Last season went according to plan for ACC baseball head coach Clint Stoy. The Red Devils posted their best performance in Stoy’s five-year tenure, finishing with a 31-21 record.
While last season’s roster was littered with talent across the board, this year the Red Devils have a few holes to fill.
Stoy pinpoints the Red Devils’ lack of depth on the mound, and it doesn’t help that key starters Jacob Davenport and KJ McCrea were lost to season-ending injuries before the year even commenced.
“We are going to have to fill in the gaps as far as pitching goes,” Stoy said. “I think Connor Clark is going to be good on the mound for us, he was a freshman last year, and Alex Kafka coming out of the bulpin could be huge for us.”
On the offensive end, Stoy is also dealing with injuries. The Red Devils will be without All-Conference center fielder Lucas McCain for the duration of the 2019 campaign. Luckily for ACC, All-Conference catcher Lukas Rich returns to the lineup. Rich batted .383 with four homeruns a season ago.
Stoy is expecting big things from transfer Jake Nemith, who will share duties behind the plate with Rich, and both will be counted on to pull their weight in the middle of the ACC batting order.
What the Red Devils lack in experience, Stoy expects them to make up for with a hard-nosed mentality.
“The one calling card for this team is toughness,” Stoy said. “We are not as talented as we were last year, and the guys on our club are fully aware of that, but this group is tougher. They are going to have to rely on some grit and toughness to win some ball games, and they know that.”
With the season set to begin this Saturday at home against Iowa Lakes, Stoy already has a few key areas of focus in mind, and it starts with patience at the plate.
“We are really trying to focus on having team at bats, and understanding that we are not going to get out of the way pitches,” Stoy said. “We are going to get hit, going to walk, work counts, and are going to try to have long halves of our innings to give out pitchers rest.”
ACC’s practice Monday was cut short due to the sudden drop in temperature. Practice time the rest of the week appears to be in doubt as snow threatens to soak the field on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We get a lot done in our indoor familair facility, and are fortunate to have it. We try to simulate things the best we can for outdoor situations. We can’t hit fly balls in there, so fly balls are sometimes fun the first game of the year because guys aren’t used to seeing them,” Stoy said. Last year we didn’t get outside one day until we played, and this year we’ve gotten out six or seven.”
Stoy knows the Red Devils will likely not see the field again until game day, but is not one to make excuses.
“We are playing a team from Iowa, so they probably aren’t going to see the field either. So, it is a level playing field if you ask me,” Stoy said.
