When the Kentucky baseball team opens its 103rd season this February in Greenville, S.C., the team will have brought much more than its cleats and uniforms on the team?s bus from Lexington. For the first time in program history, the Wildcats will be carting a suitcase full of expectations onto the diamond.
After the best season in the 102-year history of Kentucky baseball the program sets it sights on higher, loftier goals. With a returning nucleus of tested veterans, powerful bats and fresh-faced talent, the UK baseball team appears to have all the necessary ingredients for another run at the SEC Title and a berth in the much sought after College World Series.
Head coach John Cohen and players met with the media as part of Baseball Media Day, held Monday at the Wildcat Den located in Commonwealth Stadium. Below are excerpts from the press conference …
Kentucky Head Coach John Cohen
On improvements to Cliff Hagan Stadium ?
?You?re going to see a lot of changes to our facility. We have a brand-new scoreboard. It has been put in and it?s going to do a lot for our fans ? it really dresses up the ballpark. It has a video monitor that?s really going to be nice. I really appreciate our administration stepping forward and doing that for our program. I think our kids are really excited about that. We have kind of a viewing deck in the right-field area which is beautiful. We kind of made the right-field wall a bit taller with a device of netting. We feel like it makes the right side of our ballpark play a little bit more fair, or a little more normal like the rest of the league. We?ve gotten a lot of work done inside our facilities. Obviously, the Nutter Field House is one of the best in the country, and I feel like our preparation has been very, very good inside.?
On the team?s academic performance in the fall ?
“I want to talk about our grades. We had 22 players have a 3.0 or higher last semester. I?m very excited about that part of it. The newest device that the NCAA is using is the APR, which kind of judges progress towards a degree, and I think we were at the 97-percent mark for the last year. I think that was one of the highest in the Southeastern Conference last year.?
On the Southeastern Conference ?
The SEC is the best league in America and it keeps getting better from top to bottom. In fact, you can get online and go through 10 different subscribing internet services that have every team in the SEC either at the top or the bottom. It?s really a flip of the coin in terms of determining who is going to win our league, or who is going to be in last place at this point. I think that tells you the strength of our league and it?s as good as it?s ever been. If you look at the Friday night pitching, that?s pretty astounding. I think everybody in our league has a Friday night guy who is probably going to be a first or second round type of draft pick. That will be a lot of fun also.?
On the progress of season-ticket sales ?
?I think we?re just under the 1,200 mark for season tickets. Our goal is to get 2,000 before we open up. I think we can do that. Our players are going to be involved in that shortly. Our coaches have been involved in that, our ticket office has been great, our marketing has been great, so that?s unparalleled in the history of our program and we?re excited about that part of it.?
On the team?s infield ?
?I feel like Ryan Wilkes, our shortstop, has really matured into one of the best players at his position in the Southeastern Conference. I don?t think he?s gotten a lot of the ink or the credit that a lot of the other shortstops in our league have, but he?s a switch hitter who can run and has tremendous arm strength. He?s really figured out his swing. He might be one of the best hitters on our team right now and I can tell you, he?s come a long way because it hasn?t always been that way. Ryan brings a lot of experience, a lot of maturity, a lot of athleticism and he?s the kind of kid who?s the good and bad. The good news is that he has really arrived, the bad news is that as a junior, you could lose him and lose one of the best players at his position in the Southeastern Conference. We feel like if you?re doing your job as a coach in the Southeastern Conference, you are going to lose juniors. That?s just part of it. We lost a lot from last year, but again, it?s good and it?s bad. Obviously, losing Ryan Strieby is big. I?ve said this to many people and I?m not just saying this. I think Ryan Strieby had an average to above average year for Ryan Strieby, and I?m talking about the SEC Player of the Year from last year. I think had he come back, he could have shown the college baseball world something incredible. That?s how talented that kid is. He was still kind of feeling out the SEC last year. He was a fourth-round pick, I thought he made a