Behind Nick Trabacchi, the starting pitchers for conference games seems to be in flux this baseball season. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Baseball in early February at UNC-Pembroke in North Carolina is the usual fare for Shepherd baseball. That season-opening slate of three games won’t change this year. But the usual core of experienced players that coach Matt McCarty takes with him will.

Gone are the top three hitters by batting average that most helped the Rams to an abbreviated 22-14-1 overall record and a season-closing loss to Millersville in the first round of the conference tournament.

Caleb Walls, Jared Carr and Dalton Stewart were Shepherd’s leading hitters in 2021. And all are gone.

When the cold-proof Rams take on Pembroke on Feb. 4, they will still have outfielder Daniel Keer, infielders Cole Daugherty, Tommy Gibson and Joey Schwartz, as well C/1B Zach Doss and outfielder Brennan Holmes.

An imported group of transfers that include outfielder Sam Daggers, pitcher Carson Lowman and pitcher Ryan Bywaters could ease the loss of the now-gone hitters, as well as pitchers Trevor Sprinkle and Steve Bowley.

The list of returning pitchers seem to lack any real dominant force, but Nick Trabacchi, Adam Miller, Tanner Dixon, Cole Dunn, Nate Hodgkinson and Ryan Marketell could all receive the early-season innings that could be used to prove themselves.

Winning in the PSAC takes consistency and a solid core of starting pitchers because Millersville and West Chester always chase the division title and Seton Hill, Mercyhurst, California and Slippery Rock from the conference’s other division usually make winning waves even on the national level.

The Rams have an aggressive early-season schedule that carries them into North Carolina to play Pembroke, into South Carolina to face Coker and Francis Marion and to Georgia where Georgia Southwestern State (Americus) will be seen.

All those games in the South are played from Feb. 4 to March 2.

Each of the other eight schools in the East Division is to be played three times. There are no games versus West Division teams unless the Rams reach the conference tournament again.

Former Jefferson High School pitcher and first baseman Zac Rose is one of the few freshmen on the roster, but a long list of players listed as sophomores who didn’t play in 2021 are still around. Trey Sine, Justin Ruzika-Porter, Daniel Keane, Jared Hall, Cameron Morales, Colby Vollmer, Donovan Garlock and Brenden Lewis are all players who were on last year’s senior- and graduate-student laden roster, but did not play.

Returnees Andrew Edwards and Conner Dewees also are upper classmen who might receive early-season playing time. Another large group numbering eight candidates will now be in competition for starting spots and heavy playing time. First-seen pitchers Jake Andrey (transfer from Rider), Aaron Snyder (transfer from Canisius) and Chris Chaney (who last played at St. James High School in 2019) are other pitchers who have to be evaluated. Ross Marshall comes to Shepherd from Gardner-Webb and is a first baseman. Infielders Ryan Haddaway, Jared Hall, Peyton Mason and Gino Serechia are also new to the bulging 2022 roster. McCarty lost starting pitchers Bowley and Sprinkle as well as reliever Eric O’Brien from a year ago.

The non-conference games to be played in more northernly climes have dates against Alderson Broaddus, Bluefield State, Lincoln (Pa.) and Tiffin (Ohio).

No team on the schedule has players potentially as disruptive as the COVID-19 virus. The coronavirus caused scheduling problems all throughout the 2021 schedule and has returned a full starting lineup of variants and potential pitfalls this year.

Weather-related cancellations shredded the February portion of the 2021 schedule and eventually limited the Rams to just 37 games.

This year, there are 13 dates scheduled for venerable Fairfax Field on the Shepherd campus.

There seems to be a real number of positions that are open to competition . . . and that includes the starting pitching, outfield, infield and even behind the plate. Behind Trabacchi, the starting pitchers for conference games seems to be in flux, with any number of newcomers having a chance to pitch on the weekends.

Should the list of returning players get off to slow starts, previously unseen faces could take their places all over the diamond for the 2022 Rams.