2007 Baseball Preview

The Atlantic Coast Conference prides itself on having some of the best teams and creating some of the fiercest competitions in college sports. This year's Tech baseball season will face its toughest challenge in the ACC that it's faced in years.

The Jackets come into the 2007 season ranked as high as No. 11 in national polls, which gives fans great hope for this season. However, four teams in the ACC are ranked ahead of Tech, including No. 2 Clemson, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 6 Miami and No. 10 Virginia. Following the Jackets is Florida State, ranked No. 13.

"You basically have to try to survive it," said Head Coach Danny Hall. "The league is very good again. A lot of teams are ranked extremely high. There are some teams that maybe are ranked that can play better than people are giving them credit for. You have to survive in the league to have a chance [to get to] the post season."

Coming off a successful season where the Jackets made a trip out to Omaha, Neb. in the middle of June last year, Tech will have some obstacles to overcome if they look to repeat, and get back to the mid-west. Tech lost nine players, eight of whom made significant contributions to the College World Series squad. Tech has to overcome more player losses than any team in the conference.

The Jackets are the only team to have earned a top eight national seed in each of the past four years. In addition, the four year stretch featured the longest conference winning streak in ACC history of 25 games in 2004-2005, two ACC Championships, a College World Series appearance, four NCAA Regional appearances and three NCAA Super Regional appearances.

Subsequently, the 2007 team features only three seniors, outfielder Wally Crancer, a junior college transfer student who was voted as a co-captain this season, pitcher Ryan Turner, and pitcher Jared Hyatt.

"Now that [the older guys] have been there, we have to take the younger guys under us and let them know what you have to do to get there, and how to go about your business," said Crancer. "It's a long season, and you can't let them get too high or too low. They have to keep their head up and keep playing hard everyday."

In the preseason coach's poll, Tech was chosen to finish fourth in the Coastal Divison, receiving just two first-place votes and chose to finish behind North Carolina, Miami and Virginia. Overall in the ACC, the Jackets are slated to finish seventh, behind Clemson, Florida State and North Carolina State from the Atlantic Division.

"That surprised some people [being picked seventh in the ACC]," said Danny Payne. "We want to prove that we just reload at Tech, we don't rebuild. The way our coaches recruit and the talent they bring in, we just plug them in the lineup and hit the ground running."

Infield

Sophomore Luke Murton will anchor the Tech infield and hit in the clean up spot for Tech. Murton came on strong in the ACC Tournament in 2006, tying a single-game tournament and school record with three home runs against Clemson. He finished the season with six homers, a .339 average and 44 RBIs. Behind Murton at first base will be walk-on freshman Tony Plagman, a first baseman and outfielder. Plagman will be called upon not only to backup Murton, but also be used in the designated hitter spot and eat up some innings in the outfield. The versatile freshman has showed a good bat at the plate and a solid glove in the field.

At second base will be freshman Jeff Ussery. A natural shortstop, Ussery has made the transition over to second base and is the leading candidate for the job. A switch hitter with good speed, Ussery showed promise during his summer stint with the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod League and during fall practice. Walk-on freshman Jason Garofalo sits behind Ussery as a close second for the second base position in 2007.

Another position Tech had to fill before the season began was third base. Junior Brad Feltes and freshman Patrick Long have been battling for this spot throughout fall practice. Long has won the position and will be the starter on Saturday against Georgia Southern.

"[Ussery and Long] are two very talented guys and two very good infielders," Hall said. "I think they are both very competitive guys, both very good athletes and both very good baseball players. I think they will do very well this season."

Junior Michael Fisher, who became the starting shorstop last season, has performed well. He has taken the reigns at the key position in the infield and will be a mainstay all season long. Throughout the summer and fall, Fisher was moved around in the lineup, hitting both near the top and the bottom. Fisher will hit in the two-spot to start the season and feels more relaxed with his role in 2007.

"This time around, I have expectations for myself to do a lot better than I did last year," said Fisher. "At the plate I feel more comfortable this year. Having more at bats and more consistent playing is really all it is."

Outfield

Tech returns two players who each started about half the games in the outfield. Payne, the leadoff hitter and center fielder, suffered a shoulder injury midway through the 2006 season when he dove and collided with Blackwood in the outfield. He had surgery on his shoulder and has fully recovered from the injury.

"The shoulder feels great," said Payne. "It feels better now than it did before the injury. It was something that I needed to get done and unfortunately it happened at an inopportune time."

"He's looked very good," Hall said. "He doesn't have any effects of the shoulder. He hasn't missed anything. He's running and diving and doing things that you are used to seeing Danny Payne do. So I think he's in great shape and ready to go."

The combination of great speed and power makes Payne, a second-team preseason All-America selection, one of Tech's most dangerous hitters.The co-captain Crancer, who hit .321 with six home runs in 2006, will start in right field for the Jackets. For the first time in four years, Tech fans will see a new face starting in left field. Sophomores Chris House and Jay Dantzler, along with freshman Curtis Dupart, will be vying for the starting position in 2007. In addition, Plagman may see some time in left field.

Catcher

First team preseason All-American catcher Matt Wieters will be behind the plate once again. He is slated to catch two games during the three series and will be the DH in the middle game. He is also Tech's primary closer. With the emergence of Payne on the mound and Tech's stellar bullpen, the weight of being the closer will be taken off of Wieters' shoulder a bit this season.

"I always worry about [overworking Wieters]," Hall said. "He plays a very demanding position in catcher and so I always worry about the wear and tear on his arm. We are in hopes that we can definitely save some bullets in his arm."

Sophomore Jason Haniger will be the primary back up for Wieters when he is the DH and junior Nick Scherer will come into catch when Wieters goes from catcher to pitcher.

Pitching Rotation

After coming off of a 7-2 freshman season, David Duncan is poised to be Tech's No. 1 starter.

"I think I am ready to go. I had a good summer and fall so I am locked into where I want to be. I feel good about the weekend and I'm ready to do it."

Duncan has worked hard in the off-season to gain some consistency in both his windup and pitch by pitch to help him be a more effective pitcher this season. Turner is slated as the No. 2 pitcher for the Jackets. Turner finished the last season strong and became Tech's third starter in the rotation despite finishing the year 4-4.

Chris Hicks was slated as the No. 3 in the rotation but has been slowed by some elbow and arm soreness. The coaching staff is slowly working to build his arm strength back up and he will only be used on spurts of 2 or 3 innings until he is fully healthy. Until that time, look for junior southpaw Tim Ladd to fill in for the Jackets. In addition, possible mid-week starters for Tech that could be shuffled into the starting rotation, if need be, are redshirt senior Jared Hyatt and freshman right-handers Zach Von Tersch and Andrew Robinson.

Bullpen

The Jackets return virtually everyone from the 2006 bullpen including junior setup man Brad Rulon. He was the primary setup guy in the seventh and eighth innings, trying to get the ball to Wieters. Rulon finished 2006 with a 5-0 record and a 2.20 ERA. He will continue to setup for the two closers which Tech will now employ, Wieters and Payne.

In addition to his position in outfield, Payne is also a dangerous left handed pitcher and will help Tech down the stretch coming out of the bullpen.

Wieters made 21 pitching appearances and saved seven games last season. Payne will be used to take a load off of Wieters' arm and give Tech a situational lefty out of the bullpen in late inning games.