New faces have baseball excited for 2012

By Jeff Brodeur 
brodeurj@mytjnow.com

With a new season of Winthrop baseball less than a month away, the Eagles are looking to improve on last season’s 27-30 campaign, placing them fourth in the Big South Conference.

With several key players from last year’s roster now gone, the freshman and Junior College transfers for 2012 will be expected to come in and contribute right away, a task that head coach Tom Riginos believes his newcomers are fully capable of.

“Right now we could realistically have 3 or 4 freshman or JC players starting as position players,” Riginos said. “There’s also probably another 3 or 4 freshman or JC pitchers that are vying for playing time right away.”

Winthrop’s 2011 recruiting class, which includes Junior College transfers and 14 freshman from nine states throughout the country, has been highly touted by not only Riginos, but also the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. Each season, the newspaper creates a list of the top 100 nationally ranked college baseball recruiting classes. 

Winthrop was one of three Big South schools to receive the honor this season, along with Coastal Carolina and High Point.

Of the 18 new faces on the field this season, Riginos noted middle infielders Jason Driver and Patrick McClendon, catcher Clay Altman, outfielder Elliott Caldwell and pitchers Preston Johnson and Michael Gilroy as “guys that should be kept an eye on.”

Gilroy, a Columbia, SC native, was expected to be redshirted his freshman year after suffering from elbow problems, but has made dramatic improvement over the last several months.

“He [Gilroy] rehabbed it during the fall, and it looks like he will be available during the spring, so that is a pleasant surprise for our team,” Riginos said. “His elbow seems fine, and he will be able to step right in and compete for some innings.”

Despite all of the hype surrounding the new players, Riginos kept his reality in check, saying that this is still a young team, and inexperience typically means adversity throughout the course of the season.

“I always tell my players it’s a marathon it’s not a sprint,” he said. “It’s a long season, we’re going to have ups and downs, and it’s how we handle the downs during the season that’s going to be key for us.”

The Eagles their work cut out for them in 2012, between building team chemistry with new players, dealing with a challenging non-conference schedule and playing in an increasingly competitive Big South conference. 

“I never put numbers on a season,” Riginos said. “We just want to get better every single game, we want to compete every game and I think if we do all the little things right, I think the wins and losses will take care of themselves.”

The Winthrop Eagles will play their first five games at home against Georgia Tech and Kent State as part of the Rock Hill Coca-Cola Classic.  Opening day will be on Feb. 17 at 6 p.m. as they take on the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech.