KEY LINKS: Tucson Invitational Website || SMSU LIVE STATS (3/14) || VCSU LIVE STATS (3/16)
please note: all game times on the baseball schedule are central time zone
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia-St. Paul baseball team is on its way to Tucson, Ariz. to open the 2014 season with 10 games in eight days starting with the season opener against CSU-San Bernardino on Sunday, March 9 at 11 a.m. central time.
The Golden Bears will play four in-region contests against NSIC opponents and seven total Division II opponents for a challenging non-conference slate to open the season. Additionally, Concordia will play a pair of junior varsity contests against Wheaton and Dakota Wesleyan.
This marks the latest opening day for the team since the 2000 season when Concordia opened on March 28 and played 28 total games in
Mark "Lunch" McKenzie's first season with the program. It's the program's sixth March opening day in McKenzie's 14 seasons and the first since a March 5 opener in 2011.
The 2011 team and the current 2014 Golden Bears have one thing in common: the Concordia Dome at Sea Foam Stadium to train in during the snow covered preseason.
"We will practice our first day in Arizona to allow the players to see the ball against the backdrops and the high sky. Our dome provides us with the opportunity to take game infield and outfield practice with the exception of the high fly ball," said McKenzie. "The first day practice will allow our hitters to get adjusted to seeing the ball out of the pitcher's hand against a batter's eye that is 400 feet away as opposed to a blue tarp hanging on the back of a batting cage only 70 feet away. The defensive players will also be able to read the ball off the bat and catch the ball against the sky with a wind factor."
The team has used its longer preseason in the dome to prepare for the rigors of a condensed conference schedule with the opening week somewhat simulating a compressed package of games.
The most important ingredient in the preseason preparation for any team is building up a pitcher's workload.
"Workouts have been going great and we have been able to build up the staff's pitch counts gradually. Our projected starters are in a position where they all will have thrown 90 to 105 pitches prior to getting on the plane to Tucson. We have a couple of guys who are coming off injuries in the fall and have brought them along a little slower but they've also gotten up to 60 to 75 pitches."
While the team does not announce an official pitching rotation or starting lineups, McKenzie has a plan mapped out. "Barring injuries we have a good idea of who will be our starters early in the season. Playing every day in Arizona for eight days including a pair of doubleheaders is different than our regular season format meaning we'll need eight starting pitchers and two JV starting pitchers. Once we get back we'll only need six starters each week."
He continued, "The Arizona trip gives several pitchers the opportunity to show us what they can do because we understand that as good as you can look in our indoor scrimmages, the great equalizer in this game is how you perform when you cross the white lines and face someone in a different color jersey than yours."
