Baseball begins season Sunday in Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Simpson baseball team begins the 2018 season Sunday at the Tucson Invitational Games at Kino Sports Complex. The Storm will play nine games in seven days on their annual trip to Arizona.

The Storm and second-year head coach Nathan Roling return five starting position players and six pitchers from last year's team that went 7-20 overall and finished ninth in the Iowa Conference with a 4-20 mark. Among the returners are honorable mention all-conference infielder Hunter Hillygus, who hit a team-best .336 a year ago.

Fans can listen to all nine games free on SimpsonAthletics.com. Bryan Geelan will describe the action on the Storm's StretchInternet streaming portal. Pregame begins at 9:45 a.m. M.T. Sunday.

2018 Quick Facts

Storm Quick Hits
• Simpson begins its 109th season of collegiate baseball in Sunday's season-opener against Wabash. The Storm are 1,125-1,138-9 since fielding its first team in 1895.
• The Storm closed the 2017 season on a high note, getting a 4-3, walk-off win over Central at McBride Field.
• Two of the Storm's returning starters are using a fifth-year of eligibility. Hillygus hit .336 with with eight doubles, a home run and 14 RBIs in 2017 while hurler Trey Kehoe logged a team-high 55 innings and posted a 4.42 ERA. He also hit .250 with five RBIs as a designated hitter.
• Simpson posted IIAC single-game highs in 2017 with its 21-run, 27-hit performance in a shutout win over North Central (Minn.) in Arizona.
• The Storm will be playing three opponents for the first time in school history this week: Briar Cliff, Concordia (Neb.) and Macalester.

Quotes from the Coach
"From an expectation standpoint, it's always about growth. We don't talk about number of wins or outcome-based goals, but we talk a lot about he process and seeing growth from game-to-game." — Nathan Roling on his expectations for the season

"We return five pitchers with significant experience from last year. Last year our pitching staff wasn't nearly as good as what it needs to be to compete at a high level in the Iowa Conference, but returning five individuals with significant experience is really helpful for us. We can go into conference series with experience and we have individuals who understand what it's like to compete at the conference level." —Nathan Roling on the strength of this season's team

"We need to understand what it takes to compete at a high level every day. Playing nine varsity games and one JV game in a seven-day span is going to test that consistency. Having some younger players on the team, having to bring it at a high-level every day is going to be a great experience for us. We definitely expect to come down here and get some wins." — Nathan Roling on the team's goals for the Tucson Invitational Games

Preseason Coaches' Poll
Simpson was picked ninth in the IIAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 11 points. Three-time defending champion Wartburg led the way with 61 points and six first-place votes and Dubuque came in second with three first-place votes.