MENOMONIE (March 16, 2013) - Classes are over for a week and spring break is underway. For the UW-Stout baseball team, it will be nothing but baseball under the (hopefully) sun in Fort Myers, Fla., for a little over a week.
The Blue Devils will play seven collegiate games, plus an exhibition game against the Minnesota Twins' Gulf Coast League team, a rookie team in the Twins organization. The Blue Devils begin competition Sunday, March 17 and conclude Friday, March 22.
"This is going to be fun," said second year coach
Toby Gardenhire. "We are playing eight games over six days, and when you do that, everybody is going to get a chance. We will get a chance to see who can contribute.
"We will throw a lot of pitchers and see who can step up. We will be seeing guys who have not had chance to play so far. They can show us what they can do."
The Blue Devils are off to a 3-3 overall start after six games against MIAC competition at the HHH Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn. Gardenhire and his staff had opted to go with the same two starting pitchers over the six games and the line-up has had only a few changes here and there.
"We have a lot of depth and a lot of talent," Gardenhire said. "We are going to mix and match a little bit and the guys who haven't played will get a chance to show what they can do."
Gardenhire is excited about the level of competition the Blue Devils will face in Florida. Johns Hopkins University is nationally ranked and the College of Wooster advanced to the NCAA Division III regionals last season. Otterbein College, Stout's Florida opener, was 22-17 last year, and has started off the season at 4-1. Utica College and Knox College, both sub-.500 teams last year, will present their own set of challenges.
"The level of competition is very, very good," Gardenhire said. "This will help us get ready for conference play. Our league is so tough."
There are also certain intangibles to be gained from a trip like this.
"A trip like this is so awesome," Gardenhire said. "We are all at the airport and on the plane together, we dress the same. This is fun for the guys.
"We will be in Florida and playing baseball for a week. The guys don't have classes. They just get to enjoy each other's company."
THIS WEEK'S GAMES: After starting their 2013 campaign with six games at the Metrodome, UW-Stout will head south this spring break, where they will play seven official games against five different teams between March 17 and March 22. Stout opens with doubleheaders against Otterbein College and Utica College on Sunday and Monday, respectively. Then after an exhibition with the Minnesota Twins organization on Tuesday, Stout will play single games against Johns Hopkins University, Knox College, and The College of Wooster to close out their trip.
THE 2013 BLUE DEVILS: Stout is off to a 3-3 start through their first six games. They opened with two losses to Bethel University, but came back the next week with a sweep of Hamline. Most recently, Stout split a pair of games with Augsburg College, to stay at .500 heading into spring break. Against Bethel, Stout showed some early season rust as they dropped two winnable ball games. A costly two-out error allowed four Bethel runs to score in the first game and 11 walked Bethel batters led to a loss in the second. Stout bounced back well a week later, however, with a pair of wins over Hamline.
Brad Kohn pitched a complete game against the Pipers, in which he allowed just five hits and no earned runs, resulting in a 6-1 Blue Devil victory. In the second, Stout needed late-game heroics from
Santiago Morales, who provided a two out, three-RBI walk-off double to grab a 6-5 win. Against Augsburg, Stout could not take advantage with runners on base as they stranded nine runners on the basepaths, falling 4-1 to the Auggies. Like they did in the second game with Hamline, Stout used seventh-inning dramatics to grab another win.
Charlie Meyer broke a 5-5 tie with an RBI single in the top of the seventh inning that put Stout up for good.
Dan Britts was able to close out the game, earning his first win of the season. |
2013 Statistics
PITCHING STAFF: Head coach
Toby Gardenhire has looked no further than #
Brad Kohn and Cody Loertscher# as his starting pitchers this season. Each has started three of the six games, with Kohn starting the first game of each doubleheader and Loertscher starting the second. Each has been very effective thus far, allowing a combined three earned runs through 24 innings pitched. Loertscher has yet to let up a hit all season, pitching through eight full innings of no-hit ball. The one knock on Loertscher is his tendency to walk batters. He has walked nine batters this season, three of which eventually crossed home plate for runs. Kohn sits at 1-0 and has 12 strikeouts in 16 innings pitched while Loertscher has three no decisions and has struc, out seven batters.
#
Dan Britts#, who will likely see some games as a starter, pitched well out of the bullpen against Augsburg. Britts pitched two and one-third innings of no-hit ball to collect the win, his first decision of the year. #
Adam Widder# has the most relief appearances, showing up in half of Stout's six games. Widder's ERA remains 0.00, although he was saddled with the loss against Bethel when he allowed four unearned runs. Widder picked up a win against Hamline to even his record at 1-1. #
Ian Schiltz#, #
Carter Vogt#, and #
Andrew Driessen# have each come out of the bullpen twice, Schiltz has the lowest ERA of the three, but he also has the only loss.
HITTING THE BALL: Three Blue Devils have collectively provided 56 percent of Stout's hits this season. #
Charlie Meyer#, #
Mitch LaVelle#, and #
Santiago Morales# have the hot bats early, combining for 27 of Stout's 48 hits. LaVelle leads the group with 10 hits, but Meyer has better taken advantage of his opportunities, collecting nine hits in 15 at-bats for an average of .600. Morales is batting .364 on the season, but has the most total bases on the team, aided by the team's only home run. He and Meyer each have five RBI, and when you throw in LaVelle's four RBI, you have over 60 percent of the team's total run production. #
Kasey Kruse and Nick Nalbach# have both made good use of their limited playing time, combining to go 3-for-5 in five at-bats. Nalbach went 2-for-3 with a double in his first start of the season against Augsburg. #
Chris Sill and Colin Pechacek# are each hitting .308 on the season and have the team's only two triples.
THE COMPETITION: Stout will see a wide variety of competition when they arrive in Fort Myers next week. Although it is just an exhibition game, the Minnesota Twins will likely present some problems for the Blue Devils. They will also play four games against teams who had 20+ wins last season. Otterbein College represents two of those games and Johns Hopkins and Wooster each won at least 25 games a season ago. Johns Hopkins missed the NCAA Championships last year, but it was the first time they failed to make the tournament since 2006, and they started this season 5-1. Wooster won their conference last year to advance to nationals and are off to a 1-1 start, but have three more dates before they head south. Utica College and Knox College represent the lower echelon of competition down south, as each finished below .500 a season ago.
AWARDS AND HONORS: Brad Kohn was named the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Confernce
(WIAC) pitcher of the week, March 12 after allowing just seven hits and no earned runs through his first 11 innings pitched this season.
COACHES: Toby Gardenhire, son of Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, is in his second season with UW-Stout. Gardenhire coached the Blue Devils to a 17-22 record last year, an improvement from their 12- and 11-win seasons the previous two years.
Gardenhire received his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois in community health in 2005.
DOWN THE ROAD: After their return from Florida, the Blue Devils are scheduled to meet Macalester College, Wednesday, March 27 at 9:45 p.m. in their final Metrodome games of the spring. It will be Stout's final game ever in the Metrodome. The much maligned facility is scheduled to be demolished in February, 2014.
