2016 Baseball Media Day

Eleven days out from opening day, Oklahoma baseball coach Pete Hughes met the media for the team's annual media day at the Lloyd Noble Center ahead of the Sooner men's basketball team's win over Texas. Hughes was joined at the podium by senior outfielder Alex Wise and junior shortstop Sheldon Neuse and junior pitcher Jake Elliott.

Oklahoma opens the season at home on Friday, February 19 against Northeastern.

Quotes

Pete Hughes, Head Coach

Opening Statement:
“It is always a fun time of the year. The weather has cooperated and the work this far has been at a high level. I have been impressed, you know especially with some many new kids on the team. With all of the new faces you have out there you need the weather to cooperate as we evaluate. Fortunately now, we have a new facility that allows us to practice every day regardless of the weather with the synthetic turf surface. They did an unbelievable job with that new surface. Greg Tipton did an unbelievable job spear heading that project. Joe Castiglione gave us the thumbs up. It was the best move we made as far as development and recruiting wise. As far as aesthetically, it is a recruiting presentation 365 days a year. the preseason has been going very well as we work towards a very difficult schedule. We have the most away games schedule maybe in the history of our program at 29. That is all RPI driven when you have more road games with value points. The system isn't going to change so we have to adjust our schedule and thats what we did. The core of guys to be able to play a demanding schedule. Excited about our squad. A lot of competition going on at positions which is healthy for our squad, and it only adds depth to your program.”

On the strengths of the team:
“The strength of our team, if you have the top two guys on the front end of your rotation back, it starts there. It's usually if you are experienced in the middle of your lineup and the middle of the field, that goes well for your program. With Sheldon [Neuse] being back for the third year in the middle of our lineup and we look to expand his role this year as our closer. These guys have played a lot of baseball and have a lot of experience so we will lean on that. Alec Hansen and Jake Elliott back with Sheldon, along with Hunter Haley is back healthy. Alex Wise is back healthy this year, as well. Those are two major reasons why that I felt that we underachieved at the end of the season last year because we didn't have that dynamic in our lineup. The strength though is the starting pitching, no question. With that being said, the biggest question is your bullpen and who is first out of there. We are going to try to address that with Sheldon. We lost 100 appearances out of our bullpen last year with some very dependable guys.”

On some many new faces in the locker room:
“That's a big number, but when you have eleven guys that leave your program with the draft and then seniors and the normal attrition, 21 is about right. We just have to get those freshman in the mix and get them in competitive situations so they don't play as freshman. I told them last week that they were freshman on August 19th. They have been through an entire fall in our program. They are no longer freshman in our program. They have to perform at a high level according to their skill set. When i have those new faces, you just want to get those new faces acclimated and then you have to evaluate the junior college guys. Now we are just trying to figure out who is going to win spots and who is going to win jobs. We have nine outfielders. I do not know who our starting outfielders are going to be. The catching position is going to be another one. We lost two guys there to the draft and we have three guys there that may split time to see who is going to emerge above the others. It has been super competitive. Great group of guys with a team first mentality and all of the corny stuff that gets you to Omaha.”

On where he has seen growth from Jake Elliott and Alec Hansen over the past season:
“You know Jake has been the sane guys since he has showed up. He is a strike thrower and he is so dependable. For the most part, you run him out there and you know he is going to get to the sixth or seventh inning of the game. I think his secondary stuff is good; his changeup has always been exceptional. his breaking ball has gotten better. Jake will be the first to tell you that he was mostly a two pitch, pitcher and a good two pitch pitcher. Alec is the same way. He has become more of a pitcher. We just hope that he can make the jump that he made from his freshman to sophomore year. he has been good with his last outing. Both of these guys last outing was Saturday and they looked very well.”

On the other spots in the rotation:
“There is three or four guys fighting for that. Austin Kerns, a left handed transfer from Owasso, Okla., is probably the front runner right now. Jake Irvin, a freshman from Minnesota, Kyle Tyler, a local kid has pitched very well for us. If we had to open up the season I think that Kerns would be it because you have to have a nice left hander to off set the two other right handers in our rotation.”

On what Alex Wise gives you in the lineup:
“Well if I look at our team offensively, I like the balance. I love the fact that we will have high walks and low strikeouts, but I worry about our power in more than a couple of spots in our lineup. If you don't have power then you have to create some offense and you do that with your legs. That is what Alex can do. He is a dynamic base runner. He is guy that can go first to third and steal bases. Hunter Haley is a guy two that will help that dynamic, he was on basically one leg all of last season. Those guys will help us create some offense when the home run threat isn't there.”

On what he expects from Cody Thomas:
“Those are two questions i get, on the new turf and Cody. If Cody doesn't play an inning for us then our team is better because of who he is and what he brings to our clubhouse as far as toughness and leadership. Team first guy and his character will make us better. he is a leader. He is in that position at football and he is the same with us. That was what hurt us most when he decided to leave for football was losing his presence in the clubhouse. I think that he is a really good player. It is amazing how talented he is. H put a bat down for about a calendar year and he has hit three home runs in the past ten days. That speaks to his athleticism.”

Sheldon Neuse, Junior Shortstop/Pitcher

On how much he has grown since he has been here:
“It has been crazy to see where I started out and where I am now. I made some changes defensively. Tried to pick that part of my game up. I have played short and closed for a long time, so that is something that I would love to do to help this team win and whatever Coach Hughes wants we are going to do it.”

Alex Wise, Senior Outfielder

On his health and progression:
“I feel good right now. A lot of credit to our trainer Robert Fulton. He has helped me a lot. I laid out all summer and rested for three or four months. Its gone well. There was no reason to push it in the fall. I have been just taking it easy and if I had a set back then just take it back a little and take some time off. I have been going pretty hard lately and I would say that I am pretty close to where I was. Just getting my legs back into shape is my thing right now. Over the last week or two I have been getting my step and sprinting. definitely closer than I have been because i hadn't sprinted at all until we got back."

Jake Elliott, Junior Pitcher

Where do you think that you have made that you have made an improvement:
"I think like coach said, just my third pitch, my breaking ball. That was my major point of emphasis this fall and this winter. I feel like that I have grown a lot of that area.”

Players Mentioned

Jake Elliott

Hunter Haley

Alec Hansen

Jake Irvin

Austin Kerns

Sheldon Neuse

Cody Thomas

Kyle Tyler

Alex Wise

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