Contributing: Austin Bynum

Saturday recap: Experience is everything


EMERSON, Ga. – The University of Cincinnati, similar to the Tennessee Volunteers in recent years as profiled last weekend, are going through a rebuilding process. Of the 35 players currently listed on their roster, 22 of them are freshmen, so it's important to keep that in mind when you consider they've opened the season 1-8.

And despite the early season struggles, those young players have an excellent role model to turn to and simply watch lead by example in junior outfielder Ian Happ, although it would be unrealistic to expect any young player to begin their collegiate careers anywhere close to the same way that Happ has.

“Obviously from what he's done so far in his career (at Cincinnati) and also out in the Cape Cod; he's a good hitter,” Cincinnati's second-year head coach Ty Neal said about his star player. “He has some physical tools to offer to the game professionally. I've only known him for a year-and-a-half now, but I think he's gotten a lot better since last spring from both sides of the plate.”

If you were to look up “model of consistency” in the college baseball dictionary Ian Happ would be pictured. Although he wasn't the most highly recruited player coming out of high school he hit the ground running during his freshman season, hitting .322 with a .451 on-base percentage, 20 extra-base hits, 25 stolen bases while drawing an eye-opening 47 walks.

His sophomore year he posted near-identical numbers: .322/433/.497 with 19 extra-base hits, 19 stolen bases and 32 walks.

Need more proof? How about hitting .293 and .329 the summers after his freshman and sophomore seasons respectively for Harwich on the Cape the past two summers. Expand that to 14 and 17 extra-base hits, five and four home runs as well as 13 and eight stolen bases.

“He's got some discipline, and most importantly he's a very intelligent baseball player, a very intelligent hitter,” Neal continued. “He's one of those guys that as a coach you're always talking to your hitters to step into the box with a plan, and he walks in with a plan, and he executes too.”

It's pretty clear that the young man can hit, with a disciplined eye at the plate and a knack for delivering the big hit, when he isn't simply given a free pass. He's also a switch-hitter, making him even more dangerous, and has enough speed to be a nuisance on the basepaths, creating an overall offensive presence not unlike that of another Cincinnati star, Pete Rose.

And he may be the biggest star from the University of Cincinnati to emerge since Kevin Youkilis. In fact, you'd have to dig pretty deep to find another Bearcats player who has made a lasting impact on the game of baseball, although Sandy Koufax did spend one season on campus, however even that was on a basketball scholarship.

Similar to Youkilis, Happ's game seems to elevate when he's swinging a wood bat, hitting just as well, if not better, and for even more power, in two summers on the Cape than his two .322 seasons as a Bearcat.

“For me it's a learning process, the whole thing is,” Happ said of success in college. “We learn a ton at school, we learn a ton playing these guys and your learn a lot during the summer playing the best guys in the country. The Cape Cod League, the coaches and the organizations there are unbelievable, and the amount that I've been able to learn there is incredible.”

Happ opened the year as Perfect Game's 20th overall prospect eligible for this year's draft, and his early season success has only helped solidify his position as not only a likely first round pick, but possibly the best overall hitter eligible. With his team traveling to Emerson, Ga., to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes, Happ entered the series with a .567/.606/.900 slash line with four doubles, two home runs and five RBI on the young season.

And if you didn't know any better, Happ sounds like a member of the coaching staff in his approach to the game, and his teammates.

“For me it's just playing baseball and having a good time,” Happ said. “Having fun, it's a game, so the main focus for us is winning baseball games and having fun doing it.”

Unfortunately Happ's batting average is going to go down, going a mere 2-for-4 over the first two games with two runs scored and one driven in, while stealing two bases, walking four times and hitting a solo home run. That blast game in the top of the seventh inning in Saturday's game, the only run Cincinnati would score in a 5-1 loss to Iowa.

A member of the American Athletic Conference, Neal came to Cincinnati during the summer of 2013, coming over from the University of Indiana where he served as an assistant coach and as their recruiting coordinator, responsible for bringing in a very talented class that helped propel Indiana to the College World Series in 2013.

“I think we can win, compete for championships and become a program that's not just known regionally but nationally,” Neal said. “But it's going to take some time, and right now in our last two games we've had seven freshmen on the field in the starting lineup. You'll see Ian Happ, a very polished, a very good baseball player, and he's going to be surrounded by a bunch of freshmen.

“We're young, and I think we've got some talent, but right now in our first seven games it's been a bunch of boys playing men. We just need to continue to get better and I have high expectations for this group. I'd expect us to start, even this season, making some progress, but it's going to have to take a lot of our young guys to continue to develop, get better and really just settle in.”

Cincinnati went 22-31 overall in Neal's first season at the helm, and 6-18 in the American Athletic Conference. While not something to start writing a success story about, at least not yet, their 13-9 record at home is something they're proud of.

“I'm a development guy, a program guy,” Neal added. “I think if you establish expectations within the program, and not make excuses for guys and keeping the expectations and making guys see it. You need to live up to our expectations. And it's not hitting 500-foot home runs, it's not throwing 95 miles per hour.

“I hope when college baseball fans and writers and scouts and critics across the country see the University of Cincinnati play they walk away, whether we've won or loss, saying “Man, that team plays hard. That team plays the game the right way.” That was the biggest change I felt we needed to make.”

Neal knows talent when he sees it, a skill that led to him being an effective recruiter and overall evaluator while with Indiana. His efforts helped bring in big-name stars for the Hoosiers such as Kyle Schwarber, the No. 4 overall pick in last year's draft, as well as second round selection Sam Travis and fifth rounder Dustin DeMuth. That trio served as the heart and soul for the Hoosiers and their postseason success the past two years.

