GREENWOOD, Ind. – The Great Midwest Athletic Conference conducted interviews with Salem International head coach Shawn Pynn and senior pitcher Colton Langford as part of this year’s baseball season preview.
The Tigers would like to put a 9-40 season in 2015 behind them in the rearview mirror. Salem International clinched the final spot in the G-MAC Championship and went 6-18 in the conference regular-season schedule.
SIU was picked to finish seventh in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches Poll this year.
Pynn spoke very highly of the intensity he’s seeing and said his staff has pushed his players twice as hard in the offseason as any year. Despite getting picked seventh in the preseason poll, the Tigers are laying wait in ambush as Pynn said ‘people may just get caught sleeping.’
The Tigers are anxious to get to Opening Day on Saturday in North Carolina with a three-game series scheduled against Barton.
Hitting: At 6-5, Anthony Bariso isn’t your prototypical leadoff hitter, but with a high on-base percentage and a batting average pushing .400, the reasoning is more than validated…Bariso only played in about 60 percent of the team’s games and his numbers, while strong, could have been better with more at-bats…RBI leader Emilio Lollio and Emmanuel Dominguez were two very polished bats that will need to be replaced…Lollio and Dominguez combined for over 100 runs scored…Senior catcher Rahul Badve handles the staff and is durable with 48 games played in last year…SIU hit .237 as a team; Pynn and his staff will insert a few newcomers to try and find a steady lineup.
Pitching: Injuries curtailed the end of a promising season for senior lefty Colton Lankford, who finished with three complete games and a shutout…Lankford would like to end the season at “Prasco Park with a dogpile," an artistic saying of hoping to win the conference tournament…Lankford and sophomore righty Kevin Ortiz were both G-MAC Pitchers of the Week in 2015….Ortiz is looking to build on a year that included 14 games appeared in and a team-high 42 strikeouts…Bariso, Ortiz and Dolan Kunkel each appeared in 14 games last season…Kunkel started a team-high 12 games and posted three winning decisions.
Coaching: Pynn will begin his fourth season at the helm of the Salem International program…Pynn played some college baseball at the DII level at Gannon…He also has managerial experience overseas in Europe.