| Members (first year): Austin Peay State (1962), Belmont (2013), Eastern Illinois (1996), Eastern Kentucky (1948), Jacksonville State (2003), Morehead State (1948), Murray State (1948), Southeast Missouri State (1991), Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (2012), Tennessee-Martin (1992), Tennessee Tech (1949). |
| Team to Beat: Southeast Missouri State. Fourth-year coach Steve Bieser, an ex-big leaguer, has piloted the Redhawks to the last two league championships, and he returns Sr. 1B Ryan Rippee (.299/.373/.551, 12 HR) and So. 2B Trevor Ezell (.313/.423/.484, 11 SB) to a potent, patient offense that ranked third in the country in runners per game last season (8.0). Bieser will rebuild the pitching staff with junior-college transfers to join last year’s surprise ace, Joey Lucchesi (7-2, 3.17, 88 IP, 93 SO), who was the conference’s pitcher of the year. |
| Player of the Year: Kyle Nowlin, of, Eastern Kentucky. A four-year starter, Nowlin ranked second in the nation with 19 home runs and sixth with a .690 slugging percentage in 2015, including 17 homers in 29 OVC games. |
| Pitcher of the Year: Joey Lucchesi, lhp, Southeast Missouri State. The California juco transfer dominated in conference play, going 7-1, 2.13 while limiting opponents to a .182 average in a conference with an overall .289 average. |
| Freshman of the Year: Nick Osborne, rhp/3b, Tennessee Tech. The loose-armed Osborne has a fastball that has reached 92 mph, a hard low-80s slider and the poise to make an impact in relief as a freshman and in the rotation down the line. |
| Notable Storylines: New coaches abound in the OVC, as two (Rick Robinson at Tennessee-Martin and Kevin Moulder at Murray State) entering their second seasons are joined by three first-year coaches this season. Jason Anderson, who pitched at Illinois and in the major leagues during an 11-season pro career, became Eastern Illinois’ head coach, his first such gig. He replaces Jim Schmitz, who was fired after 21 seasons. Eastern Kentucky hired Edwin Thompson after firing Jason Stein after seven seasons. Thompson, who becomes one of Division I’s few African-American head coaches, played at Howard and has served as an assistant at Duke and Georgia State. The league’s other change involved Austin Peay, the league’s most consistent program, where Travis Janssen replaced Gary McClure, who resigned after 26 seasons after being arrested in August in a prostitution sting. A former assistant at OVC member Jacksonville State, Janssen spent the previous two seasons as head coach at Northeastern (Okla.) State . . . Morehead State won a school-record 38 games and the conference tournament last year for its first regional appearance since 1993. Fourth-year coach Mike McGuire has to replace more than 50 home runs from a lineup that led the nation in scoring (8.4 runs per game), batting (.332), doubles (172) and slugging (.516). However, most of the Eagles’ pitchers return, including a strong bullpen led by Sr. RHPs Tyler Keele (31 IP/33 SO, 4 SV) and Craig Pearcy (59 IP/52 SO, 5 SV). The Eagles’ newcomers in the lineup include Jr. OF Mike Patrick (.271/.350/.374 in 2014), a transfer from Winthrop who is legally deaf. . . . In an offense-oriented league, Tennessee Tech fell to the bottom half of the league in runs (361) and ranked 8th in home runs (41) despite the livelier baseballs introduced in 2015 after ranking first in the league by wide margins (488 R, 83 HR) in 2014. Fifth-year senior OF Jake Rowland (.328/.399/.450) is back after missing last season with an injury, and the club hopes junior-college transfer SS David Garza (.302, 18 SB at Edmonds, Wash., CC) can step in and replace drafted SS Dillon Bosheers, the team’s top hitter a year ago. . . . Robinson is in his second season at Tennessee-Martin after putting Young Harris (Ga.) JC on the map, before Young Harris transitioned to Division II. His first UTM club went 17-35, its highest win total since 2011, but the Skyhawks still haven’t had a winning season since 1992. Nine junior college transfers are expected to see significant time among 21 newcomers on the roster. One of them is OF Collin Edwards out of Wabash Valley (Ill.) CC, who redshirted last season after being involved in a punishing auto accident. The physical 6-foot-2, 225-pounder recovered enough to dominate fall practice for the Skyhawks after regaining his strength after the accident. |
| Tournament: Six teams, double-elimination. May 25-29 at Jackson, Tenn. |
Comments are closed.