DSC baseball team starts season Friday

Media credit: Video created by Bree Skinner.

The Dixie State College Red Storm baseball team will begin its season with high hopes and expectations for the coming year after winning the PacWest Conference title last season.

The team won the conference tournament in its first year of postseason eligibility at the Division II level and finished the season 33-19. Despite the finish, the team got off to a sluggish start last year winning just one of its first five games. Infielder Aaron Friend, a senior business major from Las Vegas, said it is crucial for the team to start the season off well.

"Winning is crucial," Friend said. "Starting the season off right sets the tone for the rest of our season. If we get off to a fast start we will roll through the rest of the season and we will hop up in national and regional rankings."

Shortstop Ammon Zitting, a sophomore accounting major from Pleasant Grove, also said the first series is very important.

"I think the first series is one of the most important of the season, it will determine how the rest of our season goes," Zitting said. "If we do well it will put us in a really good position to qualify for the postseason."

Zitting also said the first series will be important for the younger players to gel quickly and begin to trust one another. There are many young players on the team and they will be tested early and will be counted on to contribute from the first pitch of the season.

The Red Storm will be tested early in the team's first home series against the No. 5 Mavericks of Mesa State College. Last year the Mavericks won two of three games against the Red Storm on its way to finishing 44-15 and winning the Central Region of the NCAA playoffs.

Friend said they need to beat the good teams in order to accomplish their goal of making the NCAA postseason this year.

"If we beat Mesa State three out of the four games or even sweep them, we have a good shot at jumping up in the regional rankings," he said. "If we do that we have a good chance of making the postseason at the end of the year."

Both Zitting and Friend said the team's goal is to qualify for the NCAA tournament and the team has made improvements from last season to this one.

"I think our offense has improved over last year's," Friend said. "We won't hit as many home runs as we did last year, but we have improved. We are very quick throughout our lineup and every guy has the potential to hit .300."

The pitching staff of the team will be a strong point as well, Zitting said. Senior pitcher Preston Grimes will be the staff ace with senior Todd Morlock anchoring the bullpen as the closer. Grimes recorded a 7-2 record with a 7.44 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 65 innings last year, while Morlock had a 4.35 ERA with a 4-2 record with 7 saves in 31 innings of work.

Friend led the team last year in batting average with a .383, recording 72 hits and accounting for 35 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. Fellow senior Brett Adams, an outfielder, is the returner with the next highest batting average, hitting .353 with 71 hits, 9 home runs and 50 RBIs.

The team will start the season Friday against MSC at Bruce Hurst Field at 3 p.m. The team will then play a doubleheader against the Mavericks on Saturday starting at noon and finish the four-game set on Sunday at noon.