Storm begin 2017 season in Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Simpson baseball team begins the Nathan Roling era Saturday when it begins play at the Tucson Invitational from Kino Sports Complex. The Storm will play 10 games on their annual spring break trip, beginning with a double-dip against Aurora. 

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Saturday, March 4 — vs. Aurora (DH)
Sunday, March 5 — vs. Newbury (DH)
Tuesday, March 7 — vs. North Central, Minn.
Tuesday, March 7 — vs. Wabash
Thursday, March 9 — vs. Bethany Lutheran (DH)
Friday, March 10 — vs. Marian, Wis. (DH)

ROLING TAKES OVER
Roling takes over as Simpson's head coach after spending the last six seasons as a top assistant in the Iowa Conference. He spent the last three seasons at Loras, and prior to that was an assistant at Coe. Roling graduated from Loras in 2008 as a three-time Academic All-IIAC honoree. He went on to serve as a graduate assistant at Stevenson from 2009-10.

SEASON OUTLOOK
The Storm return five starting position players and five pitchers from last year's squad that went 14-29.

Among Simpson's returning starters are infielders Hunter Hillygus, Jonathan Greiner and Jacob Petry. Hillygus is the team's leading returner at the plate, hitting .290 with 11 RBIs in 2016. Third baseman Greiner hit .284 with 16 RBIs and Petry, who moved into the role of starting shortstop, hit .260 in 23 starts. 

Outfielders Luke Anctil and Trent Dooley are the incumbents in left field and center field, respectively. Anctil hit .264 with 16 RBIs and Dooley drove in 17 runs while hitting .241. He led the team with four stolen bases. 

Simpson's rotation will feature some new arms as the Storm's returning pitchers accounted for just six of the team's 43 starts. Among the returners are left-hander Tyler Englehardt, who went 1-2 with a 6.94 ERA in 23.1 innings of work. The quartet of Greiner, Trey Kehoe, Adam Richman and Curt Castenson will feature prominently on the mound as well. Greiner, Kehoe and Richman each started two games apiece and Curt Castenson made nine relief appearances last year.

IIAC PRESEASON COACHES POLL
The Storm were picked ninth in the 2017 IIAC Preseason Coaches Poll with 12 votes after going 10-18 and finishing sixth in the league a year ago. Defending league champion Wartburg (59 points) edged conference tournament champion Luther (58 points) for tops in the poll.

NEW SCHEDULE FORMAT
With the addition of Nebraska Wesleyan to the IIAC comes a change in the conference schedule format. The conference schedule will now feature a 24-game, round-robin slate. Teams will play three, nine-inning games against league opponents. The weekend format will consist of a single, nine-inning game Friday afternoon and two, nine-inning games Saturday.