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With the baseball opener now less than a month away, the team is preparing for their upcoming season. The University of Louisville baseball team has been working hard over the past few months, waiting patiently for Feb 13, 2007 when they open what could be one of the most successful seasons in Louisville Baseball
Senior shortstop Chris Cates could be one of the biggest, small stories in collegiate baseball. Cates is just five-foot-three-inches and stands as the shortest player in all of NCAA Div. I baseball, but has made the all Big East preseason roster infield. He even has some nicknames, but he doesn’t let it bother him too much, in fact he even sees it as a strength sometimes.
“I feel kinda like an underdog, usually when we go into stadiums they are like ‘what is this guy gonna do?’,” said Cates, “That motivates me and gets me going especially when I hear player or fans. I use it a motivation most of the time and try to key it into my game.
Senior slugger Logan Johnson was also named to the all Big East preseason roster infield. Johnson set a single season school record last year being hit by 25 pitches, and going into his senior year he has been hit by a school record of 42 times.
He also led the team last year in the home run column, leading with 10 and a slugging percentage of .554, composed of 18 doubles.
But Johnsons offensive goals are to help his team as much as possible.
“I want a high slugging average, with doubles and home runs. I [also] want to get on base as much as possible, but the other guys on the team, like Domingez and Jorge Castillo they are goning to be big RBI guys,” said Johnson which he followed laughingly saying, “Maybe [I’ll] get hit with a few more pitches.”
Johnson has also been named to the 2007 Brooks Wallace watch list, which is the award given to the national college baseball player of the year through the College Baseball Foundation.
“Logan has outstanding hitting ability and is a tremendous asset to the team as he can play a number of different positions,” said head coach Dan McDonnell.
“In working with Logan during the fall season, he has also shown that he is an outstanding leader,” said McDonnell.
Both Cates and Johnson are team captains and call it “an honor” to be elected by their teammates. Cates added that it shows how much character the team has and, and how far they have come through the seasons.
This season the team hopes to use very basic baseball strategy to win games. Offensively they want to get on base as much as they can and have high slugging percentages, while defensively they want to try to find easy outs and keep batters off base.
Coach McDonnell took over the strategy at the end of last season after 11-year veteran coach Lelo Prado left for a head-coaching job at USF. McDonnell came from the University of Mississippi where he became well known as a recruiter that was able to find players to fit the squad. In his past 18 seasons as a player and a coach he has averaged 37.6 wins per season.
Coach McDonnell leads the Cards into a schedule that will challenge the Cards, which includes Evansvillee who is currently ranked preseason No. 21 nationally.
They also plan to tango with Notre Dame, a perennial Big East contender, St. Johns and UConn come conference play.
However, according to Johnson one of the biggest challenges of the season will be when the team heads down to Florida for the Coca-Cola Classic shortly after the opener.
“I think the biggest challenge for us will be going down south. We have the talent and the depth to do it and it will help us carry momentum into the season,” said Johnson.
