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UC DAVIS AGGIES
Youthful Aggies Take On Tough 2009 Season

By Wes Collins

The UC Davis baseball team earned an appearance in the NCAA Division I championship tournament during just its first year of eligibility in 2008. With the loss of 13 players to either the Major League Baseball draft or graduation, the 2009 squad will rely on an influx of young talent to help continue those winning ways.

The Aggies must replace more than 400 innings from last season's pitching staff along with five of their top seven hitters. Overall, UC Davis lost four juniors to the MLB draft and graduated nine seniors.

"It's such a young team and there are so many question marks on the pitching staff, I really don't know what it's going to pan out to be," said Aggies head coach Rex Peters. "This could be a 20-win team or a 30-win team. A lot of it depends on how quickly our pitching staff matures and if we stay healthy. From a future standpoint, it's exciting. We have some young players on our team who are going to be very good as they mature."

"We swung the bats really well this fall and I think we're going to be a lot better offensively than we think," said Peters. "The two key guys are Ty Kelly and Ryan Scoma, but we need others to step up."

Leading the way is senior right-hander Jeremy McChesney and junior lefty Andy Suiter. Both are expected to be Friday and Saturday starters, respectively. Last season McChesney returned after missing all of 2007 with an injury to earn a 2-2 record and a 4.10 ERA in 26.1 innings of relief. Suiter, who was drafted by the New York Yankees but chose to return to school, set a school record with 30 appearances and went 6-2 overall, with 46 strikeouts in only 41 innings en route to All-Big West Conference accolades.

The Sunday and weekday starting positions are wide open and being pursued by a number of young, talented pitchers.

"Without a doubt, pitching is the biggest question mark we have with this club," said Peters. "We don't have many proven pitchers coming back and it may take some time for us to sort things out."

Junior Kelly and senior Scoma lead the Aggies offensively following productive showings during their first season with the team last year. Kelly was the season's conference batting champion as his .397 batting average tied Daniel Descalso's 2007 mark for second-best in an Aggie season. Kelly's 94 hits also placed him second on the Aggie single-season list and helped him earn all-conference acclaim. His efforts earned him preseason accolades with his appearance on the Brooks Wallace Player of the Year Watch List, and he was named to the Ping! All-America team.

Scoma is the leading outfielder and is again expected to put up big numbers, as he did in his first season with the Aggies last year. Scoma batted .358 and drove in 52 runs en route to first-team all-Big West honors. He will play the corner outfield positions, with his likely spot being left field.

Another big bat returning for the Aggies is junior Kyle Mihaylo, who finished second on the team last year in home runs with six and also drove in 32 runs and had 17 extra-base hits. Mihaylo was an All-Independent honoree as a true freshman in 2007 and may take over in center field along with seeing time in right field.

UC Davis, which is among others receiving votes in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association preseason poll, faces a tough schedule that features seven schools included in preseason polls along with defending national champion Fresno State. In addition, the Aggies schedule was rated as the 13th-toughest in the country by boydsworld.com.

"It's the toughest schedule we've ever played," said Peters. "It'll be a big challenge for us, but it will pay dividends when we get into conference because the only way you get better is to play quality teams."