good decision. I think he took a long time to make that decision, and we?re really proud of the things he accomplished and the things he is going to accomplish in the future in professional baseball. But replacing him is going to be one of two guys. It is either going to be Matt McKinney or Sawyer Carroll. Sawyer Carroll is a left-handed hitter. Matt, of course, was in our program last year and has shown tremendous improvement. I think Sawyer probably gets the nod early on. Sawyer is 6-foot-4, 205 lbs., and he looks like a midget over there at first base, because he?s replacing a guy who is 6-foot-6, 250 lbs. He is a very athletic young man. He?s from the state of Oklahoma. He can really hit. Does he become the SEC Player of the Year? Probably not, but I think he can be a very, very good player in our program. Matt McKinney brings a right-handed bat to that position. Mike Brown and Brian Spear probably compete for the second-base job. We lose one of the best athletes probably in college baseball a year ago in John Shelby. John was a fifth-round pick by the White Sox and John will be a very good professional baseball player. I have a lot of confidence in what Mike Brown and Brian Spear can do. Brian Spear comes to us from Wichita State and has made some tremendous strides, so we?re excited about him. Anthony Ottrando, a freshman from Florida, we feel like might play third base. Matt McKinney is competing for that position also. Ottrando is a player who, as a freshman, came into our program at 165 pounds and now weighs over 200 pounds. He has come a long way for us also. We also have some tremendous freshmen who we are excited about – Michael Seaborn, from the Atlanta area, Neiko Johnson, from the Atlanta area, and Chris Wade, from here locally. Chris is a spectacular athlete. I think Chris is one of those great players from Lexington who is going to end up being a great player in our program.?
On the team?s outfield ?
?The outfield, I feel like, and I?m not being arrogant when I say this, I think we have one of the best defensive outfields in America right now. I think our kids can run it down as good as any three in the country. When you talk about Antone DeJesus who was picked as the best outfielder in the Southeastern Conference, it is saying a lot. Defensively, Collin Cowgill obviously is a great, great defensive outfielder. Collin continues to get better offensively, also. Collin had a great year offensively for us. Billy Grace is a very good defensive outfielder. Now we?ve got others in the mix too. Jason Kipnis is a redshirt freshman, from the Chicago area, who can really run and create some power. He has arm strength, and is going to be a factor in the outfield for us. Brock Wright, coming in from Paducah, can really swing it and may see some time in the outfield. Keenan Wiley is a very, very good defensive outfielder, and Kevin Bishop is another freshman from the Atlanta area, who we feel like is going to be very, very good.?
On the team?s starting pitching ?
?We don?t know who?s going to start. We?re going to give a lot of innings to a lot of folks early in the year. Obviously, Greg Dombrowski won 10 games for us last year. We?d love to have the luxury of keeping him as our Sunday guy for a lot of reasons. His ability to focus through the first two games of a series and then come out on a Sunday and give us an awesome performance, we have a lot of confidence in that. Maybe it ends up being a Saturday or a Friday deal, but for right now, we?d love to keep him in that Sunday role because he?s had tremendous success with that and won a lot of ballgames for the Wildcats. Andrew Albers has shown tremendous improvement, also. We feel like Andrew is maybe an end of the game guy, he might be a starting guy. Andrew continues to get better. We have a junior college transfer named Aaron Lovett, who we feel like can contribute as a starting guy, also. But there?s a whole host of others, mainly, Colby Brown, Clint Tilford and possibly Tyler Henry. All three of those guys are freshmen. I think it speaks volumes to the job our staff has done recruiting, because we have some really young quality arms in our program. How quickly they will come along is kind of hard to tell at this point. The X-factor on our pitching staff is Scott Green. Scott?s a very talented 6-foot-7, 240 lbs. sophomore. He sat out last year because he had Tommy John surgery. He is as talented as any kid in the country. The only question is how far he comes along, and we?re going to be really happy if he can start a game when we start SEC play in the middle of March. I don?t know if that?s going to happen. We?re going to nurse it a little bit early to make sure he?s healthy for the end of the year. As we saw last year, the end of the year is what matters most in terms of tournament play.?
