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CINCINNATI - The University of Cincinnati baseball team will open the 2015 season on Friday, Feb. 13, with a doubleheader against Miami (Ohio) and No. 20 Mississippi State in Starkville, Mississippi. With just eight days until the first game, GoBEARCATS.com sat down with head coach Ty Neal to discuss his team and the 2015 season.
GoBEARCATS.com: How have the first two weeks of practice gone?
Ty Neal: It's going well. Most importantly, we are outside on the new playing surface and the weather has been pretty mild so we've been getting outside a lot which is a huge plus. Just to play baseball, get outfield reads and all of that. Typically, the outfield gets maybe neglected this time of year when we are indoors. On the performance side, we are still young in spirit, with the big roster. With the freshmen, in my opinion, we don't have enough guys establishing themselves yet with two weeks to go. A lot of youth, some exciting youth, but also a couple things that you will see that will make you shake your head a little bit.
GB: What have you learned from your team since the start of practice?
TN: The thing I have learned the most is I do think they are taking ownership of what is going on around them, the goals of the program, and the expectations of the program. I've noticed they are still policing themselves in the locker room and on the field. That's the biggest difference when the guys came back a little bit hungry from the holidays and ready to get going. We haven't really had to spend any time getting guys in baseball shape. They did a good job of that over the holiday.
GB: How will having so many young guys affect the team this season?
TN: I think it's a good thing. At this level, the freshmen are your most enjoyable guys because they don't realize when we open up the first weekend there will be 10,000 people. They are still young enough to know that they are lucky just to be playing baseball. The youth there is a good thing. When freshmen can play at this level, they can excel at this level. That's why they have freshman All-Americans, conference Freshman of the Year, all of that. I think we will go through a few growing pains with the youth, maybe just the simple things of the guys tasting failure for the first time. How a player handles himself if he's 0-for-6 because that's probably not happened to a lot of the guys before. Hopefully not much but maybe some missed signs and things like that. Just the game might overwhelm them a little bit.
GB: Does the team use being picked last in the American as motivation for the season?
TN: I sure do. We've got a sign in our locker room reminding the guys. I hope they do. I hope the returning guys in this program are sick of finishing last. That's the goal. We have some freshmen that come from very good, winning programs. I hope they continue the winning ways.
GB: How important will American Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year Ian Happ be to the team?
TN: He'll be very important. Probably most important is not what he does on the field but how he carries himself in the locker room, between his bats, on the bus. That's the most important thing. Performance-wise, I think if he goes out and plays he'll have a pretty good year. Some of our young guys need to learn a few things from Ian. That's where he is probably most important.
GB: Let's take a look at the team by position, starting with the left-handed pitchers:
TN: Most importantly will be Colton Cleary again. Right now, I am prepping him to be a bullpen guy for us again. I think if our young guys are doing a good job early in the game, we can hand the ball to Colton late and he will give us a very good chance to win. He's the only returning left hander and I expect big things out of him. In fact, he is one of the `Nati' boys that we have on the pitching staff. We've got some young left handers who are talented but it's going to be a little bit of a development year for them. But stuff-wise, I'm going to put some pressure on them that we need to help us win some games. Dalton Lehnen, AJ Olasz, JT Perez, those guys probably early on are going to be handed the ball quite a bit. I'm expecting big things out of them.
GB: Right-handed pitchers:
TN: I've put some pressure on Andrew Zellner to mature a little more this year and have more of a presence even though he's only a sophomore. To have a little bit more of a presence within the team and within the pitching staff which I think will help his presence more on game day. I'm expecting him to have a big role for us this spring. We have a freshman, Jarod Yoakam, he's a little unorthodox with the arm slot. He's also one of our `Nati' boys that I am hoping, middle to late in the game, is going to give us a chance to win or keep us in the game. Mitch Patishall needs to bounce back from last year because he is capable of performing better. I would say those three right-handers right now that we are relying on the most. And senior Ryan Atkinson will have some type of role but his performance will kind of dictate that role as we move forward.
GB: Catchers:
TN: Right now, I've got two guys that we are leaning on that I think are probably going to handle the grunt of this season and that's Woody Wallace and Joey Thomas. My goal is to have Russell Clark coming on board and being as serviceable as he was last year.
GB: Infielders:
TN: It's a big group. We've got a hand full of those core guys and it's Connor McVey, Jake Richmond, Kyle Mottice and Manny Rodriguez. Those are kind of the four of our most talented guys. McVey and Richmond obviously have some experience under their belt. McVey had a pretty good year for us last year. Jake didn't have the greatest spring but had a pretty good summer. He has been banged up a little bit and battling issues with his legs which has kind of held him back a bit. Then you throw in Ryan Noda who is an outfielder who has also played first base. If we had depth anywhere right now it'd probably be in the outfield, we don't have that depth anywhere else. Ryan might have to play some first base this year. Connor McVey has established himself as the leader of our team and leader of our defense and right now he has been penciled in as our starting shortstop. But the two freshmen are very capable of potentially manning those other two positions or even shortstop.
