Chad Holbrook ran the team through its first practice Friday
Forget about that ice and rain you’ve been hearing about. It’s college baseball season! Well, almost. Today was the first official day of practice for college baseball teams around the country and USC braved the icy conditions to get a workout in Friday afternoon. Before they hit the field first year head coach Chad Holbrook sat down with the media to share his thoughts on the pending season.
Per usual, you can listen to a portion of Holbrook’s comments below. Just in case you don’t have time to listen, here are a few of the tidbits that caught our eye:
- Holbrook opened the press conference asking for prayers for former Gamecock catcher Landon Powell’s newborn daughter who is extremely sick and “battling for her life” according to Holbrook, who was visibly emotional as he shared the news. One of Holbrook’s kids has battled leukemia so Powell’s situation hits close to home for him.
- Holbrook says he feels a lot more anxiety now that he’s the head coach and he knows expectations are always high in Columbia. He recalled how unhappy people were his first year as a Gamecock assistant when they lost in the Regional final at East Carolina. “And I wasn’t even the head coach then,” he said.
- LB Dantzler, Patrick Sullivan and Nolan Belcher are this year’s captains
- Holbrook expects pitching depth to be a strength for this year’s team.
- Right now Tyler Webb is slated to be the closer
- Holbrook said they are putting an emphasis on striking out less this season. They want to do better at putting the ball in play with two strikes and drawing more walks.
- On that same note: Tanner English, who struck out more than 70 times last season, will switch hit this year to help cut down his Ks.
- Freshman second baseman Max Schrock is projected bat in the three hole.
