Huskies ranked last in league coaches poll
Experienced club believes it could ‘surprise people’
When it comes to recognition, Houston Baptist’s baseball program annually seems to be batting from behind. In the Southland Conference predicted order of finish for 2021, the Huskies are picked last among the 13 teams in a vote of league coaches.
“It’s not surprising to me,” Huskies coach Jared Moon said. “We’ve never been picked high in a preseason poll.”
Preseason rankings often are based heavily on the perceived quality of high school recruits. But Moon has assembled an experienced team this season, with seven position starters returning, as well as several talented junior college transfers to go along with freshman shortstop Sebastian Trinidad of Bellaire High School.
Right fielder Brandon Bena is HBU’s lone player to earn preseason AllSouthland honors. But the Huskies’ strength is their rotation and set-up men.
HBU’s top three starters are expected to be righthander Tyler Zarella, a transfer from Alvin Community College, righthander Jacob Coats, who was shut down last season following hip surgery, and returnee Austin Spinney, a lefthander.
Zarella is the likely ace. He has command of all three pitches, stays in the strike zone, works quickly, reaches 90-92 with his fastball and throws a hard curveball and good changeup.
“He just competes,”
Moon said.
Coats has struggled, but in spring camp has showed improvement, hitting 95.
“He’s missing a lot of bats right now,” Moon said.
Despite a fastball in the 84-86 range, Spinney makes up for lack of velocity. He displays a changeup, decent slider and stays in the strike zone.
“Our staff could be pretty good this year,” Moon said. “This fall we had 10 or 11 guys that were 90-plus that we have high hopes for. I like our staff. Hopefully we’re going to surprise people.”
Righthander Andrew Reitmeyer returns as closer but competition will come from righthander Jared Burch, who’s been clocked at 94.
Seasoned right-handed junior college transfers Morris Austin and Javan Smitherman are two of the players penciled in the setup role and among the 14 newcomers.
“We’re going to win or lose with those guys,”
Moon said.
In 2020’s shortened season HBU went 6-11 but an impressive 2-1 in its only three Southland games before play was halted because of the pandemic.
Bena, who finished last year on a seven-game hitting streak, is the team’s best all-around hitter. In 2019 the righthanded hitting Bena hit .313. He may move from the outfield to designated hitter as there’s more speed in those three spots from a year ago. Parker Wayne and Christian Dumont are back in the outfield as well as Chase Talbot.
It may be musical chairs at catcher between junior college transfer Dawson Woods and returnees Matt Solomon and Todd Jackson, who are both strong offensively.
To get Trinidad into the starting lineup at shortstop, Moon has rearranged the infield. Trent Franson remains at second, Jake Miller moves from third to first, and Nathan Soriano switches from short to third.
At this point Trinidad’s offense needs to catch up with his defense.
“We’re going to give the freshman a chance to see what he can do for a while,” Moon said. “Offensively he’s going to be really good in a couple of years.”