As the MSU baseball team heads to Florida to begin their season, head coach David Grewe is hoping for a successful and healthy trip. The reason behind that is simple — Grewe likes what he sees in his 2008 Spartans and is ready to test them.
“You always worry about some of your top guys going down early in the season and I just hope we have some safe trips,” Grewe said. “I made this early season schedule because the adversity and the competition (makes ours) the toughest schedule in the Big Ten outside the Big Ten regular season schedule.”
In their opening weekend at the Stetson Invitational in DeLand, Fla., the Spartans take on a tough Connecticut team, as well as Stetson and Missouri squads that both made the NCAA Tournament last year.
Missouri is currently ranked sixth in the nation.
While MSU has no preseason accolades and will likely be the underdog in many early season games, the Spartans have reason to be excited for the season to get underway.
Besides returning nine position players and a designated hitter from a team that went 25-26 overall and 15-16 in the Big Ten last year, the Spartans also boast the top recruiting class in the Big Ten.
“We’re pretty excited we have a team full of top-heavy seniors, 14 in all, kind of leading the way, leading the charge and they have some experience — they know what we’re doing,” Grewe said.
“Combined with talent and youthfulness — we’re excited.”
The freshman group have many accolades next to their names in the media guide, but it’s going to be tough to crack the veteran-laden lineup right away — for good reason.
The Spartans have six returning players who batted over .300, including senior second baseman Steve Gerstenberger, who led MSU with a .368 batting average and earned second team All-Big Ten honors a year ago.
Sophomore outfielder Chris Roberts, who hit .331 and drove in 27 runs in 2007, is poised to improve upon a season in which he was named to Ping! Baseball’s freshman All-American team.
Although the depth chart is pretty well set, Gerstenberger said it’s up to the upperclassmen to groom the rookies for future seasons.
“(Our experience is) going to be huge, and the role of the upperclassmen is to get a strong group of players ready,” Gerstenberger said. “I just think having older leadership will help them.”
With 77 percent of their run production returning, there’s no question the offense is the strength of the team, but recent practices also have Grewe excited about his pitching staff.
“In terms of our pitchers throwing for strikes, their command of the strike zone and their understanding of how to pitch and pitch sequences and how to get batters out — I’m excited for that production from our guys,” Grewe said.
Senior Mike Monterey (2-2, 5.33 ERA) and junior Mark Sorensen (1-2, 7.59 ERA) are the two most experienced starters returning for MSU.
One key change in the pitching staff involves Monterey, who will move from closer into a starting role.
“It’s something I’m excited to undertake,” Monterey said of the change.
“Coach determined it was the best thing for the team and it was where I could help the team the best.”
Grewe doesn’t plan on wasting any time to see how Monterey will pan out in the starting rotation, and Monterey expects to start some point this weekend.
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The Spartans open their season against host Stetson at 7 p.m. Friday and conclude the weekend playing Missouri at 1 p.m. Saturday and Connecticut at noon on Sunday.
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