Husker Baseball scouting report – Loyola Marymount

Loyola Marymount University

Huskers take on the Lions this Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles. Big Red is 4-3 after their series with BYU. We looked at their performance and stats so far but now we are looking ahead. 7th year coach Jason Gill is the favorite to win the 2015 WCC Championship so it’s not going to be a walk in the ballpark for the Huskers.

Loyola Marymount University Lions swept San Jose St. in their opening series with a team average of .347, 8 doubles, 2 triples and 1 homerun. They were also the beneficiaries of 10 walks and 9 HBPs (cuz chicks dig scars). They also fared well on the mound with a team 1.0 ERA, with 2 earned runs in 19 innings pitched and striking out 10. They dropped a midweek game to San  Diego St 7-6.

Lions played this past weekend against St. Joseph’s and won the series but lost the first game. Senior Tanner Donnels went 3 for 4 with 2 doubles and 4 RBIs in the final game. David Fletcher also went 3 for 4, with 2 RBIs in the 3rd game of the series. Slugger and left fielder Billy Wilson went 6 for 13 on the weekend with 2 doubles, 2 RBI and a stolen base.

Husker Huddle (photo credit Kimberli Strader)

Other players to keep an eye on: Senior RHP Colin Welmon who is on the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award watch list. Welmon pitched well last year and has a 2.37 ERA over 14 starts last year with 4 complete games, 58 Ks and only walked 10 over the course of 106.14 innings. Against St. Joseph’s, Welmon pitched 7 innings with 5 hits, 2 runs and a career best 12 Ks, but got the L as the Lions went down 2-1.

Junior Trevor Megill was a 3rd round pick of the Cardinals in 2014 and is playing with LMU this year. But it was his brother, freshman Tyler Megill who nabbed the Rawlings WCC Pitcher of the Week for Feb. 23,2015. He pitched for 5 shut out innings and allowed only 3 hits while setting a career best 11 batters down with a K in the 3rd game against St. Joseph’s. It’s quite an accomplishment having that much command of 88 pitches in February.

Sophomore David Fletcher and Austin Miller are Preseason All-WCC prior to the start of 2015. They were all 1st team All-WCC selections in 2014. Ted Boeke (3rd base) was an honorable mention. Fletcher had recorded a hit in 19 straight games back to 2014, but finished without a hit in game 1 of the series ending the streak.

Miller was 1st team freshman All American from Baseball America, Collegiate baseball and National Collegiate Baseball Writer’s association along with WCC Freshman of the Year. He had the team high .374 average, with 46 runs scored, 10 doubles, 3 triples and 18 RBI, and he swiped 25 of 29 bases. He’s not shy about crowding in the box either as he was also hit by pitches a total of 21 times. Against St. Joseph’s, he was 2 of 4 for game 2, and came up with 2 CLUTCH hits late in the game seal it with a 2-RBI double then and a 2-RBI triple.

Other players to watch are senior JUCO transfer at 1st base, Jimmy Jack. Not only does his name beg to be on a baseball card complete with bubble gum, but in 49 games in 2014 he hit 6 doubles, 1 triple and retained a .301 batting average.

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Husker bats will have to be focused to succeed against Welmon (0.69 ERA, Ty. Megill (.82 ERA) and Silva (1.80 ERA). The current offensive leaderboard for LMU is Fletcher (.440), Donnels (.435), Wilson (.370) and Watkins (.308). A head to head comparison has Nebraska starter’s ERAs listed: Kubat (2.31), Sinclair (5.06) Knutson (5.06) and Burkamper (5.40). Offensively for BIG RED it’s Boldt (.520), Schleppenbach (.400), Miller (.360) and Headley (.280). LMU also leads NCAA on HBP with 24 times in 8 games. They are 31st in the NCAA stolen bases with 13, 4 caught stealing in 8 games.

This should be an interesting series for Coach Darin Erstad’s group. The games will be free and streaming courtesy of LMU as well as a stat broadcast. UPDATE: game times have changed to 8 pm cdt Friday, 4 pm CDT, and 1 pm CDT. Only Friday and Sunday will be available on LMU tv. We’ll give you our rundown of our thoughts after the game. In the meantime, GO BIG RED!!!