The University of Colorado’s club baseball team begins its season on Thursday in a competitive round-robin tournament in Texas.
This upcoming season is highly anticipated for Boulder’s baseball community, as the boys are looking to re-take their position atop the division, with a new coaching staff and batch of hungry ballplayers.
The coach-less Buffs went 6-5 last fall, crafting a dangerous hitting lineup top to bottom featuring junior vice president of the team Nathan Hoffman. Hoffman got a nod from the NCBA Now Instagram page as a preseason All-American outfielder. In the fall, he slashed a 1.056 on-base plus slugging (OPS) and didn’t strike out once in 27 plate appearances.
Although the hitting generated solid production day in and day out, the club had some struggles from the mound. Sophomore Victor Moreno matured into the autumn’s ace, shoving the most innings with a 3.14 earned run average (ERA) and 1.34 walks plus hits per inning (WHIP).
However, a newcomer from this winter is expected to be Colorado’s new game one guy, junior Will Shine.
“I got our number one,” new skipper Mark Goodman said addressing the starting rotation. “Otherwise, guys are fighting for spots right now… Pitching gets you to the World Series, if we can’t have our pitching, we’re not going to get very far.”
Shine was part of the team last season but didn’t play in the fall, now stepping back up for his position as the anchor. Goodman also introduced an alternative pitching strategy for their upcoming tournament.
“You might be a starter,” Goodman said. “But if I can use you three times in Texas instead of one start, that might be more beneficial in the later innings to get more dubs.”
Outside the starting pitching, as Goodman mentioned, a lot of this upcoming season could be determined by the bullpen efforts. Last fall, every arm that threw under five innings in the pen averaged a 3.44 WHIP giving up 24 runs in 22 ⅓ innings.
An aspect that could immediately help out with the pitching is the coaching hires the team made this offseason. The new head coach, Goodman, coached the Buffs in 2017-18 and has been managing club baseball for a couple of years.
“I used to coach at Mines, so I know what club ball is like,” Goodman said. “I know what Wyoming’s like, I know what Metro is like. Air Force is pretty good. Once again, we just got to take care of ourselves this first week and whatever happens, don’t let it get to us.”
The club also introduced assistant coaches Raul Villarreal and Matthew Hunter. The staff has defensive and pitching coaching experience, with Goodman coming from the Colorado School of Mines.
“Getting guys a lot tighter in their mechanics,” senior president Andrew Garcia noted on watching the pitching unit grow this winter. “Then the mental side of just attacking the zone and instilling in that philosophy.”
As mentioned, the Buffs travel to Texas on Thursday to begin their season. The round-robin includes No. 4 Texas A&M, Texas and Iowa. The official NCBA Instagram page releases their weekly Top 20 polls, with Colorado most recently just out of the twenty, holding the second most votes of an unranked team.
They still hold more than Iowa and Texas, and also presently have the most in their division.
“Now, I would say probably not,” Garcia said if the Buffs deserve a top 20 spot right now. “I think there’s definitely a case to be made after our trip next week. However that shakes out, I do think we could get some recognition after that.”
Following Texas, the Buffs make their return to Scott Carpenter Park to host Metro State on March 7 and 8. Metro bested CU in the teams’ fall meeting, taking a 2-1 series win. The club then travels into Colorado Springs for a series against the Air Force Falcons on March 15 and 16, then comes back to host Wyoming the following weekend. Yet, it’s the days of April 4 and 5 that are circled on the calendar for the Buffs.
“100% CSU,” Goodman said. “We do that, we own the state and we’re taking care of business.”
“Always CSU, that’s the big one,” Garcia noted. “We win that series, it gives us the best chance to win our conference, so that’s circled since day one.”
This year’s Rocky Mountain Showdown on the diamond will mean more than usual since the Rams swiped the division title from Boulder last season. They split two games last fall, and this time in City Park Field, Fort Collins, will be a series to remember.
To close out the year, CU hosts Goodman’s old club, the School of Mines, on April 18 and 19. If the Buffs have the best conference record in the Mid-American West, they will receive an automatic bid to the regional tournament. They played in the tournament last season as the wildcard bid but lost quickly to Iowa State and Kansas.
“Our goal this season is to go to the World Series,” Goodman said. “It’s going to be a lot of action, having fun, coming out and watching us… It’s not just about going out there and having fun, we’re getting after it.”
Follow everything club baseball this spring at skobuffssports.com