After a third-place finish at the 2014 NCAA tournament, the St. Thomas baseball team earned the No. 2 ranking in the NCAA Division-III preseason poll.

After finishing 39-9 last season, the Tommies are now in transition mode with the team losing 14 seniors and seven of their nine starters from their 2014 team. Coach Chris Olean is entering his sixth season in the St. Thomas dugout and thinks the new lineup is young but talented.

“We might have up to four freshman starting this season,” Olean said. “(That) is a great testament to how hard they’ve each worked and what they’ve done so far this year.”

Outfielders Jake Smith and Jimmy Dolan, first baseman Hunter Hart and shortstop Zach Gottfredsen are among the many freshmen Olean speculates may play a big role for the team.

Pitcher Greg Clute, team captain, said he is happy to have a lot of new talent on the team.

“There are some young guys that I can tell are working harder everyday to get ready for the season,” Clute said. “There’s a lot of energy and positivity at practice which makes us all excited to start playing.”

Despite the substantial roster turnover, senior outfielder Kelvin Stroik said the Tommies’ strong pitching staff will help ease the transition.

“We’ve got a lot of new guys coming in,” Stroik said. “A lot of new guys who will have to fill in the positions of last year’s seniors. But our pitching is strong, which is great for us.”

Clute agreed and said he isn’t as worried about the beginning of the season because of returning pitchers.

“Our pitching staff is as deep as it’s ever been,” Clute said. “It’s amazing to see how many guys have been able to step up for us, and it puts us in a good place to start the season.”

The St. Thomas pitching staff led the MIAC last season with a 3.17 ERA and 344 total strikeouts. Pitchers Colin Wendinger and Eric Veglahn topped the conference in innings pitched last season with 71 and 69.2, respectively.

For the rest of the returning players, Olean is relying on Clute, Stroik, shortstop Brady Johnson and third baseman Cory Quinlan among other upperclassmen to step up as leaders for the Tommies this year.

Another returner the team is counting on this year is center fielder Waylon Bemboom, who played a key role in the team’s success as a designated hitter, particularly in last year’s postseason run.

“He had a really good regional and World Series last year when he stepped in for a guy who got hurt,” Olean said. “And we’re really looking for him to step up again.”

The Tommies will play their first games of the season on Friday, March 13 against No. 6-ranked Linfield and No. 8-ranked Concordia-Chicago in Tucson, Arizona.

“Before we get to the regular season, we need to get through Arizona and see where we are as a team,” Olean said. “That will be a true test to where we stand.”

Stroik said the whole team knows the first day of the season is going to bring a lot of competition for the Tommies, especially because of the results of last year’s postseason.

“It’s going to be a tough one,” Stroik said. “We beat Linfield in the World Series last year and knocked them out, so we know they’re going to be coming for us.”

Even though the Tommies are predicted to be among the top teams in the nation, Olean doesn’t want to get ambitious and think too far ahead.

“The main target this year is the conference championship once again,” Olean said. “Once we get that, we earn a spot in regionals. It’s never really fair to project that we want to win the World Series, so we’ll just shoot for the MIAC title, and hopefully by then we’ll just be a better team.”

For the season as a whole, Clute is less worried about the record and more excited about the team’s development.

“I want to see a brand new team come together,” Clute said. “As long as we’re playing more for the guy next to us than for ourselves, we’re going to be successful. As long as we go out there playing for each other and work hard, this team has a lot of potential to do something special this year.”

After their games in Arizona, the Tommies will travel to Winterhaven, Florida over spring break for games against Grinnell, Amherst, Union (New York), the Minnesota Twins’ rookie team and No. 1-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater, which defeated St. Thomas in the national semifinal last season. St. Thomas will hold its conference-opener at home on March 28 in a doubleheader against St. Mary’s at Koch Diamond.

Lauren Andrego can be reached at andr0090@stthomas.edu.