First to fifth?
Dukes looking to disprove preseason CAA predictions
By John Galle, sports editor
Posted on February 15, 2007

The JMU baseball team enters this season with a chip on its shoulder, despite defending a Colonial Athletic Association regular season title.

Late in the season and into the tournament, the Diamond Dukes struggled with the bullpen and with intangibles, as a weather curse of sorts zapped momentum away from JMU’s explosive offense, which was led by the National Co-Player of the Year and CAA Player of the Year in then-sophomore outfielder Kellen Kulbacki. As a result, JMU was ousted from a promising run in the CAA tournament — a tournament the Diamond Dukes have never won.

“It’s hard to believe,” head coach Spanky McFarland said. “We’ve been to seven regionals, we’ve been ranked since I’ve been here in the Top 25 … just for some reason — karma — whatever it is — [we’ve never been able to win it]. Last year we were in position, until we had the two-and-a-half-hour rain delay. It’s just one of those things.”

Going into this season, JMU has been picked to finish fifth in conference, according to the coaches’ preseason poll.

Kulbacki said although he doesn’t agree with the votes, he understands why the coaches have knocked JMU from first to fifth.

“We have some other teams in our league that have some more experienced guys,” Kulbacki said. “I think fifth isn’t really where we feel we are in this conference … we just need to use that as motivation to get us back to where we need to be and just to prove these people wrong, [and] that we’re a better team than where they ranked us.”

Another reason for the drop-off was the departure of second baseman Michael Cowgill (291-23-62 11 SB), right-hander Ryan Reid (10-4, 3.43, 124 K in 94.1 IP) and left-hander Greg Nesbitt (6-3, 3.54 ERA, 80 K in 81.1 IP). All three were drafted into the major leagues. The Diamond Dukes also lost right-hander Travis Miller (6-2, 3.67 ERA, 60 K in 56.1 IP), first baseman Nate Schill (.419-14-68), catcher Matt Sluder (.326-4-40) and outfielder/first baseman Matt Bristow (.318-9-39).

Kulbacki, who led the league in homers (24), batting average (.464), slugging percentage (.943) and on-base percentage (.568), will be hard to hide from opponents. Thus, McFarland said they will stress team on-base percentage, so teams will have to pitch to him.

Because of the lost talent, JMU must rely on less-experienced players to fill roles and pick up bats to get them back to the top of the CAA.

McFarland said this year is probably the first year that JMU has had a true lead-off guy in the nine years he’s coached here. Junior third baseman Joe Lake is that guy, who grew into both the role and his position at third-base just last season.

And though JMU’s pitching will be somewhat inexperienced, McFarland said it will be led by up-and-comers with a stronger bullpen to back them up.

“We’ll start at the top with Kurt Houck,” McFarland said. “He’ll most likely be our Friday guy. He really came on last year ... [where] he started out in the bullpen. Then he got better and better, and when Travis Miller got hurt, he stepped into the rotation and did a very nice job. In fact, he had the lowest run average I think of all the starters, including the guys that got drafted.”

Houck’s goal for this season reflects the primary team goal.

“We definitely want to be on the first team to win the CAA tournament,” Houck said.

If the polls hold up, the Diamond Dukes will have some tough competition. Four different teams received first-place votes: Virginia Commonwealth (four, 88 points), UNC-Wilmington (three, 86 points), Delaware (three, 83 points) and Old Dominion (one, 80 points). JMU, at the next predicted spot, did not receive any votes to repeat as the regular season conference champion (72 points).

But JMU is relishing the underdog role as the team prepares to get into the tournament and surprise some teams this year as a team not to be taken lightly.

“That’s something that bothers every one of us,” McFarland said of never winning the tournament. “I’m not going to lie to you. We use that as a motivating tool; we talk about it all the time. We really want to finish the job ... but at the same time we can’t worry about that until that comes. Right now, we’ve just got to worry about the next pitch, and that’s our focus.”