A new beginning
2/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 17, 2004
By Jay Reddick
One of the unique things about college athletics, for good and for ill, is this: every player is on a short time clock. After four or five years, or sometimes only three, you know it will be time for one player to go and another to take its place.
George Greer is experiencing that turnover this season. but he has the 2003 Wake Forest baseball team reloaded and ready to take on the next challenge.
Pitcher Kyle Sleeth, infielder Jamie D'Antona and outfielder Adam Bourassa are all gone to the pro ranks. Six other players important to last year's Deacons are gone, too.
But that was last year.
"We don't have anybody who sticks out this year," Greer said. "We don't have any superstars. What we do have is a lot of very good players, and if the hitters are hitting, the pitchers are throwing, the guys are fielding like we know they can, we'll have a very good season."
Several important holdovers and 10 new players will lead Wake Forest. The most visible of the newcomers figures to be Justin Keadle, who is expected to be the team's starting pitcher on Opening Day and its regular Friday starter.
Sleeth, a first-round pick of the Detroit Tigers, filled that role the last two years. While Greer isn't making any direct comparisons, it's obvious he has confidence in Keadle, a transfer from Cypress Junior College who finished second in the Cape Cod League in strikeouts this summer.
"Justin is much heralded, and he should be - he has been very successful," Greer said. "He has a powerful fastball, a very good curve and a very good off-speed pitch - everything you want, really. He also has a good feel for the mental side of the game."
Tim Morley, who was 2-5 last season after earning Freshman All-America mention in 2002, will begin the season as the Saturday starter. Sophomore Kyle Young (5-0, 4.57 ERA), a successful midweek starter last season, has the edge for the Sunday starting job entering the preseason, but Greer will have other options there with junior Brian Bach (6-2, 3.89) or Kentucky freshman Josh Ellis. Whichever pair does not start on Sunday will handle midweek games.
The bullpen also has plenty of depth. Sophomore righty Kirby Wedekind begins the season as the bullpen's leader after compiling a 4.78 ERA out of the pen last year, but he'll have plenty of help. Junior Daniel Davidson has the experience, senior Indy Wilkinson has the maturity, and freshman Lee Land may have the stuff.
Land, a Durham righthander, was a 13th-round draft pick last summer but chose to begin his college career instead of going pro. He is well-rounded enough that he will also be a reserve infielder and an option at designated hitter, but his arm is what brought him here.
"The biggest thing he can do to help us is pitch well," Greer said. "He could fill a reserve role on the field, but his best potential, based on raw ability, is as a pitcher."
The bullpen's other freshmen, Andrew Knox, Charlie Mellies and Sean Souders, should also get some innings.
In the infield, D'Antona is gone, but plenty of experience remains. Nick Blue returns to second base after a shoulder injury forced a redshirt year last season. Greer said Blue was 100 percent entering team drills this spring, but he was expected to come along slowly.
Blue will see a familiar face in the double-play combination, as Ben Ingold returns for a third year as the starting shortstop. Ingold hit .317 a year ago and is considered the team's best defender.
Brad Scioletti, who hit .313 a year ago while playing wherever the team needed him, is expected to settle in at first base, and freshman Matt Antonelli has the inside track on the third-base job. Antonelli was the Massachusetts player of the year in football and hockey, and the runner-up in baseball last year.
J.B. Tucker, a junior transfer from Mississippi State, will be the starting catcher, backed up by Ryder Mathias, who is recovering from a shoulder injury.
The outfield will have a new look, since all three starters have departed, but it may prove to be a strength of the lineup. Matt Miller, a transfer from Modesto Junior College, will be the starter in center field. The speedy Miller was a first-team junior-college All-American last year, and Greer compares him to one of the best to patrol center field for the Deacons recently.
"He's got a lot of Scott Daeley in him," Greer said. "He does a little bit of everything and does all of it well. They're very similar players."
Steve LeFaivre, who hit .315 as a reserve last season, will get his chance to start in right field.
Sophomore Casey Sterk and freshman Brian Shust will compete for the job in left field. Sterk, a switch-hitter, is noted for his defense, while Shust had the toughness to be recruited by several Big Ten football programs.
All in all, the Deacons figure to be a team that's not as highly regarded in preseason as some others in the past have been (WFU was ranked 45th by Baseball America, sixth among ACC schools), but none of that may matter by the time warm weather gets to North Carolina.
"Based on what I saw in the fall," Greer said, "this is a team that will work hard and continue to get better, game by game and week by week."