On the team?s relief pitching ?
?Jonathan Huff, Chris Craycraft, DeWayne Oxford, Chris Walden are some young guys who we feel like can contribute. Tommy Warner and Chris Rusin are two left-handers in our program who we feel like can give us innings also. James Paxton is a freshman from Canada who we feel like has a chance to be terrific. He?s 6-foot-4 young man with a very, very good curve ball. Brock Baber is a reliever at the end of the game who showed tremendous strides. Brock is a guy who had tremendous success in the Cape Cod League ? probably the best [summer college baseball] league in America ? last year. Duran Ferguson is another young man who was a redshirt freshman and really pitched the best we have seen him pitch in a game in our intrasquad on Saturday. Duran is very athletic, big, strong, SEC-looking type of pitcher, and we?re hoping to get some innings out of him also. Troy Ragle pitched really well for us in the middle of some games last year. He has a very, very good left-handed breaking ball and we expect a lot out of him also.?
On the team?s catchers ?
?Obviously Sean Coughlin, we feel like, is one of the best hitting catchers in America. His leadership behind the plate brings us a whole lot of experience. Sean gave up the opportunity to be a tremendous draft pick a year ago. Sean probably goes anywhere from the fourth to the sixth rounds if he makes it known that he is interested in going out and playing professional baseball. He wants to come back. He believes in where our program is heading, and I am really pleased with what he brings to the table. I think he?s going to be a great professional player one day and I think he?s going to be a great player one day. He?s like having a coach on the field. Along with Sean, we have a young man named Tyler Howe, who probably has as much arm strength as any catcher in the Southeastern Conference. I think Tyler was kind of an overlooked entity in junior college baseball last year. He?s a guy who?s throwing 94 miles per hour off the mound before, and he doesn?t pitch for us, but that tells you the kind of arm strength that he has behind the plate. He also swings it from the left side, so our top two catchers are both left-handed hitters, which is kind of an interesting set of circumstances, also. Those two guys are very, very good. We have a redshirt freshman named Marcus Nidiffer who has come a long way. He could see some action also along with Brian Suerdick who is a true freshman, and Dan Reale who is coming off some shoulder surgery.?
On whether it feels different entering the 2007 season after winning the SEC last year?
?I think it does because I think our players kind of look at it like there is a lot of confidence there. I don?t think it?s overconfidence that?s there, but I think there is a climate in our program right now that we are supposed to win. I?m not being critical in any way, but it wasn?t that way when we got here. We had to figure out a way and our players had to help figure out a way to create a climate to where they expect to win every time they step on the field. I think that is what has happened. What I do know is, we?re going to give a lot of opportunities to a lot of talented kids who work their tails off and are going to get better. I think our focus last year was SEC games as it should be. We dominated at home, played really well at home. We didn?t play as well as we wanted to in the tournament and, I think anybody in our league would trade a league championship for the opportunity to go to Omaha. I think that?s what our players want to do. They want to go to Omaha. I know that?s what our coaching staff wants to do. There are teams in our league who have gone 13-17 and have ended up in the College World Series. We don?t want to be 13-17, don?t get me wrong, but if you make that trade of playing your best at the end, that?s exactly what we want to happen to this club.?
On the experience returning to the starting lineup …
?I think we?re going to have enough experience. If you look around college baseball, again, you see the folks who are successful constantly losing these junior guys to the draft or losing high school guys to the draft. You?re constantly having to replace players; that?s what the successful programs have to deal with. I think we?ll have a nice blend of new and old. The great thing about the returning guys is that they provide tremendous leadership. That is something that is just crucial to our success.?
On whether the team will be returning as much offensive power?
