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College  | Story | 12/8/2020

College Notebook: December 8

Vincent Cervino
Photo: Christian Franklin (Arkansas Athletics)
Previous College Notebooks:

December 1: Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Louisiana State, Miami



Programs covered this week: Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Purdue
 
Arkansas

The Razorbacks are back and loaded once more as, like many other teams throughout the country, they have a very deep, strong blend of veterans plus the influx of recruiting talent. They lose big bats in Casey Martin and Heston Kjerstad but return a good bulk of what was one of the better offenses in college baseball. Matt Goodheart will slot right into the middle of the lineup once again and be flanked by fellow returnees Casey Opitz, Robert Moore, and Christian Franklin. Opitz is one of the premier catchers in the sport today while Moore showed to be explosive as an 18-year-old last year. Franklin is the star of the offense with excellent defense and athleticism out of center field, while there’s real first round upside given the quality and consistency of his hard hit contact.

There’s a good influx of new talent but none might be a bigger impact than McLennan transfer Jalen Battles. He had an excellent fall showing quality defense at short and the skill offensively to hit near the top of the lineup. Lael Lockhart Jr. and Isaac Bracken are other transfers as Lockhart is a successful top of the order hitter and Bracken brings experience to the bump. Brady Slavens is a junior college transfer with notable lefthanded juice while Ryan Costeau is a low- to mid-90s arm with a quality changeup who comes in by way of Sac City.

Expect the rotation to consist of familiar faces like Patrick Wicklander, Kole Ramage, and Connor Noland along with Zebulon Vermillion who has frontline stuff but could also see time at the backend of the bullpen. Both Peyton Pallette and Caden Monke have made impressive jumps and figure to see big innings while Elijah Trest has pure electric stuff. In terms of the freshmen, the trio of Jaxon Wiggins, Nate Wohlgemuth, and Gaberial Starks all look to have bright futures on the mound and will likely see time as true freshmen. Cayden Wallace is about as advanced as a freshman hitter can come while catcher Dylan Leach was very impressive defensively.

Michigan

Just two years removed from making the CWS finals, Michigan enters 2021 looking to replace a good bit of talent that it lost. They’ll make up a good bit of that production with a number of impressive graduate transfers which include Benjamin Sems, Griffin Mazur, Christian Molfetta, and Will Proctor. Sems looks to be a smooth-fielding, lefthanded hitting infielder who should start at short while Mazur and Molfetta offer flexibility behind the plate; Proctor has SEC pedigree pitching at Georgia with a real breaking ball. Some other newcomers who’ve impressed this fall include pitchers Noah Rennard, Ahmad Haraji, and true freshman Chase Allen.

While they have to replace some lineup contributors, there is still a good bit of returning talent. Senior outfielder Christian Bullock returns as a leader in the lineup for a fifth year and Clark Elliott is also expected to play a big role. Jimmy Obertop had a very loud fall and the staff expects big offensive contributions while he adds to a very deep catching crop in Ann Arbor.

Riley Bertram and Teddy Burton are two sophomores who should have significant roles to play while Tito Flores has had a strong fall and should factor into quality playing time.

The pitching staff returns a number of guys who have big expectations as the top of the rotation will be led by Steve Hajjar and Cameron Weston. Hajjar has legitimate, first-round stuff with impressive advanced metrics and a true starter’s mix while Weston was very efficient in a small sample and stuff has ticked up a bit. Blake Beers returns and he looks like a favorite to land a good bit of innings while arms like Jacob Denner and Isaiah Paige took big jumps this fall. Willie Weiss has big time stuff and physicality and should play a significant role whether that’s in the rotation or the bullpen and Angelo Smith, Jack White, and Keaton Carattini are other arms to watch.

Maryland

The Terps were an extremely young team in 2020 and they return almost the entire squad with another year of college experience under their belts. This is still a young team heading into next spring but they’ll be led by a couple of third+ year players in Sean Burke, Maxwell Costes, Christopher Alleyne, and Randy Bednar amongst others. Burke looks to be the favorite to start on Friday nights and he brings a power arsenal along with a spotless pitching line in four starts a year ago. Alleyne, Bednar, and Costes provide some sizable balance in the middle of the order as all three have substantial offensive upside.

