Athletics Director Eric Hyman said it is important for coaches to be able to change when necessary. Brown will try to make the change from an offensive-oriented philosophy to one that emphasizes pitching, defense and small ball. We will look a lot more at defense from our position players to make sure they can play and then hope they can hit good enough to get us going. With junior Erick Macha starting the season at shortstop, Brown said he thinks the defense will be better. An improved defense will benefit the pitching staff immensely, Durham said.
People think that good pitchers strike everyone out.
The Frogs were 12-5 in 1999 against teams that eventually left the WAC when it split. The loss of lower division teams gave the Frogs a tougher schedule by forcing them to play more often against programs like Rice and San Jose State, which have combined to appear in the last three College World Series. There is not one team you can go out and slop around and expect to win. The program will also have a tough non-conference schedule, facing schools like Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor and Oklahoma. The Frogs will play eight teams that reached the NCAA Regionals and two that made it to the College World Series.