Baseball Team Sets Sights On Making Sixth Straight Regional Apperance
Jan 31, 2003 | Baseball
Jan. 31, 2003
NEW ORLEANS, La. - As the marriage of Tulane baseball and head coach Rick Jones enters its 10th year, the 2003 baseball team still contains all the features of the old wedding good luck recipe - something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.
With 17 returning letterman, 16 talented newcomers, a pair of Division I transfers and the return of the blue uniform to the Green Wave diamond for the first time since 1993, the Tulane squad is ready to make another run at the Conference USA title and sixth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance.
No matter what color the uniform, however, Jones believes he has the team with the potential to make that run with 15 veterans with starting experience and a recruiting class that ranked 18th nationally. The Green Wave garnered a preseason national ranking for the seventh-straight year, claiming the No. 23 spot in the Collegiate Baseball poll and the 26th spot in both the Baseball America and Baseball Weekly/USA Today Coaches polls.
Headlining the 17 returning lettermen are preseason All-American and C-USA Player of the Year Michael Aubrey, as well as 2002 all-conference honorees Jonny Kaplan and Aaron Feldman, both outfielders, and relief pitcher Joey Charron, and preseason all-league infielder Tony Giarratano.
The Green Wave will have to fill the void left by C-USA Player of the Year and four-time all-league honoree James Jurries, and two weekend starters. How fast the experience of the veterans and the potential of the newcomers gels - especially on the mound - are going to be key for the Tulane team in 2003.
"We return a veteran club, and we lose only one position player from last year in James Jurries," Jones said. "Now, that's a big loss, but I believe we have enough quality depth to fill the void. Even though we only have three seniors on this club, from a position standpoint, we are a veteran team.
"We are extremely young and inexperienced on the mound, and for the most part untested. The veterans - like Joey Charron and, if available, Michael Aubrey - will be bolstered by the addition of Cory Hahn from the University of Kentucky and a bevy of freshmen pitchers who I believe are as talented as any group of pitchers since I've been here. As always, pitching is going to be the key, but that phrase is amplified even more with this team."
INFIELD
The Tulane infield features several talented veterans as well as a solid group of freshmen that should provide quality, and much-needed depth. The Green Wave return middle infielders Turner Brumby, Tony Giarratano and Tommy Manzella, who started a combined 127 games last year, along with Aubrey, Feldman and utility player Brian Bormaster.
Giarratano will be looking to return to the form of his rookie season when he earned Freshman All-America honors and earned a spot on the U.S. National Team. Fellow Team USA alum Aubrey will also be trying to shake the injury bug in 2003, and appears to be well on his way after a fantastic summer when he hit .405 with six homers and 26 RBI to earn USA Baseball Athlete of the Year honors.
Brumby and Manzella ended the year at second and short, respectively, and while their defense was stellar, both made tremendous strides at the plate. Brumby hit .367 for the year and Manzella, a .294 hitter for the season, showed some power down the stretch with three home runs in the final seven contests.
Feldman, who also saw time in the outfield, proved to be a solid first baseman when called on, and Bormaster could return to his role as an infielder, where he played during the 2001 season when he was at Rice. Also expected to provide depth are freshmen Tim Guidry, Corey Penedo and Casey Slattery.
"We return a solid nucleus of players all around the infield and a nice blend of experienced players and talented freshmen," Jones said. "With a healthy Michael Aubrey and Tony Giarratano, along with Turner Brumby and Tommy Manzella, we should have a very solid infield defense."
OUTFIELD
The Green Wave roster is stocked with experienced players in the outfield. In fact, the only three seniors on the club - Jonny Kaplan, Aaron Feldman and James Burgess - all roam the outfield grass and join junior Bryan Stelmack and 2002 Freshman All-American Gerald Clark on the list of veterans.
Kaplan and Feldman both earned second-team all-conference honors last year, while Clark and Stelmack combined to hit 19 doubles and 17 home runs while tallying 38 RBI each. Kaplan paced the Green Wave with 18 doubles, tied for the team lead with 30 stolen bases and finished second on the club with a .333 batting average. Feldman, meanwhile, hit .316 with three homers, two triples and 11 doubles despite being hampered all season by a groin injury.
Joining the veteran bunch include University of Florida transfer Wes Swackhamer and rookie Brian Bogusevic. Swackhamer comes to the Green Wave after a year with the Gators and brings Team USA experience after playing on the Junior National Team in 2000. Bogusevic, meanwhile, won the Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year trophy and will push for playing time. Other newcomers are freshmen Steve Parrish and Nathan Southard.