?I think that it will be different. I don?t think that we?ll hit close to 100 home runs like we did a year ago. When you think about hitting 99 home runs in 61 or 62 games, that?s a lot. When I do speaking engagements, folks from other areas of the Southeastern Conference will make comments to the effect that it doesn?t take a lot to hit the ball out of our ballpark. I have to bring up [Associate Head Coach] Gary Henderson and our pitching staff. We gave up the least amount of home runs in the Southeastern Conference a year ago. We don?t have a button in the dugout. We don?t press a button and the fences go back, and then when we hit, we press a button and the fences come in. I think we play to our ballpark just like every other team in the SEC does. I don?t think our ballpark plays any smaller than Florida or South Carolina or several other ones. We have made some dimension changes to our ballpark. Again, the fence in right field is going to be higher. How much of a difference that makes, we don?t know. I think it?s going to be more balanced. I think we?ll run more. Antone DeJesus is an excellent base-stealer, but didn?t get the opportunity a whole lot last year because five out of the next six guys hit 60 home runs. You are going to kind of play for a big inning in a different way when you have that kind of personnel. This year, it will be a little bit differently, I think.?
On approaching this season differently than last season ?
?I don?t think overconfidence is a problem. I think our players have to fight to get through practices and maintain the focus that we want them to. When we went outside the other day, the first 30 minutes weren?t very good. Again, there?s a whole lot of excuses that we could choose to use. It was cold, the wind was blowing 15-20 mph out of the Southwest, we didn?t have as good of focus at home plate because we don?t have a batter?s eye. All that stuff is in front of you, but I think our coaching staff ? and I mean all of our coaches ? do a great job of keeping our players focused in that area. I don?t think there?s any overconfidence. I think our players are still trying to fight for positions. I think there are so many positions that are up for grabs, I don?t think they?re concerned about the overconfidence thing. I think most of our guys are fighting for a chance to step on the field, which is the way it ought to be.?
On the importance of having experience in the pitching staff?
?I think that the guys we are going to have on the mound have been there before and I think that makes a big difference. I think experience level in our league is huge because the venue difference in our league is huge. You?re going to be playing in front of big crowds, vocal crowds and there?s a lot at stake every time you jump on the mound, so it all starts on the mound. If that guy works quickly, shoves the ball in the strike zone, he is going to have better defense behind him, you are going to have quicker innings and everything is going to flow. When that comes crashing down is when that guy can?t throw it in the strike zone, can?t throw a second pitch in the zone and all of a sudden everything comes to a halt. Then you don?t have good defense and all kinds of bad things start to happen. I think experience is the biggest factor.?
On the team continuing to have success in 2007 ?
?I think, in some ways, you have to define success. I think success for us ? what we want and how we want to measure it ? is going to be in the postseason. Again, winning the league was an incredible accomplishment for our players. We want to be there all the time, but I want our team to play its best baseball at the end of the year. I?m not saying that we weren?t last year, but some magical things happen at the end of the year in order for you to make that jump and win two tournaments, basically, to get to the College World Series. That?s what we want.?
On overconfidence in the players ?
?I don?t know what our guys are saying around dorm rooms and apartments, but I can tell you around us that there?s none of that talk. We just don?t talk about those things. We want to get better every time we practice and every time we play a game. Our kids are really good at doing that. They are really good at getting better and that?s the greatest indicator to us that we are going to have a good club this year. I can tell you that having done this for a while, it?s not always that way.?
Kentucky Players
#24 Sean Coughlin, C
On if there is any change in the team?s mentality after the team?s success ?
?I think we?re well known now. We?re a force to be reckoned with and we just have to prove that again this year. I don?t think things have changed that much. We lost a couple of guys, but we?ve brought in the personnel that can help us deal with that. We don?t see it (last year?s success) as a problem, we see it as a challenge. Around the league, they know of Kentucky now. They aren?t going to take us lightly anymore. We aren?t going to take anyone else lightly, and we?re going to have to get through the end of the season this year and not try to burn out like we did last year.?
