VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State baseball team opens the 2019 season this weekend with a three-game series at Embry-Riddle. The season gets underway Friday evening at 6 p.m. in Daytona Beach, Fla., followed by a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.
Check back with vstateblazers.com on the baseball schedule page for links to live stats and streaming for the games. Following the games, there will be complete recaps and stats of each game on the site.
The Blazers were picked fifth in the preseason Gulf South Conference poll earlier this month as they garnered 92 points, one point ahead of Lee and one behind Montevallo. VSU finished 20-26 last season and was 12-17 in GSC play. The Blazers are under the direction of head coach
Greg Guilliams, who begins his 12
th season at VSU and 29
th overall as he coached at Embry-Riddle for 17 seasons, prior to coming to Titletown. He is 339-222-1 (.604) at VSU while going 1016-479-2 (.679) for his career.
Guilliams welcomes back nine players who played last season, including four position players and five pitchers. Senior
DJ King returns after finishing the team second in average in 2018 at a .360 clip. He played and started 22 games with 31 hits, nine doubles, three home runs, and 14 RBI. Senior catcher
Aaron Haughton returns after hitting .252 in 34 games with 29 starts. He recorded 26 hits, 17 runs scored, eight doubles, seven home runs and drove in 25. Also returning behind the dish is senior
Andrew Williamson who hit .236 in 42 games with 39 starts. He had 34 hits with 21 runs scored, 12 doubles, five home runs and drove in 22.
On the mound, junior
Cooper Cain returns as he went 4-5 last season in 18 appearances with 10 starts and one save. He pitched 58 innings, allowing 58 hits, 31 runs – 26 earned, walked 27 and fanned 75 for the most on the team. Relievers junior
Sean Gabel, who went 2-2 in ten appearances with six starts last season, junior
Tristan Cone, junior
Anthony Dahl, and senior
Call Graham all return.
Despite not having anyone named to the GSC Preseason All-Conference team, VSU had two players named to the top newcomer's team for the league. Senior Elon transfer
Josh Broughton and junior lefty
Jonathan Gettys out of Wallace CC highlight the transfers for 2019 for the Blazers.
Broughton played in 55 games for the Phoenix in 2018 as he hit .252 with 27 runs scored, three doubles, one triple, three home runs, and 18 RBI. He went 12 of 15 on the base paths. Broughton also played at St. John's River and Hillsborough CC.
Embry-Riddle enters the year after a 20-30 campaign in 2018 and a 9-21 mark in the Sunshine State Conference. The Eagles finished eighth in the conference last season and were picked 11
th this season in the preseason conference poll with 22 points. Despite being picked 11
th, the Eagles return nearly all of the 2018 lineup, including consensus All-America selection Kyle Marsh, along with all-region selections Kyle Gettveg and Zach Howard and Honorable Mention All-America honoree Luis Olivier. On the bump, ERAU returns starters Daniel Agramond, Garrett Goodall, Matthew Russell, and Dominic Jeancola out of the bullpen. ERAU head coach Randy Stegall took over for Guilliams in the summer of 2017 and has been very successful for the Eagles, going 491-266-2 (.647) in 12 seasons so far.
Following the series, VSU returns home to host Flagler at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5, for the 2019 home-opener at Billy Grant Field at Tommy Thomas Park.
