Freshmen pitchers, veteran position players utilized for Louisville
Louisville baseball returns six of its eight top pitchers from its College World Series appearance in 2019, but veteran arms won’t be the only ones on the mound this season.
Reid Detmers, Bobby Miller and Luke Smith are back as the Cardinals weekend starters while Michael Kirian, Adam Elliott and Jared Poland are a trio of proven relievers. Along with the veteran pitchers, Louisville coach Dan McDonnell expects four freshmen to add to the pitching staff.
Ryan Hawks, a right-handed pitcher, a trio of left handers in in Michael Prosecky, Tate Kuehner and Evan Webster will be used in a variety of ways this season.
“You have to have freshmen arms with the roster limits and the scholarships, you got to have young arms every year have to pitch,” McDonnell said. “Usually those guys get thrown in relief roles, long relief roles, short relief, they get midweek starts.”
McDonnell used Brendan McKay, Adam Wolf and Detmers as examples of starters that began their careers similar to the four freshmen pitchers.
The Cardinals won’t be as young in the field as players fill into roles left by Tyler Fitzgerald, Jake Snider, Drew Campbell, Zeke Pinkham and Logan Wyatt, among others.
“We had a good young group behind them,” McDonnell said. “We feel like we are still pretty old in the field.”
Zach Britton, Danny Oriente, Cameron Masterman, Justin Lavey and Lucas Dunn are position players McDonnell expects contributions from.
Freshman Dalton Rushing had a fall as good as any hitter, McDonnell said. The left-handed hitter’s power can play a factor in the lineup.
“You don’t see a lot of young kids show that power, we just go to keep him grounded, not let him force it,” McDonnell said. “He doesn’t have to carry us to play good baseball.”