Don’t look now, but baseball season is creeping up.
The Northwestern State Demons capped off their 2006 fall practice schedule last Saturday with the annual home run derby and the new season is now just three months away.
The Demons, who return just 12 players and two starters (pitchers Drew Brown and Fraser Robinson) from last year’s SLC tournament title game appearance team, welcomed a slew of newcomers when fall practiced began the first part of October.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces,” said NSU head coach Mitch Gaspard. “But these guys love to compete. That’s what’s so exciting about this team.”
Headlining the list is shortstop transfer Brandon Richey from LSU-Eunice. Richey earned JUCO All-American honors last season after leading the Bengals to the JUCO World Series championship. He batted .424 behind a school record 98 hits, 21 doubles, 32 stolen bases, 85 runs scored, and a .514 on-base percentage. His .693 slugging percentage ranks second on the LSUE records chart while his 11 home runs last season ranks third.
Also signing with the Demons from that team is first baseman Leonard Porché. Porché hit .358 last season with nine home runs and 56 RBI – third most in school history.
Dylan Libadisos, this year’s home run derby champion, joins the team from Highland Community College where he earned All-American Honorable Mention honors along with first team All-Conference and All-Region accolades. He was named the Region IV MVP after belting 13 home runs and 47 RBI with a .385 batting average.
Two left-handed pitchers, Jason Grace and Jason Troth, are expected to make an immediate impact for the 2007 season.
Grace, a transfer from Seminole State in Oklahoma, helped his team to a conference championship after posting a 2-2 record with a 2.25 ERA. He whiffed 30 batters in 32 innings pitched and posted an amazing 0.25 ERA in conference games.
Troth tossed 82.2 innings at Weatherford College, posting a 7-3 record and a 3.05 ERA. He also finished 6-1 in conference games.
Although the 2007 schedule has not been officially released, I can fill you in on a few dates.
NSU will host the 2007 Southland Conference baseball tournament May 23-26. It’s the second time in three seasons the Demons have hosted the event.
The Demons will kick off the season with the NSU Round Robin Feb. 9-11 with Texas State and Dallas Baptist visiting.
Mar. 6 will be a big home game with Louisiana-Lafayette visiting and NSU will host SLC foes Southeastern Louisiana (Mar. 23-25), Stephen F. Austin (Apr. 6-8), Nicholls State (Apr. 20-22), Sam Houston State (May 4-6), and newcomer Central Arkansas (May 17-19).
Attractive road games have the Demons playing at the Southern Miss tournament (Feb. 16-18), at LSU (Feb. 21) and in a three-game series at Houston (Mar. 2-4).
Check back on nsudemons.com in a few days to find the complete schedule along with the 2007 roster and player profiles.
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