Kent State Baseball Back In Action on Thursday Against The Ontario Blue Jays
9/17/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
It is already time for Kent State fans to catch their first glimpse of the 2012-13 edition of Golden Flashes' baseball.
Almost three months to the day since completing their run in the College World Series, the Golden Flashes will back in action at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept 20, at Olga Mural Field at Schoonover Stadium when they play host to the Ontario Blue Jays. The exhibition with high school all-stars from Canada is expected to run for 12-to-13 innings.
"It's going to be fun to watch," said Kent State coach Scott Stricklin. "The biggest thing for me is it breaks the monotony of the fall. You are playing against teammates and in intrasquads at this time of year and it gets a little bit tiresome after a while. Now we'll get a chance to put on the uniform, put on the scoreboard, play some music between innings and have some fans in the stands. It's a game."
In addition to fans, the stands should be filled with professional scouts eager to get the first of two opportunities to watch Kent State's draft-eligible pitchers.
"All of the draft-eligible pitchers will pitch in this game," said Stricklin. It gives the pro scouts an opportunity to come see them. Then we have a Scout Day next week, so they'll have to times to see them pitch in the fall. I expect every team will be represented between those two dates."
Stricklin will be watching closely to see if anyone takes an early lead in the battle for the starting shortstop and catcher jobs. Who will take over those two positions are the biggest question marks to be answered heading into 2012-13 following the graduation of co-captains Jimmy Rider and David Lyon.
Derek Toadvine, who started at second base last season, and Sawyer Polen, the starting third baseman a year ago, are battling to replace Rider at short.Â
"Right now Toadvine and Polen have both been really good at shortstop," said Stricklin. "They may split time during the season at short. Whoever doesn't play short probably will play second base, and most likely we'll have a freshman at third. We have three really good freshmen we like, and really we have more depth on the infield than we've ever had. I'm excited to see that."
At catcher, senior Jason Bagoly and sophomores Tommy Monnot and Jeff Revesz are in a three-way battle to take over for Lyon.
"They all have their strengths, and as coaches we wish we could morph them all together," said Stricklin. "Tommy is probably the better thrower, Jeff is probably the better receiver, and Jason is probably the best hitter … It'll be interesting to see what happens. All three can do the job, but we need one to step up and be the leader, be the voice of the team like David was.
"They are still feeling that process out. Right now they are not using their voices as much as we need them to."
Stricklin would prefer to pick one of the three rather than to head into the season with a platoon.
"That would be like having two quarterbacks," said Stricklin. "We'd like to have somebody win the job. When we get into spring, the first five weekends are to give those guys an opportunity to see who is the best. The best guy when we get into conference will catch the majority of the games."
