The baseball team opens its 73rd season, led by Head Coach Steve Rodriguez who is looking to learn and grow from the past few years.
The Waves aim to return to their winning ways after experiencing their first back-to-back losing records in more than 30 years. With new freshmen joining the team and returning players providing retooled skills and refined confidence there is a good chance of success for the season.
As Pepperdine’s red-shirt freshman outfielder Bryan Langlois acknowledges: “The team has worked hard this off season, and we are eager to get back to Pepperdine’s winning ways.”
Langlois is part of a reconstructed Pepperdine roster that has brought some excitement and boasts a West Cost Conference leading incoming class, ranked No. 16 in the country according to Baseball America.
This roster includes freshman Austin Davidson who will play shortstop for the team, and who, during the summer, played so exceptionally well, he was designated as a top MLB hitting prospect and the third best league prospect overall.
In addition to Davidson, the strong Waves infield is led by second basemen and All-WCC honoree junior Joe Sever who led the team last year in runs batted in (32), doubles (13), runs scored (30), and total bases reached (89). They will also bring back redshirt sophomore Sam Meyer who consistently led the team with a .289 batting average last season, and showed solid reliability as a slugger by batting .324 with runners in a scoring position.
However, Rodriguez would admit the pitchers taking the mound this season bring along high expectations.
Starting with the Waves match up tomorrow against NCAA tournament participant Oklahoma Sooners, the baseball team will be led by junior Jon Moscot.
“We are expecting big things from [Moscot],” Rodriguez said.
Another pitcher to look out for is sophomore Scott Frazier, who was the opening day starter last season and received the honor of being Rodriguez’s first-ever true freshman opening-day starter. Although Frazier was limited by injury last season, the games he was able to participate in were effective. In limited starts he earned WCC All-Freshman Team honors, after producing a 2-1 record with a 1.00 ERA and eight strikeouts.
The importance of productive pitching this season for the Waves will be extremely important. It will help the team fix what Rodriguez explains was the biggest trial for the team last season.
“We were not finishing games and not focusing on the fundamentals [last season],” Rodriguez said.
If the Waves are able to fix those issues they can be very productive this year, because after the three game series (Feb.17-Feb.19) weekend against Oklahoma here at Eddy D. Field Stadium the next nine matchups will include only three NCAA tournament teams. These three include: the Kent State Flashes, the Fresno State Bulldogs, and the UC Irvine Anteaters. Of these teams, UC Irvine is the only teams to make it out of the regionals.
This presents a big opportunity for the Waves to gain continuity as a team and become front-runners to begin the season. This can allow them to stand strong against tougher non-conference opponents such as the Texas A&M Aggies who were able to make it to the College World Series.
Despite the on-campus high expectations, the outside media is not expecting much from the Waves as the preseason poll indicates that the Waves are expected to finish fifth in the conference. The Waves have the opportunity to shock a few of the doubters and reclaim some lost respect from the last few years.
