Fresno State Athletics
Interview with Head Coach Mike Batesole
2/9/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 9, 2012
FRESNO, Calif. - The Bulldogs have been preparing for their last year in the Western Athletic Conference. Baseball head coach Mike Batesole welcomed the media to Beiden Field Thursday afternoon to talk what the upcoming season holds for the 'Dogs. Below is a transcription of Batesole's responses to questions posed during the interview.
Fresno State lost the most student-athletes in program history to the MLB draft last year bringing in 12 newcomers. Have you ever had that much turnover?
It's been a long time. We have some fresh faces, a lot of freshman. We're going have three or four of them playing at a time. The cool thing is that it's a lot of local guys, so I think the crowd's going to enjoy watching some of the kids they've seen play in little league and high school and they'll continue on here at Beiden Field.
You have been recruiting a lot of local guys.
Well we're lucky. We don't have to recruit much out from San Francisco to San Diego. But we like to start here first. This is our base. Some years there are a couple shortstops there. We might have to get a catcher in orange county and sometimes there's a catcher and a center fielder here and we want to do our best to get them and get the shortstop from somewhere else. But the best from the Valley, we need to stay home because when we started doing that, oh back in 2005, we really started doing well here in the Valley and it's really paid off for us.
Aaron Judge got off to a good start in his career last year as a freshman and is showing some potential to be a threat in this league.
You know potential is a dangerous word. That just means you haven't done it yet. He has done some things. He hit .358 and was a Freshman All-American and Freshman of the Year in the WAC, so he's done a couple of things. On the bigger stage, when you include all four classes, he hasn't done that yet. But we think he has the ability to do that and certainly going to give him a chance. Going to run him out there right away. He's going to play center field opening day and we're going to let him run around out there, make plays and hit with runners in scoring position. Hopefully he'll handle it as well as the past few guys who have hit in that spot.
Trent Garrison went down early in the first game last year and was out for the season. Is he going to be back this year?
Well we're getting close to 12 months on Trent, so the last few steps he's trying conquer. We've got the agility tests that he's passed. We put him through some distance running stuff that he passed. Because it's not just the short-term stuff, he's got to be able to hold up over the long haul at 60 fun, hopefully 70 fun games. The last thing today that we wanted to put him through before opening day was to see him slide on that knee. And as you saw he handled it very well.
Austin Wynns took over for Trent at catcher when he went down and ended up being first-team All-WAC. Will we see the two sharing the position this year?
You need two to get through and they both can play first base. And we're lucky that one is right-handed and one's left-handed and we'll be able to switch around. And the nice surprise is that once Austin got his chance last year, he handled the bat very well. And so I think what you'll see is both of them playing every day in the beginning and hopefully they'll earn the ability to keep those spots and both hit in the middle of the order to start. And I think they will both handle it well. Trent has already proven that he can handle the middle of the order.
With 12 newcomers and only one guy on the roster with a National Championship ring, you're looking at a brand new team. Do they have to prove themselves more so?
They do. And that's one thing this group has got to fight for, to find their own identity. Now what we do have, is every kid in the program has got a ring for every year that he's been in the program. So they have been to the playoffs and they have had some success in the post season. But no one's got a National Championship ring except for Gene [Escat].
The Alumni Game is this weekend. It has to be exciting for the guys. Do you know who will be returning for the game Saturday?
Well these guys have already poured in. I think we had eight of them out here hitting. We've had Wilson and Poytress out here playing catch on the mound for a few weeks now and Justin has already taken off to spring training. It's just nice to have those guys around every day. Not only for what they can bring to the other guys, but it's just fun for us to be around them. You know, they're out here hitting two hours before practice today. It's just like old times. On top of that, you know we have Wetzel coaching with us and Ovie coaching with us, so you've got some guys with pretty big rings they can listen to.
Only eight days until the season opener against Butler. Have you started scouting out your game plan?
Haven't got that far yet. We have all the information, but for now, what we are trying to do is find what our best team is. So we're getting a little ahead of ourselves if we're worrying about Butler. There's going to come a time soon, when we're going to get to that.
The 2012 Fresno State Alumni Game is free and open to public. It will take place this Saturday, Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. on Beiden Field.
The Bulldogs open regular season play against Butler on Feb. 17 at 6 p.m. Fans can purchase season and single-game tickets online or by calling the Bulldog Ticket Office at 559-278-3647.
"We Are Your Team!" Check out the action on game day from AM 940 KYNO, the flagship station for Bulldog baseball. Follow us on Facebook (fresnostateathletics) and Twitter (@FSAthletics).
