Georgia State baseball returns to the diamond on Friday against Marshall in the third annual Atlanta Challenge. After finishing last season with a 24-31 (10-20 conference) record, the Panthers will have no choice but to come out swinging hard as they face their toughest schedule in history.
Here are three important issues heading into the 2017 season:
1. Toughest GSU schedule ever: The schedule for the Panthers includes four different Power Five opponents and 13 games against 2016 NCAA tournament teams. The biggest opponent will be against Coastal Carolina, the defending national champions and the newest member of the Sun Belt Conference.
“It’s the toughest schedule in history for us, with 30 of our 56 games being against Top 25 teams or teams receiving votes for Top 25,” coach Greg Frady said about his schedule. “You can’t put that type of schedule together and not think that your team can handle it. I think it’ll help us be more competitive and we if do handle the schedule well, we are going to in a good spot for an at large bid into the NCAA Tournament.”
2. Experience a key: The Panthers had a disappointing season last year because of numerous injuries to the starting lineup, from pitchers to catchers and even to leadoff hitters. However, Frady considered last season as a learning experience that will be beneficial entering this season, with 20 letter-winners returning.
“The biggest strength to this team is that we have a lot of experience,” Frady said. “The last two years I’ve played a really young team, and last year we had so many injuries I played some people that maybe weren’t ready for the role. I’m hoping this year the benefit of this team is the experience, the time together, the knowing each other and the ability to communicate with the coaches and understanding what we are doing.”
The top returnees include All-Sun Belt center fielder Ryan Blanton, All-Sun Belt third baseman Jarrett Hood and shortstop Justin Jones.
3. Who replaces Roach: The best player on the team last year was catcher Joey Roach, who was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 31st round. The biggest question coming into this season is who is going to replace him?
“You don’t replace Joey Roach,” Frady said. “But we have to move on and we got a really good fine crop of catchers back there, led by two seniors Brandon Gonzales and Payton Mann. We have to find out what are Gonzales’ strengths and Payton’s strengths and what are some other strengths in the field, and how can we play off each other to get what we got from Joey Roach.”
Gonzales was the backup to Roach and saw some playing time when Roach went down with injuries. In his 19 starts, Gonzales had 16 RBIs and made only one error for a .993 field percentage. Mann is a transfer from West Georgia and will compete with Gonzales for the start.
