Dylan Friend had some pretty big shoes to fill in center field for the UW-Whitewater baseball team. The freshman out of Burlington High School saw spot duty early in the season but has been the every game starting center fielder since the team arrived back in Whitewater following its early season southern swing to St. Louis and Florida.The everyday centerfielder for UWW baseball for four of the past five previous seasons was Jordan Stine who was named to the WIAC first team four times in his illustrious Warhawk career. The Merrill, Wisconsin native won the award in 2006, 2007 and 2008, sitting out the entire 2009 season due to injury.
Not a lot of freshman plays an everyday role as a season-long starter in the UW-Whitewater baseball program.
What was the line in the Patrick Swayze movie Roadhouse said to Swayze’s character in the movie? “I thought you were bigger.”
Dylan stands just 5-8 weighing 180 pounds but possesses surprising “pop” in his bat. The freshman has hit three of his four home runs over the past two weeks including one in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Oshkosh at the WIAC Tournament in Stevens Point.
Dylan told voiceseyeonbaseball.blogspot.com that he just looks to drive the ball each at bat.
“I’m just looking to hit line drives and if the ball ‘goes out’ that’s great.”
While suffering some “bumps” along the way, Friend has been very efficient manning center field. With excellent quickness, the freshman possesses a solid .978 fielding percentage and committed just two errors during the regular season.
With his outfield mates Matt Beyer in left and Dan Putnam in right the Warhawks feature perhaps the fastest outfield in the WIAC.
The freshman centerfielder was named UW-Whitewater’s representative on the All-WIAC Sportsmanship team announced Monday by the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference office.
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