GB: Outfielders:
TN: In the outfield, we obviously have Ian Happ. With the success he has had, I would assume he would be in the lineup. I really like Treg Haberkorn as an outfielder, he is a very good defensive outfielder, which quite frankly I didn't think we had a lot of last year. So those are probably our two main guys and we've got a bunch of platoon guys I think after that. Devin Wenzel might see some time in the outfield and we've got freshmen Connor Van Caugherty. As I said Ryan Noda may split some time between first base and outfield. Right now we have some options in that we might have a right-handed lineup and left-handed lineup depending on who we're facing that night.
GB: How will your difficult schedule affect the team this season and in the future?
TN: I think it'll affect us on a positive note. One of the pushes that we're making with our schedule, and one reason why we're going to Mississippi State early, is because it is a postseason environment. The only way you excel in the postseason is to have already been in that environment. I remember vividly last spring, we had our first conference weekend at UCF and because we played a lighter non-conference schedule and the team had played a lighter non-conference schedule in the past, our guys' knees we're wobbling. So number one, it's going to force us to grow up pretty quickly. Number two, its college baseball, why wouldn't you want to play against the best? Number three, I think once that first conference weekend happens in the spring, it's not going to be such a big deal after playing at a school like Mississippi State. Then the final two reasons are that you get better by playing good competition and that a tough schedule helps to pursue an at-large bid option for the postseason.
GB: What are your feelings about playing at Indiana on April 8, after going to the College World Series with the Hoosiers in 2013?
TN: I think it's going to be awesome. A little sentimental probably, not because we're going to play IU but because we're going back to Bloomington. That's where I met my wife and started my family. So there will be a lot of families and friends that will be excited to see us and I'll be excited to see them. And I'll be honest with you, a lot of players on that team are guys that I recruited. So once the emotional piece is over, probably after about ten minutes of being on the field, quite honestly I'm looking forward to playing them and beating them.
GB: What games are you most looking forward to this season?
TN: The first one, just getting off the bus and playing. I have a bitter taste in my mouth from last spring. Last spring was a little bit challenging for me personally because we were trying to change the culture and expectation of the program and it was met a little bit behind the scenes with some resistance. I think this group is excited and on board with what is going on around here. Honestly, I don't think we played baseball last year, I think it was more holding hands and developing the beliefs and the culture and all of that. There were a lot of games last year where our best players weren't playing and it's because the culture had to change. So I hope this year our best players can play and give us a chance to win. It's going to hopefully be baseball this year. You know, `guys you've earned this and you deserve to be playing, let's play baseball'. I don't think we did that a whole lot last year.
GB: You will enter the seventh-annual Joe Nuxhall Classic as the defending champion - how important is this tournament?
TN: The tournament is very important and has been going on for a number of years. When you mention the name Joe Nuxhall, he is a legend. He is from Hamilton, Ohio, which is the difference between Oxford and Cincinnati. He is known as the youngest left hander to ever pitch in the Major League Baseball and is an ambassador for baseball in Cincinnati and the Reds through everything he did. I think it's important to continue the Joe Nuxhall Classic to honor him and it's a chance to establish ourselves amongst the locals. With the teams that are in this classic, Xavier, Wright State and Miami, these are our neighbors and it is important that we establish ourselves as the best program at least in southern Ohio. That's a good start. Then I think we can start establishing ourselves regionally and nationally from there. But it goes back to whenever you play a game, it's important to win. Obviously, I have the Miami connection and I'm a Miami guy, so it's good to play them too.
GB: Who will you be looking to to provide the leadership in the dugout?
TN: Most importantly Connor McVey and on the pitching staff Mitch Patishall is providing leadership. There are others that I think that will need to start providing leadership for the program. Devin Wenzel has turned the corner a little bit and has been providing a little more presence with the team. Woody Wallace I think provides some leadership qualities that quite frankly I didn't see last year and that needs to happen. Amongst the freshmen, we already have some freshmen that are establishing a leadership role and that goes back to freshmen just don't know any better. They are fresh off being seniors and being leaders on their own team and they are walking in here with that same approach, saying `I do have these qualities and I'm going to bring them to this program'. There are some areas were Ryan Noda, Dalton Lehnen and Kyle Mottice are doing that.
GB: What are your expectations for the season?
TN: Honestly, my expectations are that the club continues to get better every single day, appreciate the game, play the game the way it should be played and if we are doing those things I think the talent will speak for itself. There's going to be some young talent, but I expect guys to be right off the field I expect them to prepare the right way. I expect them to be concentrating and communicating the right way. Then the wins are going to happen. The losses are going to happen too, its baseball. The failures are going to happen, but we're not the last place team in this conference even with a bunch of freshman.
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