Wednesday, February 17, 2010

MACON, Ga. - As the 2010 NCAA Baseball season approaches, the Atlantic Sun Conference takes a look at each team leading up to the start of the season Friday. The Kennesaw State Owls are the subject of today’s conference preview.

Overview
Kennesaw State posted a record of 30-22 in 2009 and went 20-9 in conference play for a second-place finish in the A-Sun regular season. The Owls return 19 players from their team as they enter their 19th season under head coach Mike Sansing. Sansing holds an all-time record of 827-315 and a mark of 724-329 at Kennesaw State. 

Top Returnees
Tyler Stubblefield earned preseason All-Atlantic Sun honors after a solid season in 2009 in which he posted a slugging percentage of .498 and a .300 batting average for the Owls. Stubblefield smacked seven home runs and drove in 27 runs. In his college career, Stubblefield holds a .291 batting average with a .438 slugging percentage and 75 career RBIs.

Josh Whitaker joined Stubblefield on the preseason all-conference team after appearing in 22 games and making 15 starts for the Owls in 2009. Whitaker hit .379 with four home runs and 25 RBIs. The junior led the team in batting average and slugging percentage (.652) with 10 extra base hits.

Ryan Rodebaugh sits as the player charged with the tough task of taking over the top spot in the Owls weekend rotation. The junior right-hander has only 84.2 career innings pitched, ranking fewer than departed first round pick Chad Jenkins had in last season alone. Rodebaugh looks to continue to improve in 2010 after he lowered his ERA last season from a 5.55 in freshman campaign to a 4.19 in 2009.

Newcomers
With the top six hitters by average gone from last year's squad, it only makes sense that the newcomers will play a large role for the Owls in 2010.  Indeed, three newcomers are in the projected lineup for opening day. Freshman Ronnie Freeman played at Brookwood High School and helped his team make the state playoffs in the last three years, including a state championship in 2008. Sean McClurken follows in the footsteps of former second baseman Curtis Van Wyck as the only player on the roster from the state of Washington. The JUCO transfer hit .414 during his sophomore season at Edmonds CC. Although not a newcomer in the strictest sense of the word, redshirt freshman Payton Hart stands as the projected third baseman on opening day for KSU. Hart helped his Franklin County High School team make the state playoffs all four years, in addition to earning All-Region 8AAA honors his junior and senior seasons.

With KSU losing its entire weekend rotation and its top reliever to the MLB Draft, Coach Sansing and his staff have brought in a bevy of arms to try to fill the void. Freshman Catlan Kendrick helped Northgate High School in Sharpsburg, Ga. to a state championship his senior season. Jeff Brown, who has a brother playing at South Carolina, is a JUCO transfer that posted a 7-2 record in two seasons at Young Harris College. J.B. Johnson of Marianna, Fla., is a JUCO transfer from Chipota College, where he led his squad to the JUCO World Series. 

Schedule
Kennesaw State opens the season Friday with a three-game home stand against Liberty. After a mid-week road game at Jacksonville State, the Owls return home to take on Samford in a trio of games before hitting the road for a tough six-game stretch.

After playing six of its first seven games at home, Kennesaw State hits the road for a tournament at Tennessee then heads back home for a series with Georgia. This is followed by a trip out west to take on Southern Utah.  

Following their trip west, the Owls welcome Georgia Southern and Georgia State to Kennesaw on March 16 and 17. Kennesaw State opens conference action with three games in two days in a road series with Campbell March 19-20. The Owls do not open home conference play until April 1 when Belmont comes into town.

Fun Fact
In 2009, Chad Jenkins, Kyle Heckathorn and Justin Edwards combined to throw 250 innings for the Owls. The trio tallied a combined 36 starts and threw a total of seven complete games, including five from Jenkins. All told, the three weekend starters for the Owls pitched in 52.6 percent of the team’s innings a season ago. Projected weekend starters Ryan Rodebough, Bryan Blough and Seasn Fream combined to throw just 63.2 innings for the Owls in 2009. (A transfer from Middle Georgia College, Blough threw zero innings for the Owls). Justin Edwards threw the fewest innings of the weekend starters in 2009 with a total of 71.2 innings.

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11 Days of Atlantic Sun Baseball Schedule
Feb. 4 – USC Upstate
Feb. 5 – Campbell
Feb. 8 – ETSU
Feb. 9 – Mercer
Feb. 10 – UNF
Feb. 11 – Belmont
Feb. 12 – Stetson
Feb. 15 – Lipscomb
Feb. 16 – Jacksonville
Feb. 17 – Kennesaw State
Feb. 18 – FGCU