Rams baseball ready to start

The 2012 Rams Baseball team will be featuring a lot of new faces on the 33-man roster as they move on from 2011 season where they finished 25-23 and did not make the postseason.

The Rams will have eight new freshmen and 11 transferred students to make 19 new players for the upcoming season.

Only 14 players are returning Rams and only two of them were in the starting lineup for 2011.

Several of the transferred players are expected to make immediate impact going into 2012 like sophomore pitcher/infielder Jake Feckley.

"He transferred from A&M," head coach Kevin Brooks said. "He should be one of the better pitchers and he swings the bat well too."

Brooks said Feckley is a hard-throwing contact pitcher that uses a fastball, a slider, and a changeup pitch to get hitters out.

Another transfer from Texas A&M is senior Brett Parsons who has "got some power and does a lot of things," Brooks said.

Two more transfers include a pair of juniors from Paradise Valley Community College in Ryan Greer and Quaid McKinnon who play outfield and catcher respectively.

Brooks said that Greer is a fast outfielder that can hit and McKinnon is left-handed hitter with the ability to hit the ball to any field.

Brooks is not the only one who has noticed; senior bullpen catcher Nate Alter said he's seen some things to be positive about.

"I am very impressed with our new transfers," Alter said. "Most of the new guys really have some power in their bats, and I can see us doing really well offensively."

Alter, being the bullpen catcher, also had an opinion on the new pitchers.

 Our pitchers that have transferred here this year will really make a huge impact to our team," Alter said "We have pretty solid arms to start the game, and a great bullpen to shut it down."

Other Rams that look to contribute include seniors Zach Cohen and Doug Snover.

Brooks said Cohen, a team captain that has been converted to a shortstop, had a "great year" last year with a .382 batting average with 32 RBIs and an on-base average of .529.

Snover was on the team last year, but missed playing due to injury.

"He missed all of last year with a broken collarbone," Brooks said. "He broke it about two days before the season started and that hurt us tremendously. He played second base."

 Alter said the team's biggest improvement came in the weight room.

"I think our biggest improvement over the offseason was our strength," Alter said. "I know a lot of the guys really hit the weights pretty hard over the break, and as long as we keep our strength throughout the season we will be in great shape to win our games at the end of the season."

The Rams will open the season at home against Ouachita Baptist on Feb. 3 and look to win more in this 2012 season.