Grambling’s baseball team, though young on the mound, returns a bevy of veteran players elsewhere from a team that missed out on a chance for the SWAC Tournament title by the slimmest of margins.
“We’ll get leadership from the outfield, and from behind the plate,” said first-year coach James Cooper, a former assistant under departed coach Barret Rey.
“Brandon Smith caught in every game last year. Anthony Clifton (who led the team in both hits with 55 and stolen bases with 9) played outfield in every game,” Cooper told me. “In left field, we have Mychal Roby (tops for Grambling in home runs with 9, adding 39 RBIs). Our corner guys, our first and third basemen — all of those guys are seniors. That’s our leadership team.”
Unfortunately, gone are starting pitchers Baron Hinton and Manny Kumar, who claimed 8 of Grambling 17 wins a year ago.
“The fact is, we had the worst pitching staff on paper in our league — but we also had the second best defense,” Cooper said, “and one of the best offenses. All we are going to do is ask for solid outings from our pitchers, and that starts with Adrian Turner — one of the fiercest competitors in our conference.”
Fastball-hitter Milton Barney went .308 with three homers last season. O.J. Simmons, who had a team-best .450 on-base percentage, returns as does lead-off hitter Steve Kletke — who batted .331 in 2009. The pitching rotation will be bolstered by a series of juco transfers, including Jesus Favela and Eric Zagone.
Though just 17-37 overall in 2009, Rey left for Alcorn State having established some embryonic successes at Grambling. He took over a team that had slumped to 6-36 in its final campaign under James “Sapp” Randall, and helped GSU advance to consecutive SWAC tournament in 2008-09. Grambling had missed the postseason in each of the previous seven years prior to Rey’s arrival.
Some savvy changes in the pitching rotation late in the season sparked Grambling’s 2009 tournament run. The Tigers were finally felled by eventual champion Southern in the SWAC championship semifinals, though the game wasn’t decided until the 12th inning. GSU also scored a signature late-year win in a make-up game against Prairie View, knocking the Panthers out of the postseason for the first time since 2004.
“Cooper’s going to be all right,” Rey told Chuck Curti of BlackCollegeBaseball.com. “He’s rock solid. People better not sleep on them in the West.”
Cooper is only the fifth-ever baseball coach at Grambling. Ralph W.E. “Prez” Jones founded and then led the program from 1926-1977, followed by protege Wilbert Ellis from 1977-03. Together they won some 1,600 games at GSU. Randall then coached the Tigers from 2004-06, and after his contract was not renewed, Rey — a former assistant at Southern — took the reigns from 2007-09. Rey went 56-94 in his three seasons.
“His won-lost record might not have shown what he put into the program to get it going to be where it needs to be — and where it is expected to be,” said Ellis, known on campus as “The Dean.” “But when you’re going to the playoff and places like that, and this year being a pitch or two away from winning it — they were right there. They beat Southern, they beat Jackson State.”
GSU opens the new baseball season with a trio of games at Stephen F. Austin beginning on Friday.
Nick, when does the football schedule come out?