"Jonny Kaplan may be the best defensive outfielder I've ever coached," Jones said. "He leads an extremely experienced and talented group of players, and we've added some depth with the newcomers."
CATCHERS
Behind the plate, Tulane hurlers will have their pick of three players with starting experience - juniors Brian Bormaster, Scott Madden and Matt Mann - as well as highly touted freshman Chris Sepanski.
Bormaster, the team's 2002 Defensive Player of the Year, helped turn the Green Wave's season around in 2002 and proved to be a solid stopper by helping the staff go 24-12 with him starting behind the dish. Madden and Mann shared catching duties on Tulane's College World Series team, and Sepanski comes to Tulane after earning All-Chicagoland honors all four years as a prepster.
"Brian Bormaster was stellar in the second half of last season," Jones said, "and we feel comfortable with Matt Mann or Scott Madden back behind the plate. We hope Matt Mann returns to his pre-surgery form, and Chris Sepanski has the tools and work ethic to be a very productive college player."
PITCHERS
While the Green Wave offense and defense rest safely in the capable hands of a veteran squad, the Tulane pitching staff will have a new look in 2003 as eight fresh faces dominate Jones' mound arsenal.
Jones' squad does feature several veterans, including Aubrey and preseason All-Conference USA reliever Joey Charron, but the staff is dominated by new faces, including Kentucky transfer Cory Hahn and a host of young but talented freshmen eager to make an immediate contribution to the team's success.
Aubrey stands as the team's returning wins leader after an 8-1 year in an injury-shortened 2002, but his status as a pitcher remains a question entering the season. Tulane coaches want to avoid a recurrence of the back sprain he suffered through most of 2002 and kept him out of nine ballgames.
Charron, meanwhile, went 3-4 with a 3.38 ERA in 2002, and his nine saves a year ago rank fourth in school history. The Tulane staff also returns junior Will Walter and sophomores Kelly Comarda, Ray Liotta and Ricky Fairchild. Walter and Comarda came on strong at the end of the 2002 season, tying for the second-best opponent batting average among relievers, and Liotta and Fairchild gained valuable experience as rookies.
Among the Green Wave's new arms are Hahn, a 2002 Cape Cod League All-Star, High School State Players of the Year J.R. Crowel (Florida) and Brandon Gomes (Massachusetts), and 2002 MLB draftee Tyler Kimmons. Also joining the Tulane staff are Matt Goebel, Ryan Martin, Billy Mohl and Ted Reedy.
"We're obviously young on the mound, but we do have some players with experience," Jones said. "Cory Hahn was a mainstay on the staff at Kentucky. Joey Charron has been a big-game pitcher for us since he arrived on campus, as is Michael Aubrey if his back will allow him to take the mound.
"The main key to our success and the biggest question is how fast our freshmen pitchers adjust to the pace of the college game. They are young and inexperienced, but I feel confident that we'll be fine if they can mature and perform up to a level that matches their abilities."
SCHEDULE
Games against seven teams that made the postseason in 2002, another game in the Louisiana Superdome, the Conference USA Tournament at Turchin Stadium and a trip to California to participate in the heralded KIA Baseball Bash highlight the 2003 Tulane schedule.
The Green Wave's 56-game regular-season slate features 31 contests to be played at Turchin Stadium as well as three-game series' with arch-rival LSU and cross-town foe UNO. Among the 22 Tulane opponents in 2003, Cal State Fullerton, Texas, Louisiana-Lafayette, LSU, Houston, Louisville and East Carolina qualified for the postseason a year ago, with the Longhorns winning the national championship. LSU, Houston, ECU and Pepperdine have advanced to the Super Regionals within the past two years.
"Conference USA has become one of the top five conferences in college baseball," Jones said. "We had five teams go to the Regionals last year, and that was the second most in the NCAA. And as always, the competition in Louisiana provides as challenging a midweek schedule you can possibly have.
"We should find out a lot about our team early on, especially the two weekends when Pepperdine comes to Turchin Stadium and the weekend in Fullerton for the KIA Baseball Bash that features Texas, Cal State Fullerton and UCLA."
Following the regular season, Tulane will play host to the 2003 Conference USA Tournament from May 21-25 with the tournament winner receiving the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.
