DII Report: DII baseball opening weekend live looks and thoughts
We are off and running in the 2023 DII baseball season. Here are some early assessments and how the Power 10 fared.
DII baseball opening weekend is in the books. I went to a pair of games and top-10 powers clashed. Let’s take a look at some early thoughts.
North Georgia sweeps season opener
The Nighthawks lost a bunch of talent from last year’s team, but head coach Tom Cantrell has a really young team gelling quickly. It starts at the top of the lineup with freshman Andrews Opata. Out of the leadoff spot in North Georgia’s opening night win, Opata had a single, two stolen bases, a run scored, and an RBI. He also is speedy and covers a lot of ground in centerfield, which will be a major asset for a pitching staff that pitches primarily to contact.
With ace Pierce Williams already on the shelf, I was very interested in seeing what transfer Wes Lott had to offer. He was very impressive in his DII baseball debut, pitching six shutout innings, striking out four and walking none. He was hardly hittable as well, as the only two hits were softly hit singles.
Lott is listed at 5-foot-10, but he commands the mound. He repeats his delivery well and comes right at the hitter, landing 45 of his 69 pitches for strikes (65%). He touched 90 with his fastball but sat in the upper 80s for most of the game, still hitting 85-86 regularly in his final inning of work. He has a change that was 79-80 that will be trouble for lefties with nice fade and a breaking ball. The curve was slider-ish at times (or perhaps he has added an official slider), but some hung up for hitters. This was okay because Riley Frost at short and Opata in center are human vacuums, so the ones that got tagged were quickly eaten up. All in all, on a 38-degree day in a DII debut, the Nighthawks couldn’t have hoped for anything more in a really strong performance.
One last note, speaking of Riley Frost (his brother Connor plays second). he has a chance to be one of the better shortstops in DII. He makes a ton of plays charging and going both directions well, always in complete control of his body. He drove in the Nighthawks first run of 2023 on a sacrifice fly.
Augusta dominates West Georgia in opener
While I went to Carrollton, Georgia to watch a few Wolves’ it was Augusta that opened the season victorious, winning the top half of a doubleheader 11-2. Some Augusta takeaways:
Jordan Wilkie is a solid player. The 6-foot-2 RHH was able to go to all fields and made sound contact seemingly every time up to the plate. He launched the Jags second home run of the year as part of a three-hit, four-RBI opener (and would go 2-for-3 in the nightcap I was not at).
Harrison Aulds is also going to bring it at the plate. He’s already a third of the way to his 2022 home run total, blasting the Jags first homer of the season. He added a double in the second game, so has some extra-base potential in his swing.
Mason Bernard went five strong in the opener. He was effectively wild at first but missed a lot of bats. He didn’t allow the Wolves to get comfortable, so even when there were runners on, he worked out of it. He defends the position very well, helping himself out on several occasions by snagging comebacks out of the air, one creating a double play.
Now, for West Georgia. I was most interested in Anthony Calabro, and he didn’t disappoint. He has a real chance to be a special player in the Gulf South Conference. He’s speedy, which serves him well on base and in centerfield. He also makes good contact, going 3-for-5 in Game 1 and scoring three runs in the Game 2 victory.
On the mound, Bay Witcher was intriguing. The transfer from Troy had a shaky first inning, but to be fair, he wasn’t helped out much by the defense. It also seemed at times he may have been overthrowing his fastball, which is certainly understandable in one’s debut for a team. However, after that inning he settled in and didn’t allow a run over his final four innings. He also struck out five without issuing a free pass, so if despite some inconsistencies in landing his arsenal. If he begins to land all his pitches, he could be a nice find for the Wolves.
Around the horn
If you don’t follow my Power 10 at NCAA.com, you should. The preseason top-10 is out and won’t be updated until the end of February and then on a weekly basis. However, let’s take a look at how the Power 10 fared on opening week.
North Greenville: 3-0 at Houston Winter Invitational, including a win over Central Missouri
Tampa: 3-0 over Georgia College.
Southern Arkansas: 3-0 with a win over Northeastern State and Washburn. Due to weather the Dugan Invitational was extended through Monday and the Muleriders have one remaining.
Angelo State: 4-0 against Eastern New Mexico. Outscored the Greyhounds 39-6.
Point Loma: 4-0 against regionally ranked Northwest Nazarene with one more Monday night. This was tremendous in claiming the top spot in the Wild West.
Columbus State: 2-1 against West Alabama
SNHU: DNP. First game 2/17.
UIS: DNP. First game 2/10.
Wingate: 1-2 to Florida Tech. This was intriguing, although losing to a team in the Sunshine State Conference (where the seventh best team is still very strong) is not surprising.
Central Missouri: 1-2 at Houston Winter Invitational. The Mules came out of Houston sitting at 2-2 last year and still won 46 games.
Performers of the weekend:
The UAH Chargers took an impressive 2-1 series win from a very good Saint Leo team. In the 14-11 clincher, Jackson Lindsey hit two home runs and drove in half the runs (that’s seven for those that don’t want to do math).
The Point Loma bats came out swinging and Jake Entrekin had three homers in the opening day doubleheader.
Columbus State head coach Greg Appleton picked up his 900th career win at Columbus State. That makes him just the 11th DII baseball coach in history to reach the mark.
Casey O’Laughlin (Azusa Pacific) is on pace to hit a gazillion home runs this year. He already has five after the Cougars opening four-game series.
There were some big-time strikeout performances this weekend, but Brayden Johnson had it all working in Arkansas-Fort Smith’s win over East Central. He struck out 13 and walked just one, allowing one hit over seven scoreless innings.