Arizona Baseball Opens Fall Practice on Friday
10/10/2015 | Baseball
TUCSON, Ariz.--- The Arizona baseball team officially began the 2015 fall campaign, as the Wildcats participated in their first team practice under new head coach Jay Johnson at Hi Corbett Field on Friday. Coach Johnson, sophomore first baseman JJ Matijevic, and junior third baseman/pitcher Bobby Dalbec spoke with the media prior to practice.
The Wildcats took part individual workouts, pitching, and batting sessions in the weeks leading up to Friday, but now the real preparation begins as Arizona will participate in 21 fall intrasquad contests from now until Nov. 22.
The Cats welcome back 25 letterwinners from a year ago, while they boast a 12-man 2015 recruiting class which was ranked as the 19th strongest class in the nation according to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper a few weeks back.
There's plenty of reason for excitement this season, as seven returning Wildcats made summer league All-Star teams including Zach Gibbons, Matt Hartman, Ryan Aguilar, Michael Hoard, Cody Ramer, Matijevic, and Dalbec.
Arizona opens up the 2016 campaign with a three-game series at Rice (Feb. 19-21), which begins a stretch of eight straight contests away from home to start the year. The Wildcats open up their home slate with Cal State Fullerton on March 2 at Hi Corbett Field.
Head Coach Jay Johnson
On the first day of fall ball…
“I'm very excited for this day. We have a lot of work to do in terms of developing our players and our team. I'm just excited to take the next step and learn more about these guys. It'll be fun to see their strengths and their weaknesses and seeing where we go from there.”
On his coaching strategy…
“I don't think I take anything for granted as a coach. The little things are the things that make the difference. Every little thing that we do is centered on getting these guys to their peak performance, so whatever adjustments we have to make as a coaching stuff to make sure that happens, that's what we're going to do. You can never be afraid to adjust.”
On what the fall season means in terms of preparing for the spring
“It's extremely important this year, just in terms of seeing where we are as a program. We don't even call what we do practice, we call it training because all of these guys want to be Major League Baseball players and we look at it like we're trying to help these guys train for a gold medal. In the fall it's all about finding out what these guys do well and making sure as coaches we put these guys in a situation where they feel like they can be successful early on, so when the bell rings in February we can play to our potential.”
On the evaluating process entering his first season with Arizona
“It's a total clean slate for all of these guys and my hope is that we have a roster full of returners that can all play better than they have up to this point. And really they should. They are all a year older and a year more mature, with most of them playing summer ball this past season. Then obviously you hope that most of these new guys can come in and contribute immediately. I'm excited to find that out.”
On goals and expectations for the 2016 season
“The word 'expectation' isn't even allowed in our program. The expectation is maximum effort in our preparation and execution, and if we do that for a long period of time and focus on the process part of it, results should follow suit.”
Junior Third Baseman/ Pitcher Bobby Dalbec
On the excitement of competing as a team again
“I think everyone is excited to get out there and play baseball after months of individual workouts. It's going to be a lot of fun.”
On new head coach Jay Johnson
“It's a lot different, but his style of teaching is so individualized. On our first day we went over things like how to stand in the box and stuff like that, so it was different, but it was cool. I think coach Johnson is doing a good job of giving everyone a fresh start and all the guys are starting from ground zero.”
On goals for the season
“I just want to be better than I was last year and I think as a team we want to be better too. It sounds simple, but really that's what it's all about.”
On being a leader
“I think I've definitely worked on being more of a vocal leader, but I also think leading by example is really effective. I think if you do things the right way, others will follow.”
Sophomore First Baseman JJ Matijevic
On the importance of fall ball in terms of preparing for spring slate
“It's very important. It's all about preparation and this team has been working really hard to prepare for this day. We struggled last year a little bit near the end, so we're excited to just get out here and show these new coaches what we can do.”
On new head coach Jay Johnson
“I learned a lot from coach Lopez and I've already learned a lot from coach Johnson. Their coaching styles are a little different, but they're both effective and strong leaders. They're both great coaches and great people.”
On carrying over his summer success to the fall
“I think I actually had a lot of success this summer because of the adjustments I was able to make toward the end of last spring. I think I just need to continue to learn and grow.”
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