2022 Southland Conference College Baseball Preview

Image credit: New Orleans OF Pearce Howard (Photo courtesy of UNO)

The 2021 season was something of a changing of the guard in the Southland Conference. At the end of the season, it wasn’t Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana or McNeese State that finished at the top of the standings, as had so often happened in the past.

Instead, Abilene Christian won the regular-season title in a runaway, followed in the standings by upstarts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and New Orleans, even if a talented, veteran McNeese team ended up winning the league’s automatic bid for the second straight season.

Now, another changing of the guard could be in the offing in 2022 by virtue of the simple fact that the Southland’s membership shifted quite a bit over the offseason. Long story short, the new-look SLC feels as wide open as it has in a long time.

Here are five important questions ahead of the first season in a new era of baseball in the Southland.

Who is still in the conference?

This question was phrased with purpose, as the offseason was one of defections in the Southland, not one of additions.

Central Arkansas departed for the ASUN and four programs, Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin left for the Western Athletic Conference. What was previously one of the bigger mid-major conferences in the country at 13 baseball-playing members is now down to eight: Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word, McNeese State, New Orleans, Nicholls State, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

With the change in membership, the format of the conference tournament has also shifted. It will now take place over two weekends. Over the first weekend, two four-team pods will be hosted at the campus sites of the top two teams in the conference standings. Then, the winners of the pods will play a best-of-three series on the campus site of the top remaining seed the following weekend for the automatic bid.

At the end of this season, more change will come to the Southland, but it won’t immediately affect the number of teams playing baseball, as Incarnate Word leaving for the WAC will be replaced by Texas A&M-Commerce, which is moving up from Division II.

Who is the favorite this season?

With Abilene Christian, last season’s champion, and Sam Houston State, a perennial title contender, now in the WAC, there is a bit of a vacuum at the top of the conference. There isn’t really any one clear-cut favorite going into this season. Rather, there are a group of teams capable of making a push if things go right.

New Orleans (29-28, 23-17) is certainly in that group. The Privateers return key lineup pieces in fifth-year senior right fielder Pearce Howard (.333/.398/.514), third-year sophomore third baseman Kasten Furr (.318/.421/.388) and sophomore left fielder Travis Gober (.277/.354/.426), and add to that group junior college transfer first baseman Anthony Herron, a physical power hitter who put up 16 home runs last season at John A. Logan (Ill.) College and a potentially dynamic double-play combination from the junior college ranks in second baseman Amani Larry and shortstop Tyler Bischke. A breakout candidate to watch among returners in the lineup is sophomore center fielder Issac Williams (.194/.310/.235). He has five-tool potential, but struggled at the plate last season.

On the mound, UNO has a quality, dependable Friday starter in fourth-year junior lefthander Brandon Mitchell (5-2, 4.67) and a proven closer in third-year sophomore righthander Caleb Seroski (4.20 ERA, 45 IP). Depth will have to be built out around those two, but the coaching staff likes what it sees from righthander Dylan Porter as a rotation option behind Mitchell and righthander Cole Paplham as an important part of the bullpen. Porter is a grad transfer whose fastball touches 93 mph with a sharp slider in the low 80s. Paplham is a 6-foot-4, 240-pound junior college transfer whose fastball sits 93-95 mph and touches as high as 98.

McNeese State (32-30, 22-18) is also in this group, particularly when you consider that it has won the automatic bid each of the last two full seasons and has done an excellent job of succeeding in the face of massive adversity over the last couple of years.

In the Cowboys’ lineup, fourth-year junior center fielder Payton Harden (.321/.392/.405) and fifth-year senior right fielder Julian Gonzales (.268/.389/.425) are two of the most dynamic players in the conference, and sixth-year senior catcher Tre Obregon III (.321/.382/.442), who may see most of his time at DH, just knows how to hit. If a rotation of junior college transfer righthander Grant Rogers, fourth-year junior righthander Bryson Hudgens (2-3, 3.19) and fourth-year junior righthander Christian Vega (1-5, 6.08) comes together well and fifth-year senior righthander Cameron Foster (5.32 ERA, 44 IP) pitches as well in relief as he did late in the regular season last year, McNeese will be in business.

Southeastern Louisiana (32-24, 22-17) obviously can’t be counted out. In fourth-year junior center fielder Tyler Finke (.318/.412/.494), the Lions have one of the most exciting players in the Southland anchoring the lineup, they have a masher returning in fifth-year senior first baseman Preston Faulkner (.269/.393/.451), and the sophomore duo of righthander Brennan Stuprich (6-3, 2.31) and righthander Will Kinzeler (4-4, 4.33) should be excellent in the rotation again.

The Northwestern State (27-26, 20-16) pitching staff should keep it in contention. The Demons boast a rotation of third-year sophomore lefthander Cal Carver (6-5, 3.19), who got some Friday night experience late in the 2021 season, third-year sophomore righthander Johnathan Harmon (4-4, 5.37), whose heavy sinker has touched 98 mph in the past, and sophomore righthander Drayton Brown (1.96 ERA, 41.1 IP), who dominated as a closer last season with the help of his high-spin fastball and curveball. If Northwestern State can find some depth in the lineup around third-year sophomore second baseman Daunte Stuart (.270/.416/.454), it will be dangerous.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (25-29, 20-14) finished second in the league last season and therefore has to be taken seriously as a team that could challenge to be at the top of the conference again. The Islanders have some significant rebuilding to do in the lineup, but fourth-year junior catcher Josh Caraway (.291/.382/.561) is a middle-of-the-order bat to build a lineup around, and it certainly doesn’t hurt the team’s chances to have arguably the best starting pitcher in the conference in fourth-year junior righthander Hayden Thomas (4-3, 3.31) ready to lead the rotation.

