The Eastern Mennonite University baseball season starts Saturday, Feb. 11, when the Royals host Penn State-Altoona in a seven-inning doubleheader. First pitch is at noon. (Photo by James De Boer)

Royals baseball now playing on a field near you

A head coach always has the multi-dimensional mindset of looking at the short term as well as the long term.

Now entering his fifth season at Eastern Mennonite University, it’s been a long time coming for baseball coach Ben Spotts to finally see this first in his program – the senior season of players he recruited and brought in as freshmen. The Royals have 12 seniors on the roster, easily the largest graduating class in the recent history of the program, and Spotts has watched the group accomplish a lot in their three previous seasons.

“I’m very grateful to this senior class for coming in here when we were in the bottom and buying into us, and moving us forward,” Spotts explained. “They have helped move our program forward from the bottom of the ODAC to really have a legitimate shot every year to make the ODAC Tournament.”

The seniors have already helped the Royals return to places the program hasn’t been since the Erik Kratz era. In their freshman season of 2014, Eastern Mennonite won 20 games for just the third time ever. In 2015, the Royals advanced to the ODAC Tournament. Neither feat had been accomplished since Kratz, a current big leaguer, was a senior in 2002.

Now Spotts will push his players to use those experiences to reach even higher in 2017.

“I have a lot of bats back and positional experience,” explained Spotts, “guys that have proven they can play well, particularly offensively, but also from a defensive standpoint. And we can build around that. Our goal is to make the ODAC Tournament. They made it two years ago and realize it’s a possibility and expectation. And hopefully we’ll be playing our best baseball that weekend.”

The main losses from last year surround Kyle Armstrong, a two-time All-ODAC player who pitched, played in the outfield, and batted in the middle of the order. Aaron Hooven leaves shoes to be filled as a flexible pitcher, while the leadership of players like Nic Love, Pat Love and Ryan Tierney will be missed, although Nic Love and Tierney maintain their presence as coaches this year.

Even with the losses, the batting order will be plastered with familiar talent as EMU returns 16 of the 19 players who played in eight or more games last spring. As a result, Spotts expects the offense to continue the pattern it started in his first season, as the Royals have been one of the best-hitting teams in the ODAC in each of his previous years.

“Those guys are another year older and added another year of experience,” he said. “The guys should be able to handle the bat against top-notch arms, and those three years of experience should give us the ability to compete and adjust against high-quality arms.”

Kyle Salladay (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) and Griffin Stanley (Roanoke, Va./Cave Spring) both landed on the All-ODAC Third Team as juniors, giving them the most recent hardware from a very balanced batting order.

Stanley, EMU’s leadoff batter, had 47 hits and 16 walks to finish eighth in the ODAC with a .446 on-base percentage. He scored a team-best 35 runs while adding elite-level speed in center field. Salladay split his time between catcher and third base, batting .326 with a team-best 21 walks. Joe Hall (Gladys, Va./Rustburg) was an All-ODAC First Team selection when he won the batting crown with a .423 batting average as a sophomore. He had a “down year” last spring, batting .347 with a .431 on-base percentage, good for 11th in the conference.

Catcher/outfielder Ryan Hedrick (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) batted .322 last year and led EMU with 30 RBIs. As a three-year starter, Hedrick brings a career .321 batting clip and 83 RBIs into his final campaign. Outfielders David Meehan (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) (.380) and Kyle Mathews (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) (.309) are also part of the large senior class.

The only underclassmen to earn major roles last spring also return in starting shortstop Zach Roberts (Stuarts Draft, Va./Riverheads) (.311, 22 RBIs) and first baseman Adam Marston (Woodstock, Va./Miller School) (.329, 20 RBIs), giving Spotts eight returning regulars who batted better than .300.

Other seniors who are expected to play key roles this year are Ian Norris (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem), Dean Lowery (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) and Brandon Trujillo (Virginia Beach, Va./Salem) as well as newcomer Damon Frazier.

Flexibility is also a key piece to a Spotts-coached team, as only Roberts and Stanley hold down spots not likely to change from game-to-game, guided by pitching matchups.

That flexibility and overall speed should aid a defense which struggled at times last spring.

“Defensively, I’m hoping that we’re veteran enough and athletic enough that some of the mistakes we made early in the year last year will be behind us,” explained Spotts. “I think we have two of the best catchers in the league in Kyle Salladay and Ryan Hedrick. And once Zach Roberts got in as shortstop last year, we stabilized the position and he learned on the run, and it paid off by the end of the season.”

Pitching has always been the hardest part of the program for Spotts to rebuild, and make matters worse, the staff slumped last year to the lowest team ERA in the coach’s four years, 6.36. As a result, this year’s class of recruits and transfers is flooded with pitchers.

Frazier is expected to quickly become a familiar face on the mound as the Royals’ No. 1 pitcher. He is enrolled in a graduate program at EMU after graduating early from D-II Concord University, and still has two years of eligibility remaining because of a medical redshirt from his first year at Concord. The right-hander also has experience in the Valley League and Spotts hopes Frazier can anchor his staff and be a good weekend starter.

Sophomore Ryan Brewer (Martinsville, Va./Franklin County) (3-2, 4.81), transfer-sophomore Tyler Campbell (Luray, Va./Luray) and senior Jake Brown (Gloucester, Va./Gloucester) (1-6, 10.02 ERA) expect to round out the top four starter spots, with freshmen Bailey Hall (Daleville, Va./James River) and Austin Carroll (Chester, Va./Matoaca) playing swing roles, coming out of the bullpen while also picking up an occasional start. Joe Hall will likely work as the closer once again after nailing down five saves with a 1.46 ERA last year.

Lefty John Dudley (Raphine, Va./Riverheads), Tyler Wilcher (Staunton, Va./Buffalo Gap) and Aaron Weaver (Sugar Creek, Ohio/Hiland) each made big improvements over the summer and freshman Spencer Laitinen (Woodbridge, Va./C.D. Hylton) will make a contribution. Spotts also said returners like Josh Sydenstricker (Virginia Beach, Va./Ocean Lakes), Kyle Johnson (Nathalie, Va./Rustburg) and Tristan Childress (Waynesboro, Va./Waynesboro) will be in the mix, along with newcomers Adam Campbell (Luray, Va./Page County) and John Judy (Shanks, W.V./Hampshire), getting a chance to prove themselves in appearances before the ODAC season starts in the middle of March.

“We’re talented, but we’re also unproven and lack experience,” explained Spotts. “So while we have limited experience, we’re deeper and have more talent than we’ve had in my five years.”

Whereas last season Spotts rarely had fully rested arms and couldn’t have as much patience, he feels the depth of his 2017 staff will give him more leeway in his pitching decisions throughout a game.

“Having what we feel like is four to six quality starters will allow our bullpen to not be stretched so thin,” he said, “allowing us to get more defined and proper roles instead of just seeing ‘what do you have today?'”

EMU has home doubleheaders each of the next three Saturdays, as well as one mid-week game, as they start the year with seven straight at home.