All the pieces are in place for great MC baseball season

Release Date: March 3, 2005

Monmouth's Thad King arrives safely at third base during action from last year's MWC Championships at Monmouth's Glasgow Field.

MONMOUTH, Ill. — How strong is the Monmouth College baseball team this year? The first cry of “Play ball!” is yet to be heard in 2005, and it appears the four-time defending Midwest Conference South Division champions have already reloaded for 2006.

Coach Roger Sander, who has compiled a 202-161-1 record in 11 seasons as the Fighting Scots’ head man, has a wealth of talent returning, including all eight position players from last year’s lineup, his DH and his top utility player. While the pitching staff did experience some loss to graduation, Steve Myros, the MWC South Division Pitcher of the Year, is back to anchor a staff that also includes school-record closer Steve Mumma.

What Sander has also done, though, is stock up on new talent, and some of those players will see the field often this spring, perhaps as regulars. If they do, that will mean they beat out a top-notch veteran, as seven of Monmouth’s field position players have been named to at least one All-MWC team, led by shortstop Thad King, a three-time first team selection. First baseman Alan Betourne and center fielder Jason Salmon are each two-time all-conference performers.

Before the heirs apparent dominate the lineup, though, Monmouth’s returners have some business to finish. When the senior class of King, Betourne, Chad Goad, Steve Turner and Mason Abner were freshmen, they were part of a Scots team that won the Midwest Conference title and nearly earned a berth in the College World Series. The Scots were fourth in the MWC in 2003 and second last year, with an overall record of 22-12.

Since that special season of 2002, seniors Myros and Tristan Reimolds have transferred to Monmouth. Abner is the lone member of the senior class without an All-MWC honor, but he did pitch the Scots to one of their biggest victories in team history his freshman season, a 2-1 nailbiter against Aurora University, the nation’s No. 3 team, at the Monmouth Regional.

The Scots were eliminated from the regional in their next game, but taking that next step and reaching the College World Series is certainly an attainable goal this spring. Sander has not shied away from stating his goal of winning a national title, and he doesn’t mind the fact that the Scots might have targets on their backs.

“We expect to be favored to win the conference,” he said of the soon-to-be released pre-season coaches’ poll. “We want to be picked to win it. We want the bull’s eye.”

That being said, Sander does feel the South Division is much-improved, and Monmouth had to go down-to-the-wire to win it last season, sweeping Illinois College on the final day to earn the right to host the MWC Championships.

The Scots’ lineup last season was led by Betourne, who hit a team-high .373 with 20 RBI, and right fielder Matt Gordon, who knocked in a team-high 29 runs while hitting .369. Sander calls the pair Monmouth’s two best hitters, and it wasn’t too long ago that that honor was bestowed upon King and Salmon, the Scots’ center fielder. In 2003, Salmon made his MC debut with a memorable .455 season, while King hit a robust .355. They tailed off to .244 and .275, respectively, last season, but Sander thinks comebacks are in order.

“Look for Jason Salmon to rebound,” he said. “His swing is back. We’ve had some long talks, and I’ve told him that since he’s done it before, he should expect to hit .450 again.”

Two other big sticks who return for Monmouth are Turner (.323, 13 RBI) and Reimolds (.287, 5 HR, 29 RBI), a second baseman and former high school shortstop. Sander calls Turner a “hard worker” who’s “made himself a good player.” The MC coach lumps Reimolds in with players like Betourne and King who “are really playing well right now. They’re playing like you’d want seniors to play. I expect them all have to banner years.”

Of all the talent that returns, Sander said the offensive leader of the bunch might be Gordon.

“Matt’s just punishing the ball,” he said. “He doesn’t get cheated on his swings, yet he also has one of the best batting eyes on the team. He waits for his pitch. He may not hit the most homers – we’re not really a homer-hitting team – but he hits the ball hard and hits it down the line and gets lots of extra-base hits.”

Rounding out the returning starters are catcher Josh Ragar (.311), Goad (.250) and DH Josh Hall (.237). Rickey Barnett also saw frequent action and drove in 17 runs while hitting .227.

Sander made it clear, however, that just because a Fighting Scot played regularly last year doesn’t mean he has a permanent starting spot this spring. Sophomore Jeremy Kafka, who Sander said “is as close as we’ve got to a five-tool player,” figures to fight for playing time in the outfield, and the freshmen class features starting infield candidates Ryan Priola (St. Charles East) and Ryan Stubler (Prairie Ridge), in addition to players like Nate Palkovic (Woodruff), Jacob Bice (West Prairie), Jake Gutafson (Bureau Valley), Trent Golz (Streamwood), Anthony Atkins (Pawnee), Dan Lipp (Huntley) and Ryne Tate (Springfield).

“This is a bold statement, but I think we could start an all-freshman lineup and still be pretty competitive,” Sander said. “If they stick together, I honestly believe they can be better than the current group of upperclassmen.”

Here’s a much less bold prediction: Myros will be the ace of the Scots’ pitching staff. A year ago, the righthander went 6-2 with a 2.74 ERA. His biggest win was a well-pitched nine-inning complete game victory in the first round of the MWC Championships.

When asked about the rest of his staff, Sander replied, “I like it. I do a lot of things by comparison. Is this staff as good as when we had Jake Libby and Mike McNeive? No. Is it as good as Ryan Johnson and Joe Larkins? No. Those staffs both had two dominating pitchers. But if we do get a second pitcher to emerge to that level, this staff will be better because it’s deeper.”

Starting Saturday, Monmouth will play 11 games in seven days in Florida, and Sander said that junior transfer Dan Dunn (Illini Bluffs) and freshman southpaw Brian Schutzbach (New Lenox Providence) will join Myros at the top of the rotation. Abner and sophomore Kevin Meinhart will also get starts on the spring break trip, and returners Pat Schramm and Matt Englehardt may as well.

The bullpen will feature a trio of sophomores – Mumma, who saved a school-record four games as a freshman, Kafka and Scott Coles.

Sander said that his team is not afraid to be the team to beat in the MWC. Nor are the Scots prone to dodging the Midwest’s best non-conference teams. Monmouth will play several schools with recent postseason experience, including Wartburg, Lakeland and Augustana while in Florida and Augustana again and Illinois Wesleyan once the team returns north. The Scots’ first game is Saturday night in Clearwater, Fla., against Widener University.

“We have high expectations,” Sander concluded. “We’ve got the pieces in place. The kids just have to do it on the field.”

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