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Thanks for the help.

Full Grown Bear - Thanks for being a fan, eventhough you are not an alum. We need to build our fan base in central AR from all sources, including hog lovers. I have not been to a Bear baseball game in decades. The stadium redo looks nice, I will make some games this year. Our team has had some meaningful success and deserve our support.

Glenn Abbott never actually played baseball at UCA

Yeah I think UCA is headed in the right direction in baseball.

Good core returning, especially pitchers. Need to get out to a good start with the first six games at home vs SIUE, Creighton and St Louis as the six game road trip to Oral Roberts, Nevada and Wichita State will be tough. Looking forward to a great season.

College Baseball Today Previews the SLC

CENTRAL ARKANSAS (22-30, 10-21)
2009 RPI: 188
Starters Returning: 4
Weekend Starters: 2
Mid-Week Starters: 2
Key Relievers (20+inns.): 3

All Conference Candidates:
OF Tye Throneberry (.374-4-34)
SS/RHP Bobby Pritchett (.327/4-5, 4.85, 5svs)
RHP Reece Cross (4-4, 4.48, .227OBA)

The Good News:
Most of the pitching returns from last season, including Pritchett, Cross and Michael Wile (2-1, 4.34), who all had ERAs below 5.00. Throneberry and Pritchett will lead the offense (How valuable is that Pritchett dude, huh? Wow.) that came off a decent .309 season. They’ll get help from Jordan Getchell (.333) and Will Wagner (.313), a pair of part-timers as freshmen who will be asked to do more this year. The bullpen is stocked with experience which should make a big difference in ‘10. Watch for Jeremy Brewer (1-2, 5.10, .288OBA) who should come into his own as a senior.

The Bad News:
This team dropped from playing .500 ball in 2008 (27-27) down to a 30-loss season in ‘09. A terrible 2-13 stretch to end the Southland season blew any chance of making the conference tournament. Most of the power is gone from last year’s lineup, particularly the losses of Dillon Smith and Jonathan Yerby, who combined for half of the squad’s home runs. Speaking of big losses, the only two pitchers to hit the road are Matt Humphrey and Jeremy Cloud, but they were leaned on heavily last season - especially Cloud’s five complete games. The Bears must begin to apply more pressure to the defense as they only stole an SLC-low 29 bases all season.

Schedule Note:
A true “home” stretch.
The Bears will play most of their late-season schedule at home, including three of their final four Southland series with Northwestern, Corpus Christi and UTSA coming to Conway in the last four weeks. Hopefully this will give them some momentum as they hope to make a run at the conference tournament. The back-to-back roadies at Nevada and Wichita State early in the season might not only be confidence-breakers, but may also be cold as hell.

joshuca,
Thanks for posting this info. I saw the SLC overview on Rivals and it was weak - very weak. It didn't even mention the best player in the conference by name - Michael Choice of UTA. This preview was much more comprehensive.