Pioneers will lean on experience, letter winners for 2016 season

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. —In his tenth season as the Pioneer baseball head coach, Eric Frese will be returning 20 letter winners, nine starters and five pitchers for the 2016 season, including three players honored in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for their performances in the 2015 season.

The three All-WIAC honorees returning for the Pioneers include seniors Casey Schroeder and Austin Daniels and junior Colin Deboer. Last season, Schroeder and Deboer combined for 79 hits, 62 runs and 35 runs batted in.

On the other side of the ball, Daniels recorded the lowest ERA of the Pioneer pitchers in the 2015 season with 3.29, pitching the most innings with 63 and averaging five strikeouts per game.

Another key player returning to the Pioneer roster is senior outfielder Evan Greco, who logged a .959 fielding percentage with only three errors in 38 games played last season.

Senior Tanner Galeazzi will join Greco in the outfield as a fellow key part to the Pioneer defense. Galeazzi, a Greenfield, Wisconsin native, is no stranger to the field, playing in all 40 games last season while recording a fielding percentage of .976 for the Pioneers.

Nathan Fay, a junior New Windsor, Illinois native, is also returning to the pitching mound for the Pioneers. Last season, Fay had the second lowest ERA for the Pioneers behind Daniels, recording a 5.79 and averaging 4.66 strikeouts per game after playing in 11 total games throughout the season.

The Pioneers will kick off the 2016 season at a tournament in Jacksonville, Illinois March 11-13 before heading to Florida for the Gene Cusic Classic March 18-25. When the team returns to home, they head to Marian University in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin on Tuesday, March 29 to begin play at 1 p.m.

Written by: Carly Willman, University Information and Communications, 608.342.1194, willmanc@uwplatt.edu