ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – It was a beautiful Friday afternoon at Lobo Field. In fact, it was perfect baseball weather: 65 degrees, slight breeze, barely a cloud in the sky. The Lobo baseball team is hoping it is a harbinger of good things to come this season.
Head coach Ray Birmingham and his four captains — senior Ryan Padilla and juniors Taylor Duree, Jared Holley and Sam Haggerty — met with the media for the team’s annual Media Day today in preparation of the season opener against Michigan State in Surprise, Ariz., next Friday.
“We’re old in one spot and young in another,” Birmingham said. “The pitching staff is a veteran group, but the position players are young. There are going to be several freshmen on the field again. … (Those) freshmen need to become sophomores real quick in order for us to be successful. If everybody does what we’re supposed to do, and younger kids become older kids by midway, then we’ll take off, and I think we will take off.”
There’s no denying the Lobos are a young squad with just four seniors and only one of those, Padilla, who is a fourth-year senior.
“As a captain I think it’s my responsibility to really help the young guys develop,” he said. “We want to make it to regionals. We want to make it to Omaha. That’s our goal.”
That’s always the goal for a Birmingham-led squad, as there is a sign present at every practice pointing the way to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. All the captains made it a point mentioning that will always be the goal for this team. This foursome learned from some of the greatest players in Lobo history — guys like DJ Peterson, Mitch Garver and Alex Allbritton — and they are trying to emulate the leadership they saw when they were young.
“(Allbritton) comes to the field all the time,” Holley said who is following in Allbritton’s footsteps of moving from shortstop to third base for the good of the team. “He’s still a really good friend of mine. I call him from time to time. It’s going to be a good transition. … My freshman year he moved over to help the team. Now I’m moving over to help the team. It’s the same deal.”
Haggerty in particular made special note of wanting to take a larger leadership role this season.
“I think I need to take a little bit more responsibility this year as a leader, on and off the field,” he said. “It’s my job to lead the young ones because I was once a young one, and I looked up to guys like DJ and Mitch. I’m just trying to do the same that they did for me.”
Young or not, the Lobos will be ready to open the season next week against the Spartans. In addition to their game against Michigan State, they will also face Northwestern on Saturday, Feb. 14 and then play two against last season’s No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, Oregon State, on Sunday and Monday.
The Mountain West preseason coaches’ poll comes out next week, but one college baseball website already predicted a big season for the Lobos. Right now, though, all that’s on the team’s collective mind is taking each practice as an opportunity to get better before the trip to Arizona.
“We’ll see what we’re all about in a week,” Haggerty said.
You can find complete interviews with the players at this link.