The rest of the lineup should be fairly explosive with the emergence of sophomores Bobby Zmarzlak, Tucker Flint, and Troy Schreffler amongst others. Zmarzlak had a scorching hot summer and fall as he led the team in home runs over fall ball while Flint started as a freshman and should compete for playing time in the outfield along with Schreffler. True freshmen Matthew Shaw and Kevin Keister could potentially start and both have impressed the staff so far with Shaw really turning some heads this fall.

The aforementioned Burke will lead a talented pitching staff with some young talent that should include young arms like Nick Dean, Connor Staine, and Jason Savacool along with last year’s returning Friday night arm Sean Fisher. Dean is as polished of an arm as you’ll find with a legitimate four pitch mix while Staine had an uptick in stuff and might make the transition to the starter’s role. Savacool was a prized recruit and has excellent life on his fastball along with a polished repertoire while Fisher is experienced and can excel on any role on the staff. Sam Bello looks to shore up the backend of games while numerous other freshmen and sophomore arms could impact the staff in a significant way.

Purdue

The Boilermakers are looking to bring a combination of experience and physicality to the diamond in 2021 and they’ve got a nice core of returnees to work around and make for a deep lineup. Ben Nisle, Zac Fascia, and Skyler Hunter make for a significant core group of fourth and fifth year players who have all had good falls. Hunter has hit .300 every year for the past four years with true leadoff skills while Fascia has a monster fall with a lot of hard hit contact; Nisle is a game-changing presence when he’s right.

Mason Gavre and Kyle LaPlante are two physical infielders who also had very good falls, showing improved discipline and likely working their way into significant at-bats this spring. Justin Walker is an intriguing prospect who redshirted after transferring from Indiana and looks to have a good shot at the shortstop slot heading into Opening Day. Michael Bolton and Jack Firestone are two second year players to keep an eye on as Bolton can fly and Firestone has big tools. Cameron Thompson has big power and led the team in home runs this fall while Evan Albrecht was the team’s leading hitter in 2020 and has a grinder’s mentality who doesn’t give at-bats away.

The pitching staff is likely to see some new faces and a couple of those guys include Calvin Schapira and Trent Johnson. Schapira really opened eyes this fall as this was his real first fall with the team and has a true three-pitch mix with a bulldog mentality. Johnson is a polished and consistent pitcher while a couple of other transfers who’ve impressed include the 6-foot-8, Illinois-Springfield transfer Nick Alvarado and Tallahassee CC transfer Nolan Daniel. Calvin Starnes showed some really impressive stuff in limited innings while other guys who should make significant impacts include freshmen Jett Jackson, Joseph Whitman, and Avery Cook.

Illinois

The Illini return a good bit of their core of players and the amount of competition this fall has really grinded some players to improve dramatically. They have a strong offensive core in Jacob Campbell, Branden Comia, Taylor Jackson, and Kellen Sarver among others as all four have impressed. Campbell has always been a standout defender with a cannon behind the plate and the offensive game seems to have ticked up while Comia has taken his scorching .400+ average this spring and carried it into the fall. Jackson is a good defender in center with senior leadership while Sarver has made a couple adjustments and really unlocked some offensive firepower.

Danny Doligale started as a true freshman after winning the job and has continued to make strides this fall while Cam McDonald is a true versatile weapon who’s got the tools to hit in the lineup no matter where he suits up defensively. Ryan Hampe and Jackson Raper have been two strong additions as Hampe gives them an extremely deep catching depth chart and Raper, a transfer from Catawba, put up video game numbers at Division-II and has a strong lefthanded swing with juice.

Andrew Hoffmann and Cole Kirschsieper will lead a pitching staff that will look for some young guys to make a jump. Hoffmann was a big recruit from Logan JC and he’s got plenty of life in the right arm and he was the 2019 Northwoods League Pitcher of the Year. Kirschsieper competes well and locates his stuff as he was 3-0 with an ERA just north of 1.00 last spring. Some of the guys in the mix for significant innings include the hard throwing Aidan Maldonado along with a couple of young arms in Riley Gowens, who impressed the staff in the fall, and true freshman Jack Crowder who’s been very advanced. Ty Rybarczyk and Alex Vera are other arms who fill up the zone and should be go-to options early on this spring.
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