It sure has felt like baseball season outside this week, and while we won't be seeing the IU baseball team at Sembower Field until late March, the Hoosiers will get things going this weekend with three games in the Caravelle Resort Invitational in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
As I wrote in the IDS following baseball media day last week, the opening-weekend rotation appears set. IU coach Tracy Smith plans to start three left-handed pitchers.
Junior Drew Leininger, who had a breakout season in 2010 with a 9-3 record, will start Friday against Virginia Tech. Freshman and 2010 high school All-American Joey DeNato will take the mound for the first time as a collegiate Saturday against Boston College, and junior Blake Monar will wrap up the weekend as starter against No. 18 Coastal Carolina.
While the rotation boasts veterans Leininger and Monar -- the latter returns to the mound after a shoulder injury limited him to just three-and-a-half innings pitching in the 2010 season opener -- the buzz around the team surrounds DeNato.
The San Diego native, who posted a 10-2 record a 1.15 ERA his senior season at Torrey Pines High School, has drawn praise from Smith, his fellow weekend starters and his other teammates. A common theme in others' assessments of DeNato is maturity on the mound and the ability to execute multiple pitches.
Here are a few things other IU personnel had to say about DeNato.
IU coach Tracy Smith
"We haven't scored on him yet since he stepped on campus, and even in our stuff indoors, he pulled a zero ERA out of the fall. He's just very mature on the mound. He just works both sides of the plate, an idea of what he wants to do, he executes his pitches.
If you were to say to me, 'Line them all up and pick which guy you think is the starter out of that group,' he'd probably be the last guy because he's like 3-foot-4. But he's got a great heart, he's got good stuff, very mature on the mound, and I think that's what separates him from the other freshmen."
Junior pitcher Drew Leininger
"DeNato is extremely mature as a freshman. Him and guys like (Ryan) Halstead, Matt Dierden, they compete so well for us. They have already in the fall, and they will in the season. I think that it's just so much more variety, so many more options for us."
Senior catcher Wes Wilson
"Joey's been looking good. He can put it in where he wants it. That's big for us"
