Young Husson pitchers could be deepest group in 10 years

Husson College baseball coach John Kolasinski said his Braves will embark upon a 30-hour bus ride to Florida on Friday evening with the deepest pitching staff ever in his 10 years at the Bangor-based school.

“There’s no question about it,” said the 34-year-old Kolasinski, whose Braves went 23-18 a year ago but lost to St. Joseph’s of Standish in the NAIA New England Regional championship final. “We can run 10-to-12 guys out there.”

Sophomore shortstop Don Sawyer, the Maine Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year last spring, said, “The pitchers seem to be throwing a lot harder and hitting their spots. Last year, they didn’t hit their spots as well.”

Junior left fielder and tri-captain Jason Cyr said a lot of Husson’s pitchers are sophomores who got better every inning last season.

“They worked hard in the offseason and look really good. Pitching will be our strength,” he said.

Kolasinski’s top three starters are sophomores.

James Zukowski was 4-2 with a 5.63 earned run average a year ago; Jeremy Nelson was 2-5 with a 5.14 ERA and Dennis Roy was 5-2 with a 6.26 ERA. However, Roy broke his right forearm playing a pickup football game last fall and, even though he has been throwing, could be sidelined for a month.

Senior Brent Brown (5-3, 4.81) and freshman Matt Lomax round out the rotation.

Sophomore, Jeremy Rocheford (1-2, 5.94), will get Roy’s starts and promising freshmen Mike Perry and Chris Soper are also likely to get starts.

Ace closer Rich Doble (3-1, 7 saves, 3.50 ERA) headlines a bullpen that will also include Perry, Soper, freshman John Montgomery, sophomore Dan Curtis and senior Andy Anderson.

Brown said the Brave pitchers have to “throw more strikes” and pitching coach John Winkin expects that to occur.

“What happened last year is most of these guys were just learning pitching mechanics,” said Winkin. “Now they’ve got them down pretty good and that has improved their control. They also had to adjust to our pitching routine. Now that they have, that has helped a lot.”

Offensively, the Braves won’t make many home run trots but the lineup still should be formidable.

“I don’t expect us to hit for a lot of power but we’ve got a lot of pure hitters, high-average hitters,” said senior tri-captain and first baseman Roy Peary. “We’ve got a lot of spray hitters who can go anywhere with the ball.”

Kolasinski pointed out that four of the top six hitters in his lineup hit over .300 a year ago.

Leadoff man Cyr was a .328 hitter last spring with 20 runs batted in; No. 2 hitter Sawyer hit .369 with 34 RBIs; No. 3 hitter Brian Malo, the junior center fielder, hit .376 with 22 RBIs and No. 5 hitter Barrett Williams, who will be the designated hitter, turned in a .338 season with 21 RBIs. Williams is a sophomore.

Cleanup man Peary hit .266 with 29 RBIs; sophomore second baseman Aaron Largay hit .244 with 19 RBIs and sophomore third baseman Takeo Nakamura hit .204. Curtis will start in right field and freshman Troy Corey will be the catcher. Williams will also catch.

Sawyer, Williams, Brown and Malo were NAIA All-New England picks a yeart ago.

“We’ll hit and run, use the delayed steal and do those types of things,” said Kolasinski, who expects his defense to be improved now that Sawyer and Largay have a year of experience under their belts.

Husson opens with a doubleheader against Defiance College (Ohio) on Monday morning in Tampa.