MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama baseball head coach Mark Calvi recently sat down with USAJaguars.com to recap the fall season. Highlights from the final part, which focuses on position players, of the two-part interview is below.

QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Calvi
- On the infield this fall:
"We're never going to play average defense around here; it will be a version of good. This has a chance to be one of those top-10 to top-20 defenses. We have a bunch of guys returning on the infield. With some guys coming in, (Hunter) Stokes will play some first base. There will not be a first baseman better than Stokes; there won't be many in the country better than him defensively, and there will not be a first baseman better than him that we play this year or in our conference. He is a middle infielder playing first, and I like good infielders. I like good defense, and I am always going to lean toward pitching and defense over offense any single day. But we have (Santi) Montiel returning (at shortstop), (Cameron) Tissue and Landon Jordan at third base and Tissue is also a shortstop. We've moved both of those guys around; they are athletic infielders. One hits left and one hits right, and they both run well. Tissue has gotten better offensively – both of those guys had a good fall. Stokes is at second and first, Kasey Donaldson, a JUCO product, is at first or DH. Erik Orbeta at second base has done a very nice job – a transfer from Miami-Dade (CC) who was one of the better hitters in the state of Florida last year.

"(Brandon) Auerbach can play third, shortstop or second base. Noah Bailey is back at second base, Logan Malone is working his way into the mix; he has gotten stronger physically, and he's a lot more comfortable in his own skin on the field. From an infield standpoint, this is as good of an infield as we have had. The catchers are infielders. You can't have a good defense without reliable defensive catchers. And this is as wide open of a catching crew as I have had. It is wide open; there is not a starter yet. They all have strengths and weaknesses, but it is wide open. We have experience. Reid Powers has been back there for us. He has been to the postseason and played in some big games for us. Carter Sanford was here last year and caught a lot in the bullpen, but did not get a lot of live action. He did get some at-bats for us, and went out and had a great summer in one of the top-five summer leagues in the country in the Appalachian League. Diego Altimirano, a JUCO product, has done a really good job. He shuts the run game down and blocks extremely well. He is a left-handed hitter who swung the bat pretty well this fall. And DJ Law, a returner in his third year in the program, with some experience, and Harrison Ware missed most of the fall with some family issues, but is a talented player is well. So this is as deep and wide open of a catching crew as I have had. I couldn't nail down the starter right now if I had to. It is going to come down to the wire, and it might be a situation where you have multiple guys who are playing. We have some options and chess pieces back there. I like our depth back there, it's just going to continue to be how well we receive, block and throw runners out. The offense is great, but that's secondary for a catcher; it's a defensive position, and our best defender or depending on what we need that day will be back there."

- On the outfield:
"We lost two really good outfielders (Ethan Wilson & Michael Sandle) and offensive pieces, but just like when they came here, they were replacing some really good pieces in (Dylan) Hardy, (Brendan) Donovan and (Travis) Swaggerty). They had to fill some big shoes, and these guys have some big shoes to fill. Hunter Donaldson, who had significant playing time as a freshman, can play all three positions. He is tough as nails out there, and is physically stronger. He is a very good outfielder, and his at-bats are getting better. Will Turner, who is a true center fielder, is along the lines of Swaggerty – kind of Cole Billingsley and Swaggerty out in center field. Joe Sullivan can play all three, left, center and right, and is also an outstanding first baseman. He will see some time at first if Stokes gets in there and plays some second. We have some guys we can move around. And then Miles Simington and Charles Middleton, who are continually working to improve defensively – not that they are bad defensively, they are not bad at all.

"From a range standpoint they are not as fast as those other guys, but they give you a great effort in the outfield. An older approach, they are smart with the baseball and not making mistakes with it; they hit their cuts, dive when they need to and pull up when they need to. But they're going to give us some pop and presence in the lineup, and some knowledge of the college game being graduate transfers and already playing at a high level in Division I. Nick Skaggs from Pearl River (CC) needs to figure out his classwork. He is an extremely talented player who will help us on the field if he can figure out the classwork. Eli Runyan, a two-way guy, is a switch-hitter. He didn't have a great fall pitching-wise, but had a minor injury last spring. He is a kid who pitched a lot in high school and travel ball, and had to shut down a little bit. So he was behind a little bit this fall from a throwing standpoint, but came on late. He is an option for us as well in the outfield. Bailey Hendon is a returner who didn't play a lot last year, but has gotten better. Harrison Ware is also an outfielder and a good athlete. We have some speed out there. If anything, we don't have enough right-handed hitting but losing an incoming JUCO guy over the summer who is a legit right-handed hitter kind of hurt our balance, so we'll be predominantly left-handed. I wish we had another right-handed hitter in there, but good hitters will hit. It's just about being tough at the plate, wearing pitchers down and working them over."

- On the focus after returning from the holiday break:
"There's only so much you can accomplish and learn about your team in intrasquads. Unfortunately, unlike basketball, if they would give us some scrimmage games like they do in the fall – if they would allow us to play two exhibition games and move the season from Feb. 18 to March 1 and give us more ramp-up time, let us play two outside teams – you could learn a lot more. It's only two contests, but you can learn more in two games against someone with a different uniform on than you can playing 10 intrasquads. I feel as though this fall we accomplished and learned as much about this team as we could with the two outside opponents we had. Basically, you have a bunch of hitters facing the same pitchers, so it gives you a false sense of anything. But you get back and build your pitchers and their pitch counts up, and a lot of it is defensive situations and bunt coverage along with some of the offense that we like to run. Last year we missed half of our field time in the preseason due to weather. So we made some uncharacteristic, routine defensive mistakes, and we were usually the benefactor of those mistakes early on in the year. It is about being locked down and ready defensively to start the year, having our pitchers healthy and maximizing their pitch counts, and offensively you want to have great at-bats. You take 25 games and try to solidify, if everyone is healthy, not just your starting nine but the 11 or 12 main guys. But you can only figure those things out when you play someone else; intrasquads tell you very little. It can enforce culture and going hard, and you want guys to want to win but it is an intrasquad. We have some older guys who know the difference between a real game and an intrasquad, and that was some of the challenges this fall with some returners – some of the guys who have been around the program and had success. Getting it through their heads and locking in for intrasquads, but I know what they're going to give me in the spring when someone else is in the other dugout. I felt as though everything that we needed to accomplish that we could, we did this fall."

NOTES
- Charles Middleton led the Jags in hits (16), batting average (.381), home runs (4), RBIs (12), total bases (30), slugging percentage (.714) and on-base percentage (.458).
- Nick Skaggs ranked second on the team in batting average (.341), hits (14), and tied for second in stolen bases (6).
- Joseph Sullivan led the team in stolen bases (8), and ranked second in slugging percentage (.512).
- Santi Montiel ranked second on the tam in home runs with two.
- Joe Sutton led the team with an eight-game on-base streak.
- Middleton recorded a team-best seven-game hitting streak, and also led the team with three multi-RBI contests.
- Hunter Stokes posted the team's longest on-base streak at 14 games.

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