think, this will be the 35th edition of Gene-ball (that’s Gene Stephenson, for those of you living under a rock) in Wichita. And the best part is that we’re still looking at a Shocker team that is the most talented team in the Valley and has the best chance of making a national splash of all the teams here. Weekend starter Josh Smith (who turned down the Brewers as a 26th round pick last June) will have two top relievers back in RHP Cale Elam and RHP T.J. McGreevy (0-1, 2.13, 3svs) to get some certain Ws on Fridays. Also look for mid-week starter RHP Zach Beringer (3-3, 4.01, .252OBA) to take on a bigger role to solidify the Saturday or Sunday starter spot. Everything you remember about the Shockers and their stellar D will be true again in 2012. Three of the four infield spots return with Johnny Coy (an All MVC pick), along with 2B Tyler Coughenour (.259, 12SBs) and SS Walker Davidson (.246, 10SBs), who move over from 3B and 2B respectively. All three outfielders are back in Don Lambert (.259, 20SBs), Kevin Hall (.254, 24SBs) and Micah Green (.241), and all three have plus-speed, enough to kill gap shots into pop ups. As usual, the new Shockers coming in are highly-regarded, ranked 34th nationally by Collegiate Baseball. RHP A.J. Ladwig (45th round, Phillies) and 1B Casey Gillaspie (brother of former Shocker Connor) should make immediate impacts. But also watch for fireplug UTL Tyler Baker (49th round, Indians), who has heart and hustle off the charts. One more player to spotlight, pitching coach Brent Kemnitz thinks senior transfer RHP Mitch Mormonn (25th round, Tigers and formerly of LSU) has a chance to be “one of the best in the country and a great pro prospect.”

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The Bad News:

Having seen the Shockers play early in the season down at Tulane, the pitching looked typical of a Gene Stephenson team. But the sticks at the dish were inconsistent which is why we are still shaking our heads at the second straight season of no NCAA tournament appearances for the Black & Gold. Weird, right? The offense needs to up the ante on their .280 team average if they are going to get back to true Shocker status. But they’ll have to do so without their three best hitters from last year in All-American C Chris O’Brien, All-MVC SS Tyler Grimes and DH Preston Springer, the only starters to hit better than .275. Yikes. WSU always seems to reload on the mound, but still, losing ace Charlie Lowell and 11-time starter Brian Flynn will be tough to replace. Also, the Shockers have to hope RHP Tobin Mateychick (3-0, 5.50 in 2010) is close to being back to 100% after he had to sit out last year after Tommy John surgery.

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Schedule Note:

Hitting the road again.

Gone are the days where Wichita State could count on playing in their cozy confines for the MVC post-season. Nay. For the second straight year, the Shockers will be on the road for the conference tournament, this time in Springfield, Missouri. Additionally, the Shocks will play most of May away from home, with seven of their final 10 games on the road, including the MVC finale at Creighton. Overall, the Wheatshockers non-conference slate is a little easier than normal seasons, albeit there is a four-gamer on the islands at Hawaii and home weekends vs. Tulane, Purdue and Long Beach State, who should all be improved.