Key returnees fuel Randall’s optimism

By Andrew Hartsock     Feb 2, 2001

Every year, Kansas University baseball coach Bobby Randall heads into the season with what he labels his best team on Mt. Oread.

This year is no different but this time Randall means it.

“If you went into the season thinking it was your worst team ,” Randall said, his voice trailing off. “On paper, it is our best team. In terms of experience, we have seven seniors and 13 juniors. We’ve got John Nelson back and Matt Tribble, a freshman, and Doug Dreher.

“They really expect to play much better. We’ve got so many more pieces to this team than we’ve had in the past.”

Randall will open his sixth season at the Jayhawks’ helm a week from today at the Express College Classic in Round Rock, Texas.

Randall thinks the Jayhawks, 25-30 overall, 10-20 Big 12 a year ago, have quality and quantity this season.

They return nine players with starting experience, four of their top five hitters and players responsible for 71 percent of their home runs and 68 percent of their runs.

They also return pitcher Pete Smart, their earned run average and innings-pitched leader.

“One thing we made a concerted effort to do,” Randall said, “is we’ve got more numbers. We lost Ryan Baty to another shoulder injury, and we don’t know if we’ll get him back. A year ago, that would have been a killer.”

Smart, a 6-foot-7, 200-pound senior left-hander who went 7-9 with a 4.59 ERA last season, is amazed by the change in the Jayhawks, 17 of whom are new to the program. That newcomer class includes eight junior college transfers.

“I agree with coach whole-heartedly that this is our best team,” Smart said. “We’ve got seven (regular) starters back. We’re more experienced, and, more importantly, the guys we got back were the hardest workers last year.”

Pitching looms as the greatest question mark. Smart made 17 starts last season; the other returning pitchers made just nine starts combined.

Other starting candidates include Jeff Davis (4-3, 7.32 ERA last season in eight starts), Dan Olson (1-1, 4.50 ERA, one start), junior Jake Wright, who red-shirted last season, and junior newcomer Justin Wilcher, a lefty who was 5-2 with a 2.50 ERA last season at Garden City Community College.

“One question we have,” Randall said, “is we’re not sure if this is the best pitching we’ve had. But we need to find out, and we need to find out quickly.”

Key position returners include third baseman Ryan Klocksien, the team’s leading hitter last season with a .351 batting average, utility player Doug Dreher (.315, team-best 48 RBIs) and shortstop John Nelson (.308, Big 12-best 42 stolen bases).

“Seeing the kind of talent we have now, I can see we can go a lot farther than we went last year,” Nelson said. “We’re experienced, and some guys who’ve been playing here for a few years are taking leadership roles. We’re confident. Everybody knows what they have to do this year, and we’re confident we can do it.”

KU’s home opener, weather permitting, will be Feb. 20 against Rockhurst. Glance in scoreboard.

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