The Mines baseball team is looking to rebound in 2010 after a disappointing campaign in 2009. The '09 team went 10-37 overall, going 7-27 in the RMAC. The Orediggers are led by third-year head coach Jerrid Oates and will lean on a core group of six seniors, headed by 2009 All-RMAC selections Andrew Ryan (second team) and Nick Wong (third team), as well as 2010 Pre-Season All-RMAC selection Cory Ast.Ast, a 6'3", 190-lb left-hander from Westminster, Colorado started all 12 games in which he pitched last year. Ast led the team in strikeouts and innings pitched and is looking to improve on his performance from a year ago. He earned Honorable All-RMAC honors in 2008 and followed a good season with a solid playoff performance where he was named to the RMAC All-Tournament team. If this year's team is going to be successful it is going to lean on its starting pitching, especially Ast.
The Orediggers were picked to finish fourth in the Plains division and seventh overall in the 2010 RMAC Baseball Pre-Season Coaches Poll. The team is more optimistic.
"We're going to make the tournament for sure," stated Cris Rogers, continuing, "We're going to be in that postseason tournament." Rogers, a senior pitcher/third baseman, was second on the team in 2009 in wins, innings pitched, and strikeouts and is one of team leaders for the 2010 squad. That confidence that does not often show through in a team coming off the type of season that the Orediggers had last year, but it is exactly what senior catcher Anthony Siderius wants to hear from his teammates. "The big thing is we need to forget about last year. It happened, it's behind us, there's nothing we can do about it now. Let's just move on, compete, stay in games, and do whatever needs to be done to win."
If the Orediggers are going to finish in the top 5 and make the playoffs, Marshall Schuler, a senior pitcher/outfielder believes they are going to have to rely on a group of "good, strong starting pitchers" and a team with "strong bats to score some runs."
If one thing is sure, it is that this year's team will do its best to, as Siderius put it, "Compete, and stay in games. We're willing to do whatever it takes avoid what happened last year...it's definitely a very competitive conference, and it is hard to say because anything can happen on any given day, but if anybody says they don't want to finish number one, they're lying to you... we're definitely going to playing for the end of the season."
When asked what he thinks it will take to win, Siderius was adamant in his response, "Desire and competitiveness."
The Orediggers play a double header vs. Augustana (S.D.) on Saturday, February 13 and against Wayne St. (Neb.) on Sunday, February 14. All four games will be played at Jim Darden Field.
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