What can be expected in year one of the Lance Berkman era at Houston Baptist?

Berkman’s hiring at Houston Baptist made a splash this offseason, as he was part of a wave of former big leaguers who took college coaching jobs that also includes Chip Hale at Arizona, Willie Bloomquist at Arizona State, Frank Catalanotto at Hofstra and Jose Cruz, Jr. at his and Berkman’s alma mater, Rice.

It’s an opportunity Berkman has been working toward for a while now. He had a couple of short stints working at Rice while Wayne Graham was still leading the program, he spent several years coaching high school baseball in Houston, joined the coaching staff of Division III St. Thomas (Texas) for the 2021 season and dedicated a lot of time to observing and talking with successful college baseball coaches to make sure he’d be ready when the time came.

The Huskies (14-38, 11-27) have to be considered a longshot to compete at the top of the Southland right away, but the roster has been rebooted aggressively in an attempt to get things headed in the right direction.

Three key pieces in the lineup return in fifth-year junior DH Brennan Bales (.356/.416/.469), fifth-year senior first baseman Jake Miller (.274/.308/.343) and fourth-year junior left fielder Lane Botkin (.248/.331/.317), a plus athlete who led the team in steals last season with 22 and also plays wide receiver for the HBU football team. Otherwise, the lineup will be filled with transfers, including junior college bounce backs who began their careers at places like Rice, Wichita State and Sam Houston State.

Another bounce back, righthander Will Ripoll, who began his career at Louisiana State before a stop in junior college, projects to lead the rotation, but there is also optimism about a pair of returners in fourth-year sophomore righthander Ethan Abbott, who has pitched just one game in the three previous years due to a redshirt season and injuries but who also has a fastball up to 95 mph, and fourth-year junior Jared Burch (7.15 ERA, 45.1 IP), a big-bodied righthander at 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds who runs his fastball up to 94 mph and still offers a lot of projection given his body and that he’s relatively new to pitching.

Much of the excitement about HBU is focused into the future as Berkman and his staff work to win recruiting battles that the Huskies simply weren’t able to win before. But if this team full of new faces takes to the new coaching staff well and can channel the energy around the HBU program while out on the field, this could be a pesky bunch in 2022.

Who are the preseason player of the year candidates?

Like the discussion about conference title favorites, this race feels fairly wide open going into the season.

One obvious name is New Orleans’ Pearce Howard, who has somewhat quietly been incredibly productive for the Privateers since the moment he stepped on campus. Over four seasons, he’s a .296/.363/.452 hitter with 40 doubles and 22 home runs. His 2021 season was his best yet, as he set career-high marks in all three slash line categories at .333/.398/.514, in doubles with 14 and in RBIs with 56, and he tied a career high with seven home runs.

It’s never a sure thing that junior college production will translate into Division I, but if he can match what he did at a very good John A. Logan program, Pearce’s teammate Anthony Herron could also end up being a contender.

Tyler Finke and Preston Faulker at Southeastern Louisiana are also clear candidates for different reasons. Finke has the athletic profile to hit for a high average and steal a bunch of bases, while Faulkner has the raw power to put up massive run production numbers. Big seasons for either could lead to player of the year honors. Similar to Faulkner, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi catcher Josh Caraway could find himself on the short list if he takes another step forward from a power standpoint.

Daunte Stewart from Northwestern State and both Payton Harden and Julian Gonzalez from McNeese both have enough power and speed to really put up eye-popping stats across the board. Houston Baptist’s Brennan Bales finished in the top five in the conference in batting average last season. If he can do something like that again and impact the baseball a bit more to add some power to his game, he could be right in this mix as well.

For more off-the-board candidates, look to Nicholls State third-year sophomore outfielder Wes Toups (.261/.382/.388) and Incarnate Word third-year sophomore shortstop Grant Smith (.293/.359/.452). Toups spent his 2020 season at LSU before enjoying a solid first season in Thibodaux, where he showed solid power and the plate discipline to lead the team in walks. Smith showed good power with seven home runs and went a perfect 6-for-6 in stolen bases, suggesting that he could increase that total if he’s given the green light a bit more.

What about pitcher of the year candidates?

There are three names that stand out right away for this category: sophomore Southeastern Louisiana righthander Brennan Stuprich, fourth-year junior Texas A&M-Corpus Christi righthander Hayden Thomas and third-year sophomore Northwestern State lefthander Cal Carver.

Stuprich was excellent as a freshman, putting up a 2.31 ERA and .224 opponent batting average in 81.2 innings. He works with a fastball that averaged a touch over 89 mph last season but reached as high as 94, and while he throws his slider most often among offspeed pitches, it’s his low-80s changeup that had a higher whiff rate, at nearly 40%.

Thomas is tops among returning pitchers in the conference in strikeouts after he punched out 94 batters in 81.2 innings in 2021. He also had a 3.31 ERA and a .238 opponent batting average. His approach has historically been fairly straightforward, as he’s going to come after hitters with his fastball, which he threw 70% of the time last season. The pitch averaged just over 90 mph last season and touched as high as 95.

Carver, who began his career at Wichita State, is a prototypical crafty lefty. His fastball has an average velocity in the mid 80s, but he commands it well and complements it with two distinct breaking balls and a changeup, all of which he can throw in any count. You certainly can’t argue with the results after he had a 3.19 ERA and a .216 opponent batting average in 84.2 innings last season.

Beyond those three, Stuprich’s sophomore teammate Will Kinzeler, Carver’s third-year sophomore teammate Johnathan Harmon and fourth-year junior New Orleans lefthander Brandon Mitchell stand out as contenders.

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