By: By Jake Dorow
KENNESAW, Ga. – It may be hard to believe, but the defending regular-season ASUN champion Kennesaw State baseball team returns to the diamond this week to begin its 2017 campaign. The Owls' first pitch will be part of the annual Atlanta Challenge as they play host to Western Michigan, BYU and Marshall at Stillwell Stadium. The games can be seen live on ASUN.TV with play-by-play announcer
Nathan McCreary on the call.
26th-year head coach
Mike Sansing, who is the reigning ASUN Coach of the Year, looks to build on a dazzling 17-4 ASUN regular-season championship that saw the Owls win every league series for the first time in six years to earn a No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
Kennesaw State's strong regular season saw eye-popping offensive numbers as a team, batting .294 while totaling 137 extra base hits with seven hitters batting .300 or better.
Meanwhile, the pitching staff posted an impressive 3.60 ERA against ASUN opponents and held hitters to a .251 average in 21 games.
With the season just around the corner, several members of the Black and Gold were rewarded with preseason selections. KSU was picked to finish third in the ASUN Coaches' Poll while starting pitcher
Gabe Friese, senior outfielder
Corey Greeson and junior first baseman
Austin Upshaw all garnered 2017 Preseason ASUN All-Conference selections.
Today's third of a four-part season preview breaks down the Owls' infield and what KSU fans can expect to see around the diamond.
INFIELD
Kennesaw State will showcase one of the most experienced infields in the conference as four of its five starters from last year's regular-season championship campaign return to the diamond. Senior
Jeremy Howell, junior
Grant Williams and junior
Austin Upshaw each started 50 or more games in 2016, while sophomore
David Chabut started 37 games.
The Owls lost a big bat in
Brennan Morgan, who patrolled the dish, as the senior was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels in the 24
th round (726
th overall), but junior
Griffin Helms and redshirt sophomore
Forrest Bramlett could provide a one-two punch behind the plate.
The infield begins in the hot corner at third base as Howell is the lone senior around the infield and by far the most experienced. Jeremy Worm, as nicknamed by his teammates, Howell has started in 119 games and played in 155 games in the Black and Gold uniform. If he continues his pace for games played, the senior should end his career in the Top 10 for games played and started. A career .270 hitter, Howell, who hails from Dallas, Ga., batted .285 in 2016 with career highs of hits (59), triples (1) and home runs (2) in a career-best 53 starts at third. The senior also had his best fielding percentage (.930) since his freshman season when the Owls went to the Super Regionals in 2014.
Howell should be tossing the ball from third over to first base to Upshaw, a junior out of Buford, Ga., and a transfer from Georgia Perimeter College, who immediately made his presence felt in the lineup last year. Upshaw, a unanimous 2017 ASUN Preseason All-Conference selection, hit .344 and led the team with 72 hits, 13 doubles, seven HR and ranked second on the club with 39 RBI. The then-sophomore started 52 games and made only four errors (.992 fielding percentage) with 484 putouts and 32 assists at first base.
KSU fans should see plenty of Williams, an Atlanta native out of St. Pius X Catholic High School, patrolling second base. Standing at 5-10, 175 pounds, the junior has played in 98 games over his first two seasons at second with 92 of them being starts. The left-handed hitter is a career .296 at the dish, posting career highs in hits (59), doubles (eight), triples (two) and a slugging percentage of .368 in 2016. Williams provided consistency in the lineup a season ago and totaled 17 multi-hit games and will enter 2017 on a 13-game hitting streak.
His counterpart in the middle infield is Loganville, Ga., product David "Chewy" Chabut, who made 37 starts at shortstop throughout his freshman campaign. Chabut was honored as a Perfect Game Freshman All-American after batting .315 while totaling 39 hits, seven doubles and 21 RBI under his first season with the Owls. Chabut was also named to the 2016 ASUN All-Freshman Team after hitting .279 in 19 starts during league play, helping KSU to a regular-season championship.
The Owls will need to address the catching position after losing Morgan to graduation and getting drafted by the Angels, but the coaching staff should be in good hands with junior Helms and redshirt sophomore Bramlett for a quality one-two punch. Helms, a second-team ASUN All-Conference and All-Academic selection, made impressive strides as a sophomore in 2016, leading the team in batting average (.376) while logging career highs in hits (38), home runs (four) and RBI (23). He also batted .400 in league play and totaled 12 multi-hit games in 2016. Watch out for Bramlett on the weekends and freshman
Daniel Seres to get some time behind the dish as well throughout the season.
Kennesaw State is in good shape with an experienced infield as the Owls gear up for 2017. The depth is there as well, as sophomore shortstop
Trevor Brown, sophomore
Austin Pharr, sophomore
Jake Franklin and redshirt junior
Taylor Allum all logged time in the infield throughout 2016. The four combined for 65 starts with Franklin and Allum splitting time in the infield and outfield throughout the season.
To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State baseball news follow the team on
Twitter
@KSUOwlNation and
@KSUOwlsBaseball or by liking Kennesaw State University on
Facebook.
-#GoKSUOwls-
