Concord prepared to defend conference title

ATHENS — It’s been an interesting month for the Concord University baseball team.

A couple of weeks ago, the Mountain Lions donned dark suits and stood in the marble-walled chambers oaaf the state capitol building in Charleston to receive resolutions honoring them as the 2011 West Virginia Conference champions.

On the final day of January, the Athens institution landed the No. 7 spot in the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region pre-season poll conducted by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America.

A day later, the conference coaches’ pre-season poll predicted a second-place finish for Concord behind West Virginia State in the WVIAC South Division, though the Mountain Lions got four votes for the top spot.

Last weekend, Concord began the 2012 season 0-3 after facing Wingate University in North Carolina.

Head coach Andrew Wright, who celebrated the conference title last year as a first-year head coach, said about the pre-season polls, “We put as little emphasis on that stuff as possible. The outside attention is nice, from a recognition standpoint, but how it changes or affects us in our daily operations, it doesn’t affect us at all.”

“Our goal, obviously, is to win a national championship here. But we have to focus on the process. If we go out and try to play our best baseball ... then hopefully we’ll do pretty well.”

Last spring, Concord had to win eight of its last 11 games to qualify for postseason play. The team then had to fight from behind in its pool play games to get the wins that got them to the championship game against State, which Concord won 13-7 in mid-May.

Last week, in a preseason media day, Wright talked about that auspicious day.

He said, “I was talking with a couple of players about that. Still, truthfully, it still has not sunk in that that even happened. I think it was fate, really,” he said with a laugh.

Turning to the season at hand, he said, “We’re ready to go. I’ve been ready to go since last May. Since the last game we played, I was focusing on 2012 and how we can do better, because we struggled a little bit in 2011 with the process ... .”

Concord finished 27-26 after going 1-2 in the NCAA regional playoffs.

Three Mountain Lions who were named to the preseason all-region lists will be counted on again to contribute.

The list begins with team captain Keith Morrisroe, who hit .357 last season and had a .987 fielding percentage after making a move from catcher to infielder.

Wright said, “He gets out there. He’s been very consistent for us. He made a position change for us last year to shortstop. He’s a team player, in a big, big way. I think he’s going to bolster our defense and help us out at the top of the [batting] lineup.”

Josh Wenger, who batted in 52 runs in 52 games, returns at third base for his junior year.

“Josh Wenger is as athletic a player as we’ve had in our program in a long time, and I expect big things out of him as well,” Wright said.

He had the same comment for one of the team’s “two-way guys,” Jacob Mays, who led the team with a .382 batting average, and pitched 80 innings.

In addition, Wright said, “We brought in a very big freshman class. We’re still quite young; we have four juniors and four seniors, and the rest of our 30-man roster is basically freshmen and sophomores.”

Several pitchers are in the new group, including Richlands High graduate James Patton and Tazewell product Mike Wood, who got the start, and the loss, in Sunday’s final game at Wingate.

Wright said, “I feel like we did an exceptional job locally, getting James Patton from Richlands and Mike Wood from Tazewell. [Pitching] was the biggest need for us, and we were fortunate to have local people out there who could help get us where we need to be.”

The coach also took note of two left-handed pitchers in the new class. “We also did a pretty good job in the state of West Virginia, bringing in Robby Bousman, and also having Tyler Zimm join the program after transferring,” Wright said.

Zimm, who played at Oak Hill High School, moved from California (Pa.) University to Athens. Bousman graduated from Doddridge County High School.

Wright credited new assistant coach Jeff Jefferson with helping land many of the recruits. He joined the staff in July after playing four years of baseball at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

Dustin Nuckels, an Oak Hill grad who contributed as a freshman relief pitcher last year, said, “We have a better emphasis on defense in my opinion this year. Our offense is going to be there. But we brought a lot of new talent in, and I see a lot of productivity coming from our younger fellas.”

Discussing the upcoming season, Wright said the offense will be “a very similar style” to last year. “I think we proved we can be a pretty exciting offense at times.”

“The most glaring change, I think, is going to be on the mound. We’ve got a lot more depth than we’ve had in the past. I never want to say we’ve got too much pitching, but we’re in a situation where we feel very confident in what we’re throwing out there on a weekly basis, and also with what we have in the bullpen.”

Pitching in the West Virginia Conference is “huge” to a team’s success, Wright said. “It’s an offensive-dominated conference, if you look at it. I feel like if we can hold teams down, and our offensive output doesn’t change much, then we’re going to be in pretty good shape.”

The ace of the staff looks to be Ryan Weatherholtz, who was impressive last season in his freshman campaign.

“He threw 94 innings for us,” Wright said. “We’re expecting him to go out and be Ryan Weatherholtz again.”

Nuckels said, “Ryan goes out there and does what he does. He doesn’t let things enter his mind. He’s very set, very focused. We play good defense behind him when we get behind him. That’s our best team, when he’s on the mound.”

This year’s corps will be “tough” on opposing offenses, Nuckels predicted. “We have a lot of young arms and some experienced arms. We have a mixture of both.”

“We have the same core of guys coming back, and we have a lot of new additions that are very promising, so far. I feel that, us working as a unit, [when] we get the ball rolling so to speak, [we can] continue that through the playoffs.”

Wright wants the team to focus on the present.

“We’ve tried to put as little emphasis [as possible] on what has happened in the past and what is going to happen in the future,” he said. “The guys are all confident enough to know that they can be successful as a group. If we go out ... and play our best baseball and just see what happens, I think there are some good things in store.”

“Obviously, we have the confidence of having been successful last year, and I think, even more added confidence that our roster is much deeper, much more competitive and much more athletic.”

Another advantage this year has been the mild winter that has allowed many days outdoors. Last year’s harsh weather kept the Mountain Lions cooped up until they headed south for their first games.

Nuckels said, “Last season, we came back from our winter break ... we were mostly in the gymnasium and the weight room, things of that nature.

“But we’ve spent a solid two weeks outside. We’ve seen a lot of live pitching, we’ve seen live hitters. It’s been very productive. It’s been a blessing to have this weather, especially before the first week of the season.”

Also a year ago, Wright was getting used to the job of a head baseball coach. He said he’s changed since then.

“I’m much easier to deal with, certainly,” he said. “I’ve seen through my first year that you ... just be a confidence giver. Let them go out and play baseball, and when the dust settles, see what happens.”

— Contact Tom Bone at

tbone@bdtonline.com

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