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2010 Texan Baseball Roster

2010 Texan Baseball Schedule

STEPHENVILLE – The Tarleton Texan baseball team is set to open the 2010 season with a four-game series against Colorado Christian that will begin on Friday, Feb. 5, at Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex in Stephenville. The first game of a doubleheader will begin at 2 p.m. on Friday and both teams will conclude the series on Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled to begin at noon. Tarleton President Dr. F. Dominic Dottavio is scheduled throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Head coach Bryan Conger begins his second season at the helm of the Texan baseball program after exceeding expectations in 2009. In his first season with the Texans, Conger led the team to a 28-30-1 overall record and a 22-21-1 mark in Lone Star Conference play.

Tarleton finished sixth in the LSC last season, earning the No. 6 seed in the LSC Baseball Championship Tournament in Abilene last season. It was Tarleton's first appearance in the tournament in six years. The Texans opened the tournament upsetting the No. 1 seed and nationally-ranked No. 6 Cameron Aggies, 6-3. The Texans followed the upset win with a 7-3 victory over Southeastern Oklahoma before being eliminated with losses to No. 25 Abilene Christian (5-4) and No. 20 Angelo State (5-3).

Tarleton was picked to finish fourth in the LSC in 2010 according to a preseason poll that was released by the league office a few weeks ago. Conger feels that his team can prove the polls wrong and will be a viable candidate to win a conference championship.

The Texans return six players from a season ago and welcomes in 21 new players to this year's team. Key returners from 2009 include Chris Casazza, Charlie Ulbricht, Andrew Wolfe, John Ropple, Jake Sowell and Tim Rainey. Added to the mix of newcomers that will be looked at to make an immediate impact for the Texans are Ryan Salt, Nathan Hillie, Mark Jeffery, James Mays, Mike Ramirez, Nathan Lewis, Junnior Dishmey-Perez and Zane Hensley.

Casazza, a second-team all-conference selection at first base last season, finished the 2009 campaign batting .364 with 13 doubles, five triples and a team-high 12 home runs. He led the team with 53 runs batted in and scored 37 runs as well.

Ulbricht, Tarleton's lone four-year senior, returns after batting .286 in 2009. The third baseman tallied 11 doubles, two triples and two home runs while knocking in 25 and scoring 32 runs.

Wolfe played in 51 games for the Texans as a true freshman last year. He batted .256 with five doubles, two triples, and a home run while scoring 32 runs. He was a perfect 13-for-13 in stolen bases as well. Wolfe will play in the outfield this season, patrolling mostly left field.

Ropple played in 52 games in the outfield as a true freshman last season, starting in all but two of them. He batted .290 on the season while collecting nine doubles, a triple and two home runs. Ropple had 20 RBI, scored 34 runs and stole a team-high 21 bases in 26 stolen base attempts.

Sowell is the only member of last year's pitching staff to return to the squad this season. He had a 0-0 record after making eight mound appearances with one start last season. Sowell threw 14.0 innings of work allowing just 11 runs (six earned) on 14 hits. He struck out five batters and walked seven.

Rainey was supposed to have made an impact for this team in the outfield last season, but his 2009 campaign was cut short due to an injury that allowed him to play just seven games. In those games he batted .261 with a double and two triples while crossing the plate six times.

CCU enters the season picked to finish fourth in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Mountain Division. The Cougars went 20-37 overall and 9-27 in the RMAC in 2009. Rob Pegg will begin his third season as the head coach of the Cougars and begins the season with an all-time record of 36-101.

The Cougars return four starting fielders including Dough Pavlich who batted .306 with 12 home runs in 2009. Among the five returning pitchers for the Cougars is Lawson Cheek who went 1-2 in 44.2 innings of work last year. Cheek allowed 69 hits and finished the season with a 6.85 ERA.

PROJECTED STARTERS

Salt is scheduled to open the season for the Texans. He will start game one with Brandyn Greer slated to start the nightcap. Ramirez is scheduled to start game one in Saturday's contests with Kenneth Stockton set to start game two.