Feb. 8, 2008

Feb. 7 Intrasqaud Gallery

With the opener a little more than two weeks away, preseason practice for the the University of Richmond baseball team is underway. The Spiders, under the direction of first-year head coach Mark McQueen, were picked second in the Atlantic 10 Preseason Coaches' Poll that was that announced recently. The season opens officially Feb. 22 versus UNC-Wilmington at the Jacksonville University Invitational.

Richmond was 32-28 last season and finished third in the A-10 standings under the direction of Hall of Fame head coach Ron Atkins, who retired at season's end.

Enjoying the mild late-winter weather in Richmond, the Spiders were on Pitt Field for an intrasquad game on Thursday and will again Friday (Feb. 8) and Saturday (Feb. 9) weather permitting.

Charlotte was picked to defend its 2007 title (click here for the A-10 preseason poll), followed by Richmond, Xavier, Rhode Island and Fordham in the top five. The Spiders will face the 49ers, Musketeers and Rhody during the conference season.

We recently sat down with Coach McQueen to get his thoughts on the 2008 season:

Q: How will you approach this season, with it being your first as a head coach?
A: "I have been very fortunate to have worked under three exceptional head coaches in my 20 years as an assistant coach. Bobby Randall (Iowa State) taught me the value of treating your players with respect and how fortunate we are to be able to coach baseball at the collegiate level.

"From Paul Keyes (VCU), I learned the importance of preparation and the strategies involved in order to put your team in situations where they have the opportunity to be successful.

"Ronnie Atkins (Richmond) showed me how to build a solid program from the ground up by paying attention to details. He taught me that if you want your players to work hard for you, then you have to work hard for them.

"So to answer your question, I am hoping our team will be skilled in the fundamentals and play with the heart and desire of champions."

Q: What are your team's goals for this season?
A: "Our goals for this season are not to be out-worked or out-hustled by any of our opponents; to improve our skills each and every day; and to be the best possible team we can be by the time we reach the conference tournament."

Q: What will be this team's strength?
A: "I am hoping that pitchng will be one of our consistent strengths this year. We may have more depth on our staff this year than I have ever had on one team. We should be able to use more arms which will allow us to keep our main guys fresh and healthy for a long season.

"Seniors Alex Hale and Brian Alas, who were both Second Team All-Conference players last year, will be heavily counted on again, along with the A-10 Rookie of the Year and a Freshman All-American Matt Zielinski.

"Juniors Ian Marshall and Josh Horn both had some very big starts for us last season and redshirt-junior Steve Owens, who was a starter as a freshman, will return to the mound after missing all of 2007 with elbow surgery.

"Sophomore Matt Trent has one of the better arms on the staff and should see a lot of action as both a starter and reliever. Kyle Leith, Jay Joines, Chris Sullivan and Rob Berzinskas all return from last year's squad as well.

"I was also very impressed with our team defense this fall. Coaches Ryan Wheeler and Joe Frostick did a great job with the infielders and outfielders. We should be very solid up the middle with Joe White in center, Victor Croglio at shortstop and Austin Reilly at second base.

"I thought our catchers Evan Stehle and Ryan Grant both improved tremendously this fall under first-year catching coach Chad Oxendine.

"Third base will once again belong to junior Cameron Brown, while first base will probably be a platoon with freshmen Mike Mergenthaler and Billy Barber.

"The corner outfield spots should belong to senior Hank Coogan and redshirt junior Ryan Metzroth.

"Marc Terranova and Chris Cuppia will give us depth in the infield, while Marc will also challenge for the designated hitter role."

Q: You lost a lot of very good players off last year's club -- due to both graduation and the draft. How do you replace them?
A: "Not only did we lose five of our top six hitters (Joe Mahoney, Alex Wotring, Benji Marshall, Vince Riggi and Matt McKenna), but including Andrew Justice and Lane Holby, we lost seven of the best team leaders I have ever been around.

"Their team leadership and work ethic on a daily basis was a big reason we were able to finish in third-place in both the Atlantic 10 regular season and in the conference tournament.

"We have some good hitters on this year's team, but getting guys to step up and lead could be a key to our season."

Q: Who are some of the newcomers you see contributing right away?
A: "We feel very good about the freshmen class that came in last fall, but we have three transfers that should make an immediate impact this spring.

"Junior LHP Brian Farrell (UNC) and junior catcher Ryan Grant (Brevard C.C.) both performed very well in fall practice. Farrell should contend for a starting spot in the rotation, while Grant will likely split time behind the dish.

"We also feel very fortunate to have a mid-year transfer in sophomore RHP Jared Bard. Like Farrell, Jared transferred from UNC and will give us another quality arm on what should be a pretty good staff. We have a very talented freshman class that really pushed our upperclassman in practice. Billy Falasco has a chance to see action both on the mound and in the outfield. Derek Boliek and Evan Plys will give us some solid depth across the infield. Andrew Lowry will play some outfield and may have our best speed on the team. We have some very good freshman pitchers in lefthanders Daniel Clark and Mike Mergenthaler and right handers Anthony Cafagna and Billy Barber."

Q: Talk about your captains and what you expect from this group?
A: "We feel like all of the seniors are our captains. This is their team and they all need to lead in their own way.

"We also felt the need to elect one captain from each class. Even though one of the staples of Richmond Spider baseball has always been team chemistry and the cohesiveness of our players from top to bottom, we felt like having one captain in each class would further open up the lines of communication so the coaching staff can get to know our players better both on and off the field.

"For instance, a senior captain may not always know what's going on over in the freshman dorm or if a sophomore is having problems back home.

"The captains that the team elected are Austin Reilly (senior), Victor Croglio (junior), Matt Zielinski (sophomore) and Mike Mergenthaler (freshman)."