PAC WEST PRESEASON RELEASE (PDF)
QUEEN CREEK, ARIZONA – The Pacific West Conference held their first annual Baseball Media Day on Monday, officially kicking off the 2010 baseball season. Pac West Commissioner Bob Hogue hosted the event from Hawaii featuring interviews with the head coaches of all five conference teams. The show also announced the Preseason All-Conference Team and predicted order of finish. Dixie State College earned the top spot in the order of finish while four Red Storm players were named to the all-conference team including Pac West Preseason Player of the Year Brett Adams (Sandy. UT/Alta HS).
Dixie State received four of the five first-place votes from the coaches to finish first in the preseason predicted order of finish. DSC won the Pac West Conference last year with a 33-19 overall record. Mike Littlewood’s squad also won the Pac West Little World Series in May posting an undefeated 3-0 mark. They finished ranked seventh in the final 2009 West Region poll and will begin the 2010 campaign again ranked seventh in the West.
Adams, the senior outfielder from Sandy, started all 52 games last season and posted impressive numbers - .353 avg., nine home runs and 50 runs batted in. He was a Pac West’s First Team in 2008 and nabbed 2nd Team honors in 2009. The American Baseball Coaches Association named Adams to the West Region Second Team last year. His 52 runs scored was tops among fellow outfielders on the ABCA/Rawlings list.
Drew Oldfield (Aurora, CO/Rangeview), Tony Nelson (St. George. UT/Dixie) and Preston Grimes (Taylorsville, UT/Taylorsville) were also named to the All-Conference Preseason Team.
Oldfield led the Red Storm last year slugging 19 homers with 68 RBI. The senior from Aurora, Colorado hit .335 in his first year at Dixie State to earn a spot on the Pac West First Team in ’09.
Nelson started all 48 games he played hitting .343 with 43 RBI. The local St. George product was the Pac West Little World Series MVP after leading DSC in runs batted in for the tournament. This year, Tony will have the special opportunity to play alongside his younger brother, Kimball, who joins the Red Storm after graduating from Dixie High School.
Grimes, from Taylorsville, is the only returning starting pitcher from last year’s squad. He posted a 7-2 record with a 7.44 ERA in 65.1 innings. He appeared in 14 games and started in 13. The senior pitcher will head a new-look starting rotation after three starters from last season left due to graduation.
Dixie State College begins play at home on Friday, January 5 against nationally-ranked Mesa State College starting at 3:00 p.m. Conference action starts on February 19 on the road at Grand Canyon. Hawaii Pacific will kick off the home Pac West schedule on Sunday, March 14 at Noon.
Grand Canyon and Hawaii Pacific tied for second place in the predicted order of finish – the Antelopes received one first-place vote. Hawaii Hilo ranked fourth and Academy of Art, in their first year of official Pac West play, slots into fifth. Hawaii Pacific’s senior lefty Caelan O’Meara was named Preseason Pitcher of the Year.