San Diego Toreros Baseball Preview
By Matt Welch
The San Diego Toreros baseball team is going into this season ranked in the top 25.
Mandatory Credit: sdhoc.comEach of the four major baseball polls have them highly ranked.
Collegiate Baseball: #12
Perfect Game: #18
NCBWA: #20
Baseball America: #25
Perfect Game, a baseball scouting service, has the Toreros ranked #7 in recruiting this season, as well. The top recruit is catcher Reese McGuire. McGuire is a Perfect Game All-American and has been praised for his ball blocking skills, good arm and quick bat speed at the plate. Other standouts in this year’s draft class include LHP Ian Clarkin, LHP Stephen Gansalves, RHP Andrew Church, IF Terrian Arbet, and OF Ryan Kirby.
The San Diego Toreros also have two Pre-season All-Americans in junior first baseman Kris Bryant and junior RHP Michael Wagner.
Wagner, the 6’4″ 185 pounder from Las Vegas, NV has been recognized as a NCBWA 1st teamer and a Louisville Slugger 3rd teamer. As a sophomore, he was selected to the NCBWA 2nd team, the Baseball American third team, and a WCC honorable mention. Appearing primarily as a closer for the Toreros, he went 5-2 with a 2.58 ERA and racked up 19 saves. He didn’t allow a single home run all season and he struck out 53.
Bryant, the 6’5″ 215 pounder from Las Vegas, NV, has been recognized as a Baseball American 1st teamer, a Louisville Slugger 1st teamer, and a Perfect Game 1st teamer. As a sophomore he was selected to the All-Conference team, the Baseball American first team, and the Louisville Slugger third team. For the season he hit .366, sending 14 balls over the wall and driving in 57 runs. He was also a member of the WCC All-Academic team with a GPA of 3.34.
For the upcoming season, the Toreros are set to play six teams that made post-season runs. They’ll have 33 home games at their new park, Fowler Park. They’ll set foot in the new park against rival San Diego State on February 15th.
The San Diego Toreros have high hopes coming into the season and they’ll look to pick up where they left off last season and make a run deep into the NCAA Baseball Tournament.