Spartans Baseball Preview
The 2019 Spartans are excited to get the season rolling as they start their season in sunny Florida on March 9th. They will face some tough opponents in their first week as they are matched up with two pre-season top 10 opponents and 2 hall of fame coaches. The Spartans bring back 14 players from last year's roster highlighted by Matt Pietsch, Cody Arlt and Levi Arnold. Coach Hughes had this to say about the pitching staff going into the year.
"We return Levi Arnold, who led last year's staff in strikeouts (8.36 per 9 innings), has looked sharp this pre-season and will look to fill a big role for us as a starter. Our freshmen pitchers are going to be a big indicator of our success. If they can fulfill their potential the sky is the limit for us."
MState's lineup looks to improve on what they were able to do last year. Coach Hughes had this to say,
"We are returning OF Matt Pietsch who hit .452 for us last year, striking out only 9 times the whole season, and Cody Arlt, who hit .302, will also be another big contributor for us. The 5-9 part of our order is going to have to step up for us and knock in some runs if we want to have a chance to reach our goal, which is to win a conference championship."
With regards to the incoming freshman Cody Hughes was very optimistic.
"I think our freshman are going to be a big key in our success. We have brought in some of the top talent from around the area. Some of the names that stick out are Austin Stanislawski(Fergus Falls), Eric Salveson(Fergus Falls), Jake Dykhoff(Wadena), Mitch Porter(Breckinridge), Matt Hagen(Fargo) and Parker Dierks(Morris). I could keep going but we have 17 guys so I don't want to list everyone but we have a lot of quality players. This year will be a little different than the last couple because we have so much depth."
The Spartans will be traveling to Montana the weekend after they return to play Dawson Community College on March 23rd and 24th.