USD Baseball 2008

senior en route to earning his second consecutive first-te_1rn AII-CIF distinction. Moving to the outfield, center field is already locked down to Josh Romanski, when he is not pitching. Romanski is con– sidered as one of the top center fielders in the nation by coach Hill. When Romanski has to pitch, the Tore– ros can feel comfortable with the return of sophomore Kevin Muno has a pos– sibility to fill in that role. As a freshman, Muno was impressive with his speed and knowledge of the game. He hit .243 with 17 hits, three doubles, one triple and had four RBI. Another possibly to back up Roman- ski in center, or any other outfielder, is ___

Valerio. Over his first two seasons in a Torero uniform, Valerio has given USD several valu– able innings at first base and delivered sev– eral critical hits in several ball games. As a junior, he hit .200. Another familiar face, but in a different po– sition, will be Kevin Hansen making the move from third base to second base. As a junior, Hansen helped the team defensively at the hot corner and was also a huge help with is bat. Hansen hit .316 with 71 hits, 11 doubles, two triples and had 34 RBI. Moving to shortstop, the Toreros will wel– come back their defensive gem from a year ago, Sean Nicol. As a sophomore, in his first season with USD, Nicol was impressive defen– sively as well as offensively as he hit .300 with 71 hits, 1 O doubles, two triples, five home runs and drove in 30 runs. At third base, the Toreros will turn to high– ly touted freshman recruit Victor Sanchez from Norwalk, Calif. Sanchez was ranked the No. 1 prospect by Baseball America out of the Northwoods League this past summer after putting up solid numbers. He was a member of USA Baseball'sjunior national team in 2006 and as a senior he hit .402 with three home runs and had 30 RBI at Gahr High School. A returner who could also see some time on the field this season is sophomore infield– er Blake Tagmyer. Tagmyer is a left-handed hitter who has showed some good things to the coaching staff during the fall and they wouldn't be surprised to see him emerge a bit this season. Another newcomer who could be a valu– able addition to this season's team is fresh– man Steve Kaupang. Coach Hill sees Kaupang as the starting designated hitter position. Kaupang comes to USD after a stand-out high school career at La Mirada High School, where he hit .400 with five home runs as a

with 104 strikeouts in 67.1 innings of work as a senior en route to earning first-team All-League honors. Another freshman to the USD bullpen will be Moraga, Calif. native Nick Ousman, who comes to the Toreros from Campolin– do High School. During his senior season, he posted a 9-1 record with a 0.36 ERA and was named the DFL Pitcher of the Year. He was ranked as the No. 5 pitching prospect in the state of California according to Per– fect Game. The final newcomer to the pitching corps for the Toreros is sophomore trans– fer Matt Thompson from Santa Rosa Com– munity College. Thompson also had a big summer in 2007. Thompson was selected as the No. 1 prospect out of the Alaska League, as he went 4-4, with an ERA of 2.37, had seven walks and 33 strikeouts in 42 innings for the Oilers. Thomson was a 22nd-round pick of the Blue Jays in the 2007 MLB draft. Behind the dish for the Toreros this sea– son will be senior Logan Gelbrich. The Los Angeles, Calif. native has waited patiently for three years to get his chance as the starting catcher for USD, and now he gets it. Gelbrich is coming off his best season in aTorero uniform as he hit .316 with 67 hits, 16 doubles, 38 RBI and four home runs. His fi nal home run came in the bottom of the ninth inning in the NCAA Regionals against Minnesota, which was a three-run blast to tie the game and force extra innings. For his efforts, Gelbrich was named first-team AII-WCC for the first time in his career. Backing up Gelbrich will not be an easy task, but there are two players battling it out for the right to earn time behind the plate. Sophomore's Nick McCoy and Ste– ven Chatwood are the two capable catch– ers vying for playing time behind Gelbrich. Chatwood made two appearances this past season with one plate appearance. McCoy redshirted this past season and has had two at bats in three games during his freshman season. The Toreros will have a different look to the infield this season, with the departure of Daniel Magness and Justin Snyder, but coach Hill and his staff are confident the Toreros will not skip a beat defensively. At first base, sophomore James Meador isexpected to be the starter. A former high school shortstop, Meader has demonstrat– ed great defensive prowess in the fall and his bat will also be a welcome part of the Toreros' offense. As a freshman, Meador hit .215 with 14 hits and one double, while rotating between the outfield and desig– nated hitter positions. Meador can also be figured into the Torero pitching staff, as Coach Hill can see him giving some valu– able innings if need be to close out games during the season. Backing up Meador at first will be Jose

junior outfielder Michael Lugo. In his sophomore season, Lugo appeared in two games for USD with one start against Gonzaga.

Out in right field USD will look to se– nior transfer Ryan Davis, who comes to the Toreros from Vanderbilt University. As a junior he hit .309 with 38 hits, sev– en doubles, one home run and 26 RBI in helping the team earn the No. 1 National 1/ Seed in the NCAA Regionals.

The other corner spot in the outfield is up for grabs between freshmen Anthony Strazzara and Zach Walters. Both highly touted freshman who were high school shortstops can also see time in the infield if need be for USD this season. Walters comes to USD from Cimarron Memorial High School where he was a first-team All-State performer for three straight years. Strazzara makes his way to the To– reros from Scottsdale, Ariz. he hit .435 as a senior en route to helping his team to the state championships. "Each year is it's own entity. If you have one eye in the past and one eye in the future, your blinded in the present. So we are focused on this year, actually focused on the first game of the year," stated Hill. "It has been our philosophy since day one here, to take it game-by- game and inning-by-inning. So we are excited about our training, our prepara– tion and the start of the season."

2008 wee Preseason Coaches Poll

1. SAN DIEGO - 49 (7) 2. Pepperdine - 42 3. Santa Clara - 32 (1) 4.LMU-29 5. Gonzaga - 28 6. San Francisco - 24 7. Portland - 12 8. Saint Mary's - 8

Sean Nicol

3