Q: What do you want your team's identity to be?
Playing hard with a lot of effort. We just need to go out and play hard every day. We’ve got a good group of kids, and we’re probably going to be the strongest on the mound this year. We just need to show a lot of hustle and effort and be a team that’s hard-nosed. Wherever we go, whatever situation we’re in, we just have to play hard.
Q: What has this year's senior class meant to your program?
We’ve got three seniors who have meant a lot. All three of them have been with me since seventh grade. Kollin Green has been starting for four years. Dalton Stringer has a chance to come in and start this year. He’s a guy who keeps us loose, a really funny guy. Jakaden Mark is going to come out and have a chance to play a little outfield for us, definitely run the bases.
Q: Who will be the primary contributors of this year's squad?
We’ve got several guys on the mound. Jude Stringer should have a big year for us on the mound. Nik Carney, coming over from Columbia, should have a good year for us. Kolby Stringer, Trace McDonald — he was up to 89 (mph) the other day — will be big on the mound. Jonathon Miller will play shortstop for us, and he’s a leader as a junior and will probably hit 3-hole for us. We probably won’t have a lot of big guys for us (offensively), so that’s why we have to play hard, run everything out and hustle.
Q: Tre' Broom was a big part of your offense last season — how do you replace that production in the lineup?
That’s hard to do, and it’s going to be more of a team effort. I do think this team is going to have a deep lineup. One through nine, this team is going to have a quality hitter to send to the plate. Some teams in the past knew once we got to the bottom of the order, we tended to struggle a little bit, but this team swings it pretty well one through nine. We may not have one major contributor, and there may be nights where 7-8-9 have more hits in a game than 1-2-3. We’re always going to be really aggressive on the basepaths. When someone gets on, we’re going to try to get good reads and try to take a bunch of extra bases.
Q: You had a number of strong underclassmen play big roles for you on the mound last season. What do they need to do to take that next step?
We’re going to see that a lot of them have gained a lot of velocity, but the big thing we need to be able to do on the mound is throw strikes. If you walk people, you do not have a chance to win. For us to be able go deep in the playoffs — I know we’re going to be good on the mound and have some guys throw hard — we just have to be able to command the zone and not walk people.
