Most Important Guys for USF Baseball on the Road

I have to say, I'm impressed with how USF Baseball has bounced back from a less than promising start to the season. Since getting down to a .500 record and getting blown out by the Yankees in a game that didn't really count, the Bulls are 16-5 with one more home game to go. I'm still not convinced that this team has what it takes to be great, but they're 5-1 in the Big East, so they're doing something right. But they won't have the home field advantage any longer. After tonight's game, they'll be heading to Cincinnati, then back to Florida for an away game at Stetson, followed by a weekend series at Pittsburgh. In that stretch, the team is going to need to continue to do well in the places that they've been succeeding. And I'll explain just who we're going to need to carry this team on the road after the jump.

As far as pitching goes, of course we're going to need Barbosa to give us a solid push on Friday, but I think Joey Lovecchio could be the most valuable pitcher on the road. He's putting his 6-0 record on the line today and he, just as well as the other starters, will need to go deep in order to account for a struggling bullpen. And being the Saturday game starter, it's best to leave the bullpen fresh for the Sunday guy. You can probably assume Barbosa won't go deep on Friday night, so a night of rest after some work on the previous night will be valuable.

Defensively, you always assume that the shortstop is the most important guy. But I've grown a bit more confident in Kyle Teaf's ability to hold it down in the hole. What is going to be very important is Daniel Rockhold's ability to play sound defense at third. All through the homestand, Rock didn't do terribly, but he sure wasn't an MVP. And it's hard to blame him. He's a catcher. It's different. But he took on the responsibility of transitioning to third and his success is going to be integral to USF's game on the road. The pitching needs as much help as they can get.

Finally, at the plate, obviously you need hits. We're not a team who is great at manufacturing runs. I think a big key to that is exhausting the opposing pitcher, and no one does that better than Andrew Longley. He doesn't have the best stats in the clubhouse, but I think he's the best hitter on the team for one major reason: he stays alive. Longley can go behind early in the count, but he continues to foul off pitches. He forces the pitcher to throw 5-10 extra pitches because he refuses to go down. And he often gets out after that sequence. But he paves the way for batters behind him, and that's what's important.

Overall, I think we'll do all right on the road. Cincy and Pitt aren't that great, and we're hot right now. I'm not too worried about the Stetson games because all that really matters is conference records. Don't be shocked if the Bulls return home with 10 conference wins before the Louisville series.