Nevada Griffons announce tentative summer roster

Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Chris Patch/Daily Mail Nevada Griffons head coach John Hill speaks to board members Wednesday night about the college league's upcoming summer season.

By Chris Patch

Nevada Daily Mail

Spring baseball is underway in Missouri and that means the 2008 Nevada Griffons season is just around the corner.

The Griffons board of directors held its annual kick-off dinner Wednesday night at the Nevada Community Center to discuss logistics of the 2008 season and introduce the tentative roster to the board. Third-year head coach John Hill was on hand to unveil the recruiting class that includes 40 players from 20 different colleges. He said it could be the most talented class he has recruited in his time with the Griffons.

"Honestly on paper, because that's what it is right now, it looks better than it has in the last couple of years," Hill said. "Last summer was easily our best team in my three years but this year's team has more of a proven resume I guess, which is a plus because that's what I was saying about last year's team.

"There's depth, which is nice. There's quality of depth, there's not just numbers. There's quality of numbers. And that will come into play."

Hill said he sees the biggest abundance of quality in his pitching. The Griffons currently have 15 pitchers signed up, 9 right handers and six lefties. Hill said most of his pitchers are high in the rotation in college and figure to be candidates for immediate action.

One caveat to the pitching situation is the players' adjustment from aluminum bats to wooden. The Jayhawk League switched to wood bats, which can present adjustment issues to NCAA division I pitchers who are throwing against aluminum bats. Some junior college teams use wood bats but Hill said most of his pitchers will need to make a quick adjustment to wood or risk getting shelled this summer.

"It's a learning curve when they come because with aluminum bats you don't ever want to pitch inside because you're scared to death of what might happen because the sweet spot is so big," Hill said. With wood bats you have to pitch inside. If they don't make the adjustments to be good players or pitchers with wood bats, it's going to be a long summer. What I try to do is speed up that learning curve."

Hill doesn't think this roster will have much trouble adjusting despite the fact Nevada lost some recruiting battles with other summer leagues. The Cape Cod, North Woods and Coastal Plains leagues all competed for the same players Nevada wants.

Nevada ran into problems convincing players not to go to the aforementioned leagues because they are for profit and the Jayhawk League is not. For-profit leagues tend to have more money and fan following than the Jayhawk League, which sometimes makes it hard for the Griffons to compete.

"When we go up against that, it's difficult to recruit against those leagues," Hill said. "We were successful recruiting against the Alaskan League. We feel good about grabbing some guys from the Alaskan League. When it came down to a kid choosing us or the Anchorage Glacier Pilots we won out for the most part.

"A lot of our first-choice guys I guess we didn't quite get but that's expected that's the way it always is. You try to catch a kid who slips through the cracks and doesn't go to the Cape Cod or the North Woods or Coastal Plains."

Players won't have much time to make adjustments before the Griffon's June 1 game against Newton County at Lyons Stadium. Those not involved in NCAA post season play report to Nevada May 27, leaving four days before the first game.

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