USF Baseball Begins Fall Practice
TAMPA, Oct. 3, 2017 – Head coach
Billy Mohl and the USF baseball team officially opened up fall ball on Monday morning, starting what will be a competitive five-week period leading up to Scout Day.
With the goal of fine tuning their skills, getting back in game shape and ultimately building on a second NCAA Regional appearance in three years, USF went through a rigorous practice Monday morning in Tampa. The Bulls will hold inter squad scrimmages on Wednesday and Friday this week, then scrimmage three times starting next week.
The Bulls went 42-19 in 2017 and set a program record with 620 strikeouts. USF led the country with 10.1 strikeouts per nine innings, while the staff pitched to a 3.24 team ERA.
The pitching staff returns redshirt-senior righty and All-American Athletic Conference selection
Peter Strzelecki (Lake Worth, Fla.), freshman all-american
Shane McClanahan (Cape Coral, Fla.) and junior lefty closer
Andrew Perez (Orlando). Strzelecki finished second in The American with a 2.42 ERA and McClanahan led The American with 12.32 strikeouts per nine innings while allowing a league-low 5.68 hits per nine innings. McClanahan was also ranked as the sixth-best pro prospect in Baseball America's Mock Draft on Oct. 2. Perez came into his own in 2017, holding a 6-3 record with a 2.72 ERA and 52 strikeouts.
Though the offense saw the departure of its top two run producers in all-american
Kevin Merrell (drafted 33
rd overall in June's MLB Draft) and designated hitter
Luke Borders (an American Athletic Conference honoree with 53 RBI), the unit returns more than 70 percent of its scoring.
The entire outfield remains intact as well as the returning infielders. American Athletic Conference honoree, senior outfielder
Duke Stunkel Jr. (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) headlines a deep lineup and stout defensive core that fielded .976 last season, as the outfielders committed just two errors.
Stunkel Jr. finished second on the team with a .344 average and hit a team-high 16 doubles. A plethora of juniors enter their third season playing together. Third baseman
David Villar (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) hit .294 in 2017 with 47 RBI and infielder
Coco Montes (Miami) hit .293. Catcher
Tyler Dietrich (Naples, Fla.) hit over .310 in conference play, and speedy outfielder
Garrett Zech (Naples, Fla.) scored 39 runs while also stealing 17 bases.
The top two home run hitters from 2017 return to the lineup in first baseman
Joe Genord (Lake Worth, Fla.) and outfielder
Chris Chatfield (Riverview, Fla.), who hit a combined 17 homers. Redshirt-senior
Andres Leal (Tampa) played catcher, second base and third base last year. He tallied eight doubles, 17 runs scored and 12 RBI.
Coach Mohl welcomes 13 new faces to the team this season (six freshmen and seven transfers). The group consists of eight pitchers, three infielders, one catcher and one outfielder.
About USF Baseball
The University of South Florida baseball team is one of the fastest rising programs in the country. The Bulls reached the NCAA Regionals in 2015 for the first time in 13 years and followed that success with a 42-19 record and second NCAA regional trip in three years in 2017. The Bulls earned just their second and third wins over top-five ranked teams with victories against then-No. 3 Florida State and at then-No. 5 Florida during the 2017 season. During the 2017 season, USF reached the 40-win mark for the first time since 1996 and entered the top-25 in the major collegiate baseball polls for the first time since 2013. The USF Baseball program has won five conference titles and the Bulls have made 12 NCAA appearances.
– #GoBulls –
