Baseball 2019 Preview: Bullpen
2/12/2019 10:45:00 AM | Baseball
Season Tickets Available For 2019
The 2019 Sam Houston State baseball season is nearly upon us, with Matt Deggs' team to open up the season on Feb. 15 in in DeLand, Fla. vs Manhattan.
This is the third of a five-part preview, position by position, of this year's squad, leading up to the 2019 opener.
BULLPEN NOTABLES
Returning: Nick Mikolajchak, Brad Demco, Kyle Backhus, James Kuykendall, Dominic Robinson, Landon Ausley, Colin Cameron
Newcomers: Cole Wesneski, Steven Beard, Will Duncan, Patrick Kudelka
HUNTSVILLE – It's no secret that the 2019 Sam Houston State Bearkats will go as far as their pitching will take them.
But with one of the most experienced staffs in the nation – and a loaded bullpen – the Bearkat pitching has the potential to take them a long way.
This season's crop of Bearkats returns the bulk of the bullpen, bringing back 140.1 of the 229.0 innings the pen pitched in a year ago. Still, the Kats will have to replace its biggest piece – SLC Reliever of the Year Dakota Mills – who transitioned from starter earlier in the year to the league's top relief arm, saving 15 games and striking out 58 hitters in just 46.0 innings of relief work.
Early candidates to slide into that role include a pair of right-handers in junior Nick Mikolajchak and sophomore Landon Ausley, while others could fall into the role as situations dictate. Mikolajchak is by far the most seasoned in the role after saving 13 games as a true freshman in 2017, but provides a unique versatility that allows Deggs and pitching coach Jay Sirianni to use him in multiple scenarios.
“He is what I call a utility knife and is one of those guys you had better make sure always has his spikes on,” Deggs said about Mikolajchak. “You can start him. You can bring him in to kill momentum. You can have him finish a game or you can close him. He has an arm that bounces back and he always wants the ball no matter what.”
He is one of four Bearkat arms – along with Kyle Backhus, Brad Demco and starter Hayden Wesneski – ranked in the top seven among D1Baseball.com's top draft prospects in the Southland Conference and is coming off a 2018 season that saw him log 73.0 innings as both a reliever and weekend starter before taking his talents to the Cape Cod League over the summer.
Meanwhile, Ausley showed flashes of dominance as a true freshman in 2018 and enters 2019 as D1Baseball.com's 72nd rated overall prospect for the 2020 draft. At 6-6 and 210 pounds, his 86-87 mph slider has developed into what Deggs calls the best out pitch on the staff and could put him in position for a breakout sophomore campaign.
He logged just 21.1 innings in 15 appearances, but had some of his most dominant outings against some of the Kats' biggest opponents. That included a six-strikeout performance in 3.0+ innings of relief in a win over Vanderbilt, and an eight-strikeout relief outing at Houston that included a stretch of seven punchouts in a row.
The Kats also boast arguably the two top lefties in the league in Demco and Backhus, both of whom look to play prominent roles this year. Demco took a big step forward from his freshman to sophomore seasons, becoming one of the team's go-to arms late in games. He tends to sit at 93-94 mph with a power breaking ball and made 25 appearances and struck out 28 hitters in 25 innings and should see those numbers go up in 2019.
Meanwhile, Backhus was up and down in 2018, but has the potential to take the Bearkat staff to an entire other level when he's on his game. The lanky lefty made just 13 appearances last year, primarily out of the bullpen, but fanned 20 hitters in just 17.2 innings and held hitters to just a .183 average in that span.
“The world revolves around pitching and this is the best pitching staff we've had since I've been here,” Deggs said. “They have experience, all have pitched in huge games, and all have made jumps in velocity, command and the development of their second and third pitches.”
Lefty Dominic Robinson and righty Colin Cameron are also back to add to the bullpen corps, each of whom pitched big innings two years ago when the Bearkats were able to capture the Lubbock Regional and advance to the first Super Regional in program history.
“Dom can be a guy who flies under the radar a bit. If he is more consistent and pounds the strike zone like he can, then he's going to pitch as much as anybody,” Deggs said. “Colin has battled some health issues, but is on the road back and has pitched some big innings for us in the past. He is so full of potential and we are excited to see what he can do.”
The Kats will also add a number of other arms in 2019, including Cole Wesneski, the younger brother of stater Hayden Wesneski. A 6-2 right-hander, Wesneski logged 30.2 innings and won six games at Navarro College a year ago and is someone who Deggs expects to get plenty of work out of the pen. He'll join another returner, James Kuykendall, who is back coming off arm surgery a year ago, but is a right-hander with a plus breaking ball who the coaching staff feels will be an impact arm when fully healthy.
High school additions Steven Beard, Will Duncan and Patrick Kudelka all also join the ranks this season. Beard gives the Kats another left-handed option after helping lead The Woodlands HS to the Class 6A state tournament last year, while Duncan brings a high ceiling of his own. The 6-5 righty as a 29th-round selection of the San Diego Padres in last year's draft.
“He is a physical kid out of the metroplex that loves to compete and get after it,” Deggs said. “He's not quite hit his ceiling yet, but has can really spin the fastball. It's hard to get on top of it, he gets a lot of swings and misses and he has a really good breaking ball.”
The Kats also added a big arm in Kudelka, a 6-7, 250-pound righty from New Braunfels who Deggs expects to contribute down the road.
“One thing we take a lot of pride in here is our development,” Deggs said. “We get guys in and we push them. And he is someone we are going to continue to develop and we expect him to give us some innings as we go.”
The season opens on Friday, February 15 against Manhattan, as part of a three-day tournament in DeLand, Fla., hosted by Stetson. The home opener will be Feb. 19 against Texas Southern. Tickets to the home opener are available now.
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