On whether he feels any change not having to bat in the order next to Ryan Strieby ?
?I don?t think it changes that much. Going in front or behind of Strieby sometimes helped me see a little bit better pitches. I think it will be the same situation with [Collin] Cowgill, me and Sawyer Carroll. The lineup will be around the same this season. Instead of pitching to Strieby, they?ll pitch the same to Cowgill and me. It?ll just be having to adjust.?
On focusing on continuing the success of last season
?I think it?s in the back of everyone?s mind. As a whole, in the locker room, we take it one step at a time. We have to seal up the holes that we have by losing the players that we did last year. We did that and we?re coming together as a family, so we?re taking it one step at a time. We don?t have to say that we have to prove anything to anybody, we just have to go out and play our game.?
#37 Greg Dombrowski, RHP
On being the team?s Sunday starter ?
?Sunday is a big day, but every day is a big day. As a pitcher, you love to pitch on Sunday. You want to win going into the weekend. You have momentum the rest of the week. It can be big heading into Sunday especially if the series is tied 1-1, but every game is important.?
On the team not necessarily being a power-pitching team ?
?We have got a few power guys. Our deal with pitching is that we are a ground-ball pitching staff and that?s what we?re going to do ? get ground balls and get outs. We?re not a strikeout pitching staff.?
On the team?s mindset during the off-season ?
?Guys are going out and competing every day in practice trying to get better themselves. Everybody has been getting better and looking forward to the opportunities ahead of us.?
#4 Collin Cowgill, OF
On maintaining success in the program ?
?We have built a program to be proud of for years to come. Not just because of last year, but because of the people that Coach [John] Cohen brings in and the confidence that we have in him, and also the confidence that he has in us. I think that we just need to go out and compete every day and try to get wins, and that?s what we?re going do.?
On building on last season?s successes ?
?I think it?s really going to help us. I know last year when we got to the SEC Tournament, it was a whole different ballgame for all of us. I don?t think anybody on last year?s team had been there before. I think getting down there and getting in SEC games and in the rankings, I think we?ll be able to deal with it better because we?ve been there and had to deal with it. I think that definitely the experience of our team now is going to help us out going through the SEC.?
On the team going door to door selling season tickets ?
?We had a lot of fun with it last year. We were skeptical when Coach [John Cohen] told us. It was freezing cold and we were trudging through snow. I think it?s going to be fun. We got to meet a lot of great people out there. It was amazing to me the people who would just open up their doors and let us in their houses. It was great. I?m excited about it because it?s fun for us. We get to meet the people who are going to come watch us play, and really get a chance to get our names out there again. We?re excited about it. Even though we?re walking through the freezing cold, it?s still a lot of fun.?
#3 Antone DeJesus, OF
On whether the team has rested on its successes from last year ?
?No, not at all. The guys that we?ve had here, they work incredibly hard both on and off the field. The weight room is something that we?ve really excelled in this year. We?ve got a new weight coach, Daniel Riney, and he?s made us work hard. I think it has really showed on the field with some of the guys getting stronger and being able to provide a little more power that they didn?t have going into the off-season. It?s just something that everybody has done a really good job of this offseason.?
On the competition for playing time among the players on the team ?
?There?s definitely a big difference. In the years past, there have been guys that have had to play instead of this year there?s going to be a definite competition in the outfield and some of the infield spots. That?s great because it?s going to raise up the level for all the other players because they?re going to have to try to do the best they can every time, every day. It?s going to be a great thing for our program.?
On whether the desire for post-season success is driving the team ?
?I think so. We were really satisfied with how our regular season went last year, but going two-and-out at the SEC Tournament and then not playing as well as we should have in the regional was kind of disappointing after looking back at it. Now we know that we really need to play our best ball going into the end of the season, and it?s just something that we?re really going to work hard on. It?s really the ultimate goal to try to get to Omaha and that?s what we?re trying to do.?