“Recruiting is the pulse of your program,” Neal said. “I think if you have those expectations within your program and now you start recruiting guys that have the skill level to excel at this level, physically, and they're playing the game the right way and taking pride in what they're doing and having a plan and developing, I think all the winning will (then) take care of itself.”

And Happ is quick to recognize and embrace his role as a leader for his young teammates.

“For us we're just trying to get the young guys caught up, get them a little experience and win a lot of baseball games.”

For any young players to evolve playing time is essential, as getting necessary reps in needed for anyone to reach their potential.

Playing time is something that looked a little grim a few short days ago, as Cincinnati was scheduled to travel to Cary, N.C., to participate in the Irish Classic. Winter weather cancelled that series, causing Cincinnati and Iowa, who also were set to participate in the Irish Classic, to switch gears and head to Georgia.

“The flexibility for them to say “Yeah we can host you, we've got a field for you” (is huge),” coach Neal said. “The big to-do right now in college baseball is that everyone is looking around wondering why we're starting the season so soon. We have control over our schedules our budgets and our players but we don't have any control over the weather. So for you guys to have this clover leaf here with all turf and allowing us to come in with open arms is awesome for us.”

The humble yet confident Happ was also quick to express his own gratitude just to be able to play this weekend.

“We appreciated everything they've done to get the fields ready for us, it's a beautiful complex, we're looking forward to playing some ball.”



Around the diamond notes

• No. 10 South Carolina was able to even their three-game season with in-state rival Clemson 1-1 with a 4-1 win over Clemson on Saturday. The win pushed the Gamecocks to 7-2 on the year, while it also snapped the Tigers five-game winning streak. Jack Wynkoop shut down the Clemson offense after they erupted for 11 runs in Friday's win, scattering five hits and two walks, allowing only the one run while striking out seven in six innings of work. Wynkoop improved to 2-1 on the season while Taylor Widener picked up his third save, striking out five in two scoreless innings of relief thanks to a 90-94 mph fastball.

Clemson's Tyler Krieger continue to swing a red-shot bat, extending his hitting streak to 11 games with an RBI double in the first inning.

• The Oregon Ducks exorcised a demon today by clinching their series with UCSB. The common criticism of the Ducks over the last two seasons was that they accumulated wins against the easiest part of their schedule while failing to win series over Regional-caliber teams. Since UCSB seems certain to be headed to the postseason, this has been a big weekend for Oregon.

George Horton’s past Oregon teams have been characterized by experienced pitching and more of a “Punch and Judy” offense. The 2015 Ducks are different and they showcased the new and improved model today. Lefthander David Peterson worked six strong innings to get the win and he only walked one hitter, displaying the kind of command rarely seen in a 6-foot-6 freshman.

Oregon scored an uncharacteristic 11 runs on 13 hits, led by junior college transfer Brandon Cuddy’s seven RBI. Hitters like Cuddy, Mitchell Tolman, Shaun Chase, and Phil Craig-St.Louis give this team a rare combination of physicality and the ability to play the inside game.

This is clearly the most physical and deepest lineup Oregon has had under Horton. And now they have a statement series win early on in 2015. If their vastly unproven pitching staff continues to execute at this current level, it will not be surprising to see the Ducks in Omaha in June.

• UCLA moved to 9-1 with a 5-0 shutout of Michigan State on Saturday. The Bruins were expected to be one of the nation’s elite teams in 2015 but no one could have predicted that senior infielder Chris Keck and sophomore utility player Luke Persico would be the key offensive cogs.

Keck came into the season with a career .220 batting average and he looked like the odd man out with the arrival of ballyhooed freshman corner player Sean Bouchard. Keck took advantage of early playing time and he has been the Bruins’ most productive player so far, leading the club with 18 RBI.

Due to massive injuries on the UCLA roster in 2014, Persico was thrown to the proverbial wolves as a freshman. He was forced to play out of position at second base to the tune of 53 starts. That baptism by fire prepared Persico well and he has already matched his 2014 total of 15 RBI.

• Ryan Kellogg of Arizona State improved to 3-0 with a 5-2 victory over Gonzaga. Kellogg, a veteran strike thrower who has walked only two hitters in 20 2/3 innings this year, has won an incredible 22 of his 34 career starts as a Sun Devil.

Arizona State will need Kellogg to stay hot as their rotation has suddenly become a question mark. Sunday starts continue to mystify the Devils and even first round prospect Brett Lilek has struggled on Friday nights. Lilek has consistently shown great velocity this year, touching 94 mph with his fastball in each of his three starts, however his efficiency has been the challenge as he has earned the victory just one time in his last 13 starts dating back to the 2014 season.

• Cal State Fullerton pulled to 5-5 on the season by sweeping a doubleheader and the series from Baylor. Thomas Eshelman and Justin Garza are the household names for the Titans but their young, unproven offense struggled early and often.

The Titan offense finally emerged this weekend as they erupted for 28 runs over the three games against Baylor. To put that in perspective, Fullerton had only scored 28 runs total through their first seven games. Sophomore Josh Estill had six hits and knocked in six runs to lead the Titans.

• Saturday delivered good news and bad news for Louisville. The good news was that ace Kyle Funkhouser rebounded from a below average start, by his standards, last week to dominate Xavier on Saturday. Funkhouser punched out seven hitters over seven innings and yielded just two runs, both of which were unearned.

Xavier provided the bad news by handing the Cardinals their fourth loss of the season, beating Funkhouser 2-1 in Game 1 of the doubleheader. Louisville is the only program in the country that has advanced to the College World Series in each of the last two seasons, and for that, the Cardinals have earned our trust. However, multiple losses to Arkansas State last week combined with Saturday’s loss to Xavier certainly catch your eye as Louisville prepares to enter the hyper-competitive ACC this year.