Different script for Mercer baseball team this season

The Mercer baseball team has flipped the script from the 2015 campaign.

Last year, the Bears opened the season with a veteran pitching staff led by seven seniors and an unproven starting lineup. This year, it's the pitching staff that has question marks and a lineup that is loaded and ready to go.

But the Bears don't sound concerned as they start the season Friday against Radford, the first of 12 home games to open the season.

"I guess it's a role reversal, but it's the same case," junior catcher Charlie Madden said. "Last year, we were confident about our hitting when other people weren't, and this year, we're confident in our pitching, and I think we're going to surprise some people. We have young arms, obviously, but there are definitely some quality arms."

Head coach Craig Gibson pointed to junior Ryan Askew as the likely Friday starter to open the season and also mentioned sophomore Connor Herd, junior Austin Lord, sophomore Carter Varga and sophomore Conrad Cornell as veterans who will be key to the staff.

Gibson also said the team would be counting on freshmen Austin Cox, an FPD product, Kevin Coulter and Conard Broom.

"Offensively, we think we're going to be really good," Gibson said. "Defensively, we think we can defend, and I'm excited about our young pitching staff. I think it's very talented, but we've just got to be a little patient and let them grow up, and they're going to give us a chance, I think, day in and day out.

"We sort of flipped the table. Last year, we were new offensively, and those great seven seniors let us grow up. This year, we're a little older offensively, and we've got to score some runs early and help our staff out a little bit."

But the Bears should be able to score plenty of runs with a lineup that features returners Madden, Howard Joe at first base, Matt Meeder at shortstop and Danny Edgeworth at third base, along with outfielders Kyle Lewis, Jackson Ware and Trey Truitt.

Lewis was last year's Southern Conference Player of the Year and has been picked as a preseason All-American by several publications this season. The junior is also expected to be a first-round pick in this summer's major league draft.

Mercer won the Southern Conference regular-season and tournament titles last year in its first season in the conference.

"I think that we have the potential to be one of the best in the country, and I believe that without any doubts," Lewis said of the Mercer lineup. "Seeing all the teams we saw last year, we probably had one of the best lineups of the teams we played, and we can be one of the best lineups in the country if we stay focused and not put too much pressure on ourselves. That kind of stuff comes into it, too, trying to repeat as champions. If we just relax, we definitely will have an explosive lineup."

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Different script for Mercer baseball team this season ."