Stillman Baseball Coach Expects Teams Continued Improvement Date: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 "Peterson, Wesley" Stillman Baseball Coach Expects Teams Continued Improvement Sports Information Office Coming off of a 12-13 season a year ago the Stillman College baseball team is looking to accomplishing bigger and better feats in 2002. Under second year head coach Bobby Parker the Tigers will look to continue making strides towards posting their first winning season in over five years. The Tigers ended 2001 with three straight losses in the Great South Athletic Conference baseball tournament. After defeating Fisk University 22-0 in the first round of the tournament Stillman went on to lose to LaGrange College 13-3, Piedmont College 8-4 and then to GSAC tournament champions Maryville College 13-1. "We caught some teams by surprise early in the season," Parker said . "We want to continue to be competitive, but our main goal is to try to improve ourselves and see if we can do better than we previously did ." Despite going 1-3 in the conference tournament Stillman showed tremendous improvement from the previous season, finishing with an 11-10 regular season record and a 12-13 overall record. Stillman finished 3-7 in conference play, beating Maryville College once during the regular season and Fisk University twice. "We are trying to build on where we came from last year. We finished one game under .500 last year so we want to work harder to improve upon that." Parker and his staff are working on eliminating the errors that hurt Stillman last season. "We made a lot of fielding errors in tight ball games that cost us a few wins. But, I think that we are making good progress on that front." As well as working out the kinks in the field the Tigers are trying to develop a good pitching staff. Last season the Stillman pitchers had a combined 6.18 ERA. Coach Parker looks to offset the pitching issue by having more quality at bats and improved efficiency in base running. The Tigers will look to continue their aggressive brand of baseball, which produced 209 runs last year. In 2001 Stillman was ranked 19th in team batting, 29 in team scoring and 33rd in slugging percentage in Division III. One key to Stillman's success will be the play and leadership of returning players. Parker will look for sophomore short stop James Patrick to pick up where he left off offensively last season. Patrick was ranked 5th in batting average, recording 38 hits in 77 at bats. Junior first baseman Alexius Holliday is expected to be a leader in the infield. The outfield should also strong this year. Sophomore Reginald Brown has good range and has the ability to make big defensive plays, and sophomore Stan Talley is very solid and a good lead off man. Also, returning is junior Jariya McIntyre. His baseball experience and ability will help stabilize the Stillman outfield. New recruits will also have a prominent role in Stillman's season. Parker expects catcher Scott Smith to bring a lot of energy to the infield. Freshman Termichael Sullivan should see some time at short stop and freshman Terald Harris will play at third, bringing more quickness to that position than Stillman has had in the past few years. "The whole left side of the infield should bring some interesting things to see this season." Stillman will begin the 2002 season on Saturday, Feb. 9 as the Tigers travel to Birmingham, AL to face the Miles College Golden Bears. On Feb. 15 & 17 Stillman will return home to face GSAC opponent Maryville College for its home season opener. The remainder of the season is as follows: Alabama A & M University at Normal, AL (Feb. 18), Talladega College at Talladega, AL (Feb. 20), Miles College at Stillman (Feb. 22), Concordia College at Stillman (Feb. 23), Concordia College at Selma, AL (Mar. 6), Talladega College at Stillman (Mar. 13), LeMoyne Owen College at Memphis, TN (Mar. 15), Rust College at Stillman (Mar. 18), GSAC opponent Fisk University at Stillman (Mar. 21-22), GSAC opponent Piedmont College at Demorest, GA (Apr. 5-7), GSAC opponent LaGrange College at Stillman (Apr. 12-14) and Rust College at Holly Springs, MS (Apr. 17). The conference tournament will start on Apr. 26 in Maryville, TN. 2002 Stillman College Baseball Schedule Date Opponent Site Time February Sat. 9 Miles College Birmingham, AL TBA (2G) Fri 15 Maryville College Tuscaloosa 1 pm (1G) Sun 17 Maryville College Tuscaloosa 12:30 pm (2G) Mon. 18 Alabama A & M Univ. Normal, AL 12:30 pm (2G) Wed. 20 Talladega College Talladega, AL TBA (2G) Fri. 22 Miles College Tuscaloosa 12:30 pm (2G) Sat. 23 Concordia College Tuscaloosa 12 noon (2G) March Wed. 6 Concordia College Selma, AL 5 pm (2G) Wed. 13 Talladega College Tuscaloosa 12 noon (2G) Fri. 15 LeMoyne Owen College Memphis, TN TBA (2G) EST Mon. 18 Rust College Tuscaloosa 12:30 pm (2G) Thur-Fri. 21-22 Fisk University Tuscaloosa 12:20 pm (4G) April Fri-Sun 5-7 Piedmont College Demorest, GA TBA (3G) EST Fri 12- LaGrange College Tuscaloosa 1 pm (1G) Sun 14 LaGrange College Tuscaloosa 12:30 p, (2G) Wed. 17 Rust College Holly Springs, MS TBA (2G) Fri-Sun. 26-28 GSAC Tourney Maryville, TN TBA Conference games in bold/italic type ###