SLC Baseball Preseason Awards & Picks

Jonathan Davis was the SLC Freshman of the Year in 2011. He’s been voted to the preseason SLC 1st team in 2012 and is one of two underclassmen on the first team. He’s the only Bear to make the first or second team.

Davis is the lone returning player to garner one of the conference’s major individual awards. The 2011 conference freshman of the year led Central Arkansas and ranked fifth in the Southland with a .350 batting average and 21 stolen bases. Last season, the second-team all-conference outfielder and Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American ranked 37th in the nation in stolen bases per game and led team with 43 runs scored, a .522 slugging percentage and a .441 on-base percentage and tied for lead with five home runs.

And after finishing 11th (out of 12) in the SLC standings dd that to this good news, the Bears are picked to finish last in the conference.

Opening weekend on the diamond

It looks like our last 3-0 start was in 2006. We actually started 7-0 that season and went on to win 30 games.

SIU-Edwardsville finished with just 14 wins last season, so they struggled even more than we did.

It was interesting to see that we only attempted two steals and hit three homers. That contradicts the new bats/more agressive on the bases thoughts most had heading into the season. Opponents were successful on steal attempts 89% of the time last season against the Cougars and averaged 2.6 attempts per game.

Pretty good performance by Evan Cox (6 innings, 6 hits, 4 earned) on Friday. Fantastic performance by Clint Green (6 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 walk) on Saturday. Blake Payne had a great weekend out of the bullpen (2 app, 1 win, 6 innings, 0 earned). We also had a few guys really struggle.

Michael Pair hit .500 and only had 8 official at-bats on the weekend, but he was walked 5 times and hit by a pitch. He had two extra basehits, four RBI and reached base 67% of the time. Ethan Harris picked up this season how he started 2010. And Michael Marietta, who struggled at the plate last season, got a start on Sunday and went 2-for-5.

Even though the team had just three hits on Friday, seven players finished the weekend hitting over .300. It was a weird weekend for box scores though. We scored five runs on just three hits on Monday. Then Saturday 14 runs on 11 hits. And Sunday 16 runs on 14 hits. We clearly took advantage of the THIRTY ONE free bases by bad Cougar pitching.

Defensively, we made 5 errors. Three of those by our middle infielders. Not good. However, they we also turned 6 double plays. Very good. The outfielders made it through the weekend without a blemish.

With no midweek games, Eastern Illinois is up next this weekend. The Panthers were swept by Southern Miss and only scored three runs last weekend. It looks like it will be the first time we’ve ever played EIU in baseball.

Gum new head baseball coach

Well, the news has made it’s way to Twitter via @GrantMerrill, so it must be ok to publish.

Exactly three weeks after Doug Clark “resigned” his position and the day that the job posting official closed, Allen Gum is to be announced as the head coach of the Bears’ baseball program at 4:30.

Gum just finished his fifth season as the head coach of the Southern Arkansas team that was one win away from making a trip to the D2 World Series. He returned to SAU where he played as an outfielder.

From the SAU recap of their regional loss:

The Muleriders finish the season at 47-10, their fifth consecutive 40-plus win season, earning their second regional championship game appearance. SAU has advanced to five NCAA regional tournaments, including three consecutive.

The Muleriders won at least 40 games in all five seasons under Gum, a first for the program. His record was 226-68 over that span – a 77% winning percentage. You can read more about his many accomplishments at SAU as a coach and player at his official bio while it lasts.

After his playing days in Magnolia ended, he spent six years at Sheridan High and three more at Batesville where his teams twice finished as the AAAA runner-up. His only college coaching experience are his seven total years at SAU.

It is expected that former SAU assistant Wes Johnson may hang around as pitching coach. Other names of assistants have been mentioned as well, but I’ll wait until those are announced.

Confirmed: Clark has resigned

Literally seconds after I decided to go ahead and publish the blog post below about hearing from multiple sources that Doug Clark was no longer the head baseball coach, the athletic department sent out a release confirming it to be true.

University of Central Arkansas baseball coach Doug Clark resigned from the position Tuesday following the Bears’ season finale on Saturday.

