The long journey of the 2017 Lobo Baseball season starts this weekend against Binghamton University, where the Lobos will face the Bearcats in a three-game series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Lobos look to get their season off to a great start before their schedule really heats up next weekend when they travel to Dallas Baptist. This should be a very good series to start the season, since Binghamton is a talented team that also made the NCAA Tournament last season.
Binghamton University Bearcats:
The Bearcats are coming off a 30-25 season, in which they dominated the America East Conference by winning both the regular season and tournament championships. They ended up as the #4 seed in the Texas A&M regional, where they lost to Texas A&M and Minnesota in consecutive games to end their season. Expectation are high for the Bearcats this year, as they return many key pieces to their team from a year ago. Once again, this season the Bearcats are the class of the America East Conference and are expected to win the conference again this season and make a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. Something to watch play out this first weekend of the season is how well the cold weather team from Binghamton New York will do. I don’t know if the Bearcats have played outside this spring and that could play a factor.
Key Players:
- Return 7 of 9 position players (DH included)
- Return two First-Team All-Conference performers, in starting titcher Nick Cryts (7-4, 5.22 ERA) and centerfielder CJ Krowiak (.314 average) who bats leadoff for the Bearcats and only struck out 1 out of every 19 at bats.
- Sophomore third baseman Justin Yurchak joins the fold after spending his freshman season at Wake Forest where he hit .312 with 30 RBIs and was selected as a member of the All-ACC Freshman Team.
Interesting Note:
Freshman pitcher Ben Anderson, who was drafted in the 26th round by the Toronto Blue Jays, wasn’t the highest draft pick in his family last year. His twin brother is Ian Anderson who was drafted with the 3rd overall pick by the Atlanta Braves. Ben was the catcher for Ian, and put up good numbers in high school.
Lobo News and Notes:
- The Lobos will go into this weekend without the services of outfielder/DH Danny Collier and shortstop Andre Gregory, who are both dealing with injuries. While the injuries shouldn’t take long to recover from, it forces Coach Birmingham to shuffle some things around. Sophomore Hayden Schilling will start at shortstop and Andrew Pratt will be the DH the first two games before catching the Sunday game so Luis Gonzalez can hit when he pitches.
- It appears that Justin Watari won the second base job over Beau Capanna, although I still think there is a chance this is a position that will see both players getting playing time. Both players are very capable, so there shouldn’t be a letdown after losing Jared Holley and Michael Eaton last year.
- The weekend rotation appears to be set with Luis Gonzalez getting the call for the Sunday game. Before midweek games start, this means the Lobos will have even more depth in the bullpen with James Harrington, Johnathon Tripp and Justin Slaten all being available.
Lobo Lineup This Weekend:
Starting Pitchers: Tyler Stevens (Friday), Carson Schneider (Saturday), and Luis Gonzalez (Sunday)
Catcher: Daniel Herrera (Friday & Saturday), Andrew Pratt (Sunday)
1st Base: Jack Zoellner
2nd Base: Justin Watari
SS: Hayden Schilling
3rd Base: Carl Stajduhar
Left Field: Jared Mang
Center Field: Luis Gonzalez (Friday & Saturday) most likely Andre Vigil (Sunday)
Right Field: Andre Vigil
DH: Andrew Pratt (Friday & Saturday), Luis Gonzalez (Sunday)
Series Prediction:
The first series of a season are always difficult to figure out how they are going to play out, as both teams have only played and practiced against each other since last season. The Lobos should be the more talented team in the series, but that doesn’t mean that they win this series. I set the odds of the Lobos sweeping the series at 25%, winning the 2 of 3 at 40%, winning 1 of 3 at 25%, and getting swept at 10%. I have the Lobos sweeping the series with a blowout and two close games. I expect a great start from Stevens on Friday and for both Luis Gonzalez and Carl Stajduhar to have huge weekends at the plate for the Lobos.
Series Info:
Who: New Mexico Lobos (0-0) vs. Binghamton University Bearcats (0-0)
When: February 17th, 18th and 19th at 6 PM, 2 PM and 1 PM
Where: Santa Ana Star Field, Albuquerque, NM
Stream: Mountain West Network
Radio: 101.7 The Team