Baseball starts this weekend

By Jason Cohn

The 2006 baseball season will be officially underway this weekend as the Santa Clara Broncos prepare to open their year at home against the University of Pacific on Friday.

Santa Clara is returning six seniors to its starting lineup this year, a group that Head Coach Mark O'Brien, who received a three-year contract extension last year, says is providing a strong core to build his team around.

"I don't think its any secret that we're going to rely a lot on our senior experience and senior leadership. They've played against the top teams in the country and in front crowds of 7,000 strong, so they're prepared for almost any situation," O'Brien said.

Of the seniors returning, three have been previously named All-WCC players, including First Team shortstop Kevin Drever who led Santa Clara in batting with a .327 average. Infielder Eric Newton and catcher Kris Watts earned All-WCC honorable mentions last year as the top two home-run hitters on the squad, with nine and six respectively.

Perhaps the strongest offensive executor on the team this season is senior center fielder Jason Matteucci, who was the only member of the team last year to play in all 56 games of the season in addition to leading the team in hits with 65.

This season Matteucci will have a chance to crack into the top ten of many of Santa Clara's all time hitting records, yet he seems to be more in-tune with the needs of his team, rather than his own statistics.

"I'm not really worried about all of that. It would be cool to be up there with some of those guys from the past, but it's not really what I'm looking forward to as far as my own personal goals," Matteucci said.

As far as goals are concerned, the players have set a number of specific ones they would like to achieve this season including winning conference, not getting swept and winning every home series.

Winning at home will be a big key for Santa Clara, who is beginning their first full season at the new Steven Schott Stadium, a $9 million facility that includes batting cages, a team meeting room and a film room. The Broncos posted a 6-3 mark at Schott last season.

According to senior catcher Kris Watts, the team is expecting to play much better on their new home field.

"Last year it was kind of a distraction when it actually came time for us to play there. This year it's a lot better because we feel like this is our field, we know how it plays, and we feel like we should win every game at home since it actually is our home now."

O'Brien, who is in his fifth year as Broncos skipper with an overall West Coast Conference coaching record of 65-36, could not agree more -- while pointing out that the new stadium is not just about having a better place in which to play home games.

O'Brien observed that on their old field, the team couldn't practice for three or four days in a row because, sometimes, the field would be flooded, but Schott Stadium has resolved that.

"It's a great atmosphere to come into every day. You couldn't ask for better facilities for player development and it really adds to the overall energy and atmosphere during practice and games," O'Brien said.

Yet Santa Clara will still have to prove that they can be as good as they say they are. In the WCC coaches' preseason poll, Santa Clara was picked to finish sixth in the conference, ahead only of Saint Mary's and Portland.

Pepperdine, which is the two-time defending league champion and ranked No. 11 nationally was selected to finish first. San Diego, ranked No. 36 in the nation came in at second. The Broncos No. 6 ranking in the poll is quite far from where the team wants to be at the end of the season.

This year, the WCC will undergo a change in terms of how it is aligned. For the past seven seasons, the conference has been split up into two divisions, West and Coast, but for 2006, the league has opted to return to only one division for all eight teams. Each team will play a total of 21 games during the conference schedule.

Last year, Santa Clara posted a 28-28 overall record and an 11-19 WCC record to finish third in the West division.

One possible reason for Santa Clara's low ranking is that the Broncos will be relying on one of the youngest pitching staffs in the league, who have yet to prove themselves in collegiate play.

Santa Clara will expect to see a lot of innings from three freshmen pitchers, Justin Kuehn, Sean O'Neill and Mark Willinsky. These three will be joined by sophomore Donald Brandt, who is expected to finish making his year long recovery from a ligament replacement surgery commonly known as Tommy John's in the next three to four weeks.

Brandt, a lefty who grew up in Santa Clara, was an immediate standout early in his freshman year striking out thirteen batters in just eight innings pitched before suffering his season ending injury.

"When Brandt is on target he's as unstoppable as anybody out there, and right now he's making great progress rehabilitating his arm," O'Brien said.

While many have their doubts about what such a youthful pitching rotation can accomplish, O'Brien has full faith that his youngsters can go out there and play well at the next level.

"They don't have to step up, they just have to do what they do. My concern is that they could go out there and be overly pumped up, but if they just go out there and be themselves they'll do fine," O'Brien said.

Once again, O'Brien's faith stems from the leadership abilities of his seniors, who are holding the underclassmen accountable for their play.

"There's a point where you can't really say you're a freshman anymore, and you just have to go out there and give it all you got," Matteucci said of the young pitchers.

This is the attitude that has been music to O'Brien's ears lately.

"I couldn't be any happier with the character and overall leadership of our seniors. I love coming to practice every day because our seniors work hard and it's a domino effect to our younger players."

Santa Clara fans can begin to see the dominos fall at 6 p.m. on Friday against the Tigers of Pacific at Schott Stadium.