A three- gameweekend series will start the season opener for the Southern University Jaguarsbaseball team. On Friday the Jaguars will travel to Lafayette to play theUniversity of Louisiana at Lafayette at 6:30 p.m., then Saturday at 6 p.m. amatch up against Northwestern State and on Sunday, they will face St. JohnUniversity at noon.
The Jaguars hadsix top returnees and 20 newcomers.
Amongst theveterans were mainly stronger pitchers. This was the first week assistantcoach Barrett Rey worked with the Jaguars in the bullpen to help them get abetter feel for batters. Jags’ sophomore pitcher Joshua Kirk (6’4”, 200,Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.) was named to the Preseason All-SWAC team. Jose Pena(P, Sr., 8-0, 2.64 ERA), Damien Givens (P, Sr. 5-2, 6.26 ERA) and EmaryFrederick (P, Jr., 1-1, 6.23 ERA) were also expected to be bigcontributors.
“They’re workinghard,” said Southern baseball head coach Roger Cador about the Jaguarsperformances at practice. “Secondly they’re willing to take constructivecriticism and the main thing is how quickly they back away from difficulty. Aswe go down the way we’ll probably improve on the mistakes we’ll makeearly.”
Last season,Southern fell to Mississippi Valley State 5-2 in the Southwestern AthleticConference tournament. Southern finished in third in the SWAC tournamentwith a 19-7 record and 27-14 overall. The Jaguars had been victoriousfrom 2001-2003 with the championship victories and also consecutive NationalCollegiate Athletic Association Tournament appearances.
“It’s difficultto win every year,” Cador said. “That’s not a realistic thing that’s going tohappen with the teams in the league, their athletic department and more of acommitment to baseball. They’re hiring better people and puttingscholarships in their program. So when you’re on top, everybody’s goingto be coming at you. There’s more motivation to be at the bottom andknock off a team at the top.”
Southern, thedefending division champion was predicted in the preseason SWAC polls to takefirst place in the Western Division. Coaches and sports informationdirectors made the selections.
The first homegame is Saturday, Feb. 26 at 1 p.m. against Nicholls State at Lee-HinesField.