The speculation was that the announcement had to be made by tonight’s Purple Circle event, but as the event got closer, there was still no official word.

The comment from the release that sticks out the most is the end of athletic director Brad Teague’s statement here (emphasis added by me):

“Coach Clark turned in his letter of resignation this morning and I accepted it,’ said Dr. Brad Teague, UCA’s director of athletics. “We certainly appreciate the work that Coach Clark has done with our baseball program over the past eight years. However, a new and fresh perspective for our baseball program could be beneficial.’

So, with the season just days from ending, Teague plans to begin the search “immediately” and interviewing in two weeks. The speculation can now turn from is the news of Clark’s leaving true to who will be his successor.

The Southland is a pretty good baseball conference, so the interest could be higher than with the openings of other sports. There could be other high-major assistants (similar to Clark’s time before coming to UCA) interested in the position. And with several successful division II coaches within the state, it could make for an interesting process.

Clark out?

NOTE: This had not been announced by the athletic department at the time of this posting. This may be purely a rumor, but if you can’t post rumors on a message board, where can you post them? We waited 24 hours after we first heard to see if it would die down or be confirmed, and since it hasn’t died down – here it is:
Just two days after completing his eighth season with the UCA baseball team, there are rumblings that head coach Doug Clark is no longer the head coach.

There is no word yet – if true – on whether he would be stepping down, retiring or was let go.

The Bears finished the season with a 19-35-1 (10-22-1) record. Clark’s eight-year totals were 209-213-2 (101-120-2). He had a winning record each of his first four seasons.

But like Rand Chappell with men’s basketball, the real trouble came with the transition to D1 and the Southland Conference. Since that time, Clark’s teams have finished with an SLC record of 43-79 and near the bottom of the standings (can’t find 2007′s standings, 9th, 9th and tied for last).

This year’s team lost nine 1-run games. And in full-disclosure, they won seven 1-run games. But, the statistics were a good indicator of things going wrong. The offense finished in the top half of the SLC in only sac bunts and sac flies. The pitching wasn’t a lot better. Outside of a small handful, the staff really struggled to hold opponents down, allowing opponents to hit .324 and posting an era of 6.56.

Baseball Weekend

We’re just minutes from the first pitch this weekend. It’s up to the baseball team to kick the streak of losses from earlier in the week. Softball lost. Baseball lost. Women’s basketball lost. Men’s basketball lost. And to make it even worse, all of those were very close games with losses coming in extra innings and the last second.

So, now the baseball team (3-4) is the first to head back onto the field, and they have traveled to 5-3 Nevada for the three-game series.

The Bears scored 12+ runs and coasted in two of the wins and lost two games by just a single run.

A quick look at the team:
Pitchers —
7 Bears have pitched more than three innings with only Friday’s starter, Michael Wild, reaching double figures in innings. Wild has been solid so far, and so has Bobby Pritchet who’s currently struck out 13 in only 8.2 innings. The problem with the staff isn’t allowing opponents to hit the ball – just a .266 average for opposing hitters. It’s the number of free passes courtesy of being hit by pitches. The Bears have hit 21 batters in only 7 games. Getting that under control and hoping for Reese Cross and Logan Ariola to break out of their early-season funk is going to be key.

Batters —
Leading returner, Tye Throneberry, has been in a funk of his own. He had a decent day against ORU, going 1-for-2 with a double and two sac bunts. But it looks like he’s going to be on the bench to start Friday’s game. Blake Roberts has certainly picked up the slack so far, improving on his .271 average from a year ago to sit currently at .478. Quickly making a name for himself is freshman Ethan Harris (.438 avg). He’s started every game so far (one of only two players to do that) and leads the team in hits (14), rbi (7) and is just behind Roberts in runs scored (7). Four more Bears (Fuller, Noble, Washington and Pair) are hitting over .300. And all but Roberts are newcomers to the team.

It could be a good year if some of the expected guys step up and pitch/hit like they did last year. It’s hard to gauge how good this Nevada team is or how much will learn from the series this early in the season. They have two starters with sub-.100 eras. They have four guys hitting .400 or better. But, it’s looks like if we can get to their bullpen, we might be able to do some damage.