2013 Valpo Baseball News

[jetz]

A few items from the defending HL Champion Crusader baseball team:

--13 new players will join the Crusaders in 2013.  Ten of those are full or part time pitchers.  Nine of the ten are righties.  There are unofficially 34 players on this season's roster.  Two players, including one from TX, who had previously committed have decided to attend school elsewhere.
I think it's noteworthy that we lost two starting outfielders from last year's team, and only one of the new players is listed as an outfielder.  We do have a couple of guys who play outfield that were out last year with injury.

--First team function is a newcomer meeting on August 18th.  School starts the 21st, and the team will meet as a whole group for the first time on the 22nd.  They will support the football team on August 30th, attending the pregame tailgate (?) and a dinner afterwards.  Alums should think about coming up for that, as it's a 7p kickoff with some events beforehand.

--2012 players who will not return:  Kevin Upp (decided to attend another school after elbow surgery last year), Will Robinson (decided not to return for 5th year), Rob Robakozi (C/RHP transferred to a juco in Phoenix, I believe), Devin Pickell (freshman RHP who did not play last year), Cole Schaenzer (freshman who saw only pinch running duty last year), and Greg Stiller (junior RHP who did not play last year).

--2012 players who were injured or not eligible and will play in 2013:  Andy Burns (INF), Karch Kowalczyk (RHP/IF),  and Michael Morman (IF/OF).

--Obviously our biggest need will be pitching, with the loss of Deetjen, Wild, and Jarad Miller from last year.  Besides the nine incoming potential pitchers, others available to fill two starting roles and a closer spot include Kyle Wormington, Kowalczyk, Sean and Ryan Kennedy, Zack Walsh, Ben Mahar, Connor Buxton, and Mike Jacobs.  Of those, only Wormington and Jacobs will be in their final year of eligibility.

GO VALPO! 

[covufan]

Thanks for the info.  Looking forward to another good season next spring!

[valpotx]

Man, that isn't good news on Robinson or Upp.  Where is Upp going?

[jetz]

Headed to Ball State.  Looks like he'll have to sit a year.

[vubballfan]

Yes, Upp is going to try to walk-on at Ball State after sitting out a year. It doesn't seem like he will be a loss as most of his work has been a few mid-week and against non-Div I schools the past 2 years. If you look at his stats, he was not reliable. Robinson hurts alittle because he did have some success. But with the development of the returning arms, the highly recruited high school arms, and a few JUCO arms coming in the program actually has more pitching depth than they have had in the past. Just unproven at Valpo --

[valpotx]

I sure hope so, because pitching and defense win championships.  We have the defense, we just need the pitching to step up for a 3rd year in a row!