Soesbe hopeful as practice begins

Tuesday, Jan. 12, 1999 | 10:26 a.m.

Rod Soesbe got halfway through running down his roster for the 1999 season when he paused and smiled.

"Man, I really like our depth," the third-year UNLV head baseball coach said as the Rebels went through their first day of practice Monday at Wilson Stadium.

Although the Rebels lost several key players from last year's team, which went 31-24 and just missed qualifying for the conference tournament, Soesbe is optimistic as UNLV prepares for its third and final season in the Western Athletic Conference.

"Even with the kids we lost last year, we've got a lot of kids back and a lot of experience back," Soesbe said. "I think what we've got more than we had last year is depth in the infield, outfield and catching.

"We feel like the overall depth is good and the pitching is a lot better -- and we've got good depth there, too. (Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr.) feels he has got nine or 10 guys who can come out of the bullpen or compete for a starting position."

Add to that that the Rebels have a solid defense and better team speed than they have had in years, and you can see the reason for Soesbe's optimism.

The Rebels lost their most productive offensive weapon in Kevin Eberwein, who was drafted by the San Diego Padres, but UNLV returns an equally potent threat in junior Ryan Ludwick.

Ludwick, a second-team preseason All-American, hit .352 with 14 home runs and 57 RBIs as a sophomore and enjoyed an outstanding summer playing for the USA Baseball National Team.

The return of catcher Ryan Hamill and first baseman Tony DeMarco and the addition on junior-college transfer Brian Hertel should give UNLV plenty of offense in the middle of the lineup, Soesbe said.

UNLV has had little trouble scoring runs the past two years -- preventing the opposition from doing so has been the Rebels' Achilles heel.

Last year, UNLV got off to a 21-8 start before injuries sidelined its top two starting pitchers, Bryan Gidge and Mike Zipser. The Rebels couldn't overcome their lack of pitching depth and finished the season losing 16 of their final 26 games.

"What hurt us last year was when Gidge and Zipser went down," Soesbe said. "We were rolling until that happened and then we had to move our third, fourth and fifth (starters) up to one, two and three and that killed us; we didn't have that kind of depth.

"If we can keep everybody healthy, we're excited because Gidge is back and healthy and (Billy) Barker, (Mike) Lopez and Toby Harris have been throwing well."

UNLV is going to need all the arms it can muster this season to tackle one of the Rebels' toughest schedules in years.

In addition to playing traditional powers Arizona, Pepperdine and Cal State Fullerton in nonconference games, UNLV will play three of its toughest conference series on the road.

"We've got to go to Hawaii, we've got to go to Fresno State, we've got to go to Rice and we've got to go to Utah," Soesbe said. "It's an awful tough schedule -- there are no lightweights on the schedule at all."

Nonetheless, Soesbe said he is encouraged after watching his team go through its paces during an abbreviated fall season.

"We really got excited about the effort that we had in the fall and the work ethic of the guys," Soesbe said. "They seem to feel we're a better ballclub and when they feel that, it's a lot easier for the coaches to believe in it.

"We believe we're going to have a good ballclub."

The Rebels will tune up for their Feb. 5 opener at home against UC Santa Barbara by playing an alumni team this Saturday at 1 p.m. at Wilson Stadium.

Among the former Rebels scheduled to play include major leaguers Todd Stottlemyre (Arizona Diamondbacks), Brian Boehringer (Padres) and T.J. Mathews (Oakland Athletics).