Warrior Baseball Outlook

2013

The 2013 baseball season at Lewis-Clark State College will be a mix of the familiar and the new, the time-tested and the cutting-edge, and the known quantity and the newcomer.

There are more players on the roster that did not suit up for the Warriors last year than those returning, and when the team does take to Harris Field for the first time on February 8, it will also have a new head coach to lead them into the next era of LCSC baseball in Jeremiah Robbins, who was hired to replace current athletic director Gary Picone last summer.

Robbins, who spent seven seasons coaching his alma mater, NCAA Division II Western Oregon, becomes just the third LCSC head coach since 1977. Although he hasn’t been wearing the Warrior uniform, Robbins has played and coached against LCSC for years, and has admired it from afar.

“People ask me all the time, ‘What are you going to do at LC?’ The answer is, ‘Exactly what I’ve been doing, because I’ve learned all my stuff from LC,’” Robbins said. “Coach Cheff’s and Coach Picone’s philosophies and styles of play are things I bought into a long time ago.”

Although Robbins will be making his LCSC coaching debut alongside the playing debut of more than half his roster, longtime assistant coaches (and former Warrior players) Gus Knickrehm and Allen Balmer remain with the program as steadying hands.

Though many of the players are new, as is the voice at the top, the on-field talent and off-field demeanor to which Warrior fans are accustomed are not. The ingredients are here to add a 17th NAIA World Series championship banner to the Activity Center rafters, and to prove the age-old maxim that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Even with all the new faces around Lewis-Clark State baseball, the tradition continues.

Of the 38 players currently on the Warrior baseball roster, 21 are completely new to Lewis-Clark State, most having made their way to Lewiston from junior college programs. Of the 17 returners, five had all or most of their 2012 seasons wiped away with injuries and other issues, and used fall practice to work themselves back into game shape.

Despite that adversity, one of the things that impressed Robbins the most about the team during the fall was its ability to endure.

“Obviously, whenever there’s a coaching change, players get a little bit uneasy and there can be a little anxiety about the unknown,” he said. “The way this group has come in and how resilient they’ve been in accepting the unknown has been impressive. It hasn’t been about the head coach, it’s been about the history of the program. There’s a certain type of player that plays here, and that’s a hard-nosed player that attacks every day like it’s their last. That hasn’t changed.”

Although there have been several injuries to key personnel that puts something of a cloud of uncertainty over the beginning of the season, Robbins said those who were hurt are working their way back, and those who were able to participate in fall workouts were impressive.

“It’s not a loud group,” he said. “They don’t have a lot of highs or lows; they just go out and play the game. I truly believe that’s the sign of a team that wants to be a champion. We’ve had our failures, and we have guys that we thought were going to be better and need to improve tremendously, but what was impressive is how business-like the guys are. They didn’t let failure affect them; they just moved on. In a game of failure like baseball, the quicker you can forget the bad, the better you’re going to be.”

As always, the Warriors will play a very competitive schedule in 2013 that includes games against top NAIA competition and NCAA Division II and III opponents. LCSC will be playing three regular season tournaments at Harris Field, and another highlight of the slate is a trip to Florida over spring break that has the team playing six games in six days.

Local fans will have a good chance to see the Warriors right out of the gate, as the team’s first 12 games and 20 of its first 26 will be played at the friendly confines of Harris Field.

“It’s a home-heavy schedule, which is nice for the guys,” Robbins said. “They’ll have a chance to really get used to the field that they’re going to try to live the dream on.”

The Florida trip, which features four games against perennial NAIA contender Embry-Riddle on its home field in Daytona Beach, will be a tremendous early-season test for the Warriors. Not only will the competition from ERAU, St. Thomas and Webber International be fierce, but it will replicate the intense grind of the NAIA World Series, which Lewis-Clark State will host for the 22nd time from May 24-31.

“It’s going to be a real test as to what kind of team we are,” Robbins said. “We’re going to have to stay focused on forgetting about the opponent and the distractions that could be in Daytona Beach, Fla. We need to just be going out there on a mission to play the game right and represent the college the right way.”

Because LCSC receives an automatic berth to the Avista NAIA World Series, it does not have to take part in the NAIA playoffs. That means the Warriors will not play from May 5 until the Series begins on May 24.

“That’s a long time not to play,” Robbins said. “We’re going to have to stay here and play each other as much as possible. We’ll have to get creative with some things.”

2012 outlook

2011 outlook

2010 outlook

2009 outlook

2008 outlook

2007 outlook