SAN ANTONIO, TX. – Believe it or not, the opening day for the Lincoln University baseball team will take place this Monday, Feb. 1 on the road against Heartland Conference opponent Incarnate Word.
Last season, Lincoln finished in seventh-place with an overall record of 16-32, 15-30 inside the conference, while the Cardinals tied for second in the conference with an overall record of 36-17 and 32-14 inside the conference.
The Blue Tigers opened last season with a similar-style road trip, in which Lincoln opened at Incarnate Word, before also playing at St. Edward’s, which the team will do this year, as well. The Cards took all four games from the Blue Tigers last year in San Antonio, as the teams didn’t play any games in Jefferson City later in the season because of weather.
The main difference this season, however, Lincoln won’t have to keep the bags packed for almost an entire month.
Last year, Lincoln played just one home game in the month of February and that was just one game against Maryville, as the Blue Tigers played 17 of their first 18 away from Jefferson City.
Lincoln will look to fill the voids left by a pitcher in the St. Louis Cardinals system in Andy Moss and one of the top offensive players in Drew Horrell.
“Not having Andy and Drew this year will hurt,” head coach Jim Dapkus said. “We had a rough year last year offensively and on the pitching side, we will have a lot of players looking to find their roles.”
Moss was the ace of the staff last season, posting the lowest ERA (3.68) and most wins on the staff going 5-5 in 12 starts and 14 overall appearances. Moss also chewed up the innings for the staff, logging 85.2 innings and nine complete games, one more than the rest of the other pitchers combined. Horrell was a top offensive cog that got Lincoln going a year ago, leading the team in batting average (.333), hits (52), total bases (77) and was second on the team in home runs (6) and RBI (27).
The Blue Tigers will have three top offensive players back this season in senior outfielder Kyle Lasley (Columbia, MO), junior shortstop James Johndrow (St. Louis, MO) and sophomore catcher Steve Garza (Houston, TX).
“It will be nice having those three back offensively,” Dapkus said. “We have a lot of new guys that will fit the new mold of the team well; lots of contact guys and we should be OK defensively.”
Lasley played in all but one game last year, tallying a .243 batting average, 11 doubles, two home runs, 15 RBI and three steals. Johndrow was big last year for the squad, leading the team in home runs (7) and RBI (31), while also batting .268 and leading the team in steals with 20, while playing and starting in every game. Garza will look to help guide the young pitching staff behind the plate, as he played in 17 games last year, recording a .171 batting average, 3 RBI and three runs scored, while posting a perfect fielding percentage behind the dish.
One of the main reasons for a struggling start in years past has been attributed to all the games away from home and also not being able to fully practice outside with the winter weather Missouri presents each year.
“The weather the past three weeks made it really tough for us to practice outside,” Dapkus said. “Having arrived in San Antonio early, it was really nice to finally be able to practice outside like we did on Sunday.”
The team is also pretty heavy in juniors, with 10 entering the 2010 season as juniors, with five being seniors and just five sophomore and five freshman, with Darren Lasley coming in as a redshirt freshman.
“Like I told the guys ‘This first week of the schedule will be the hardest part,’” Dapkus said. “If we can just get through this first part improving each time out and keeping the confidence of the team up, the schedule gets a lot better later in the season.”
Lincoln will play their first 10 games of the season away from Jefferson City, before returning home for four games against Texas A&M International beginning Feb. 19.
The Heartland Conference also released its 2010 Preseason Poll that has Texas-Permian Basin picked as the favorite to win the conference, as voted on by the leagues’ head coaches and sports information directors. Lincoln was selected seventh, the same spot the team finished last year.
Conference preseason poll
|
Place
|
Team
|
Total
|
1st Place Votes
|
|
1
|
Texas-Permian Basin
|
111
|
7
|
|
2
|
St. Mary's
|
110
|
5
|
|
3
|
Incarnate Word
|
101
|
3
|
|
4
|
St. Edward's
|
94
|
1
|
|
5
|
TAMIU
|
54
|
|
|
5
|
Newman
|
54
|
|
|
7
|
Lincoln
|
31
|
|
|
8
|
Oklahoma Panhandle St
|
21
|
|
Lincoln will open the 2010 season at Incarnate Word Monday afternoon with the first pitch of the doubleheader set for 3 p.m. in San Antonio. The teams will play a seven inning game, then a nine inning game. Fans will be able to follow the action through Incarnate Word’s live stats at the link below.