Vodenlich: Our pitching staff primed for the challenge

There is more to winning in the WIAC than just hitting the ball around the park. The five-week long WIAC season has teams playing doubleheaders on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday through the first weekend in May.

UW-Whitewater head coach John Vodenlich sat down with Voiceseyeonbaseball.blogspot.com earlier this week.

Voices Blog (VB): Talk about your pitching. With the spacing of your two doubleheaders since coming back to Wisconsin following a week in Florida, now you are going to have to go deeper into your pitching with three doubleheaders each week aren’t you?

Coach Vo: Know doubt about it, but we are in the same boat as most of the other teams in the conference. It will be a challenge playing six games from Wednesday through Sunday. From a pitching staff standpoint, I can tell you our staff is pretty excited to get that opportunity. Some people are going to get the opportunity to see more time on the mound and they are excited about that. Now they’ll have the chance to show us what they can do.

Voices Blog: Talk about the importance of having enough depth on your pitching staff.

Coach Vo: Playing as many WIAC games as we do each week the depth of your pitching staff is definitely an issue. There is no doubt some excellent pitching in the conference again this year. Being able to get the most out of your pitching in a period of 24 games in less than five weeks is a key to being in the championship picture as the season goes on.

Voices Blog: You are now 12 and 1. That was in the nonconference portion of your schedule. From now on you play WIAC teams with a possible conference championship at the end of the season?

Coach Vo: Beginning Wednesday we’ll see a noticeable increase in the intensity of the game. It is a conference game, it’s an important game, and there is no doubt their will be a little elevation in intensity as we move through the schedule.

Having said that, it is a 24-game conference season and there is a lot of baseball to be played before we crown a conference champion.

Voices Blog: Even though you currently have a 12 & 1 record, do you have to play better baseball to win the 2010 WIAC regular season title?

Coach Vo: I think our men are ready to go and the most important thing is that at the end of this upcoming 24 conference games, we are playing better baseball than we are now. As has been shown by the football and basketball teams, if you are not playing your best at the end of the regular season it will be difficult to move on.

Here is a quick look at how the Warhawk pitching staff has performed so far in 2010:

• Riley Tincher leads the WIAC with a 5 & 0 record and 29.1 innings pitched
• Aaron Leitner is 3-1 while pitching 19 innings so far in 2010
• Jason Hooper tops the UWW staff with a 2.70 ERA.
• Kyle Lee is second on the staff with a 3.30 ERA.
• Ben Versnik, pitching in the closers role, has yet to give up a run while pitching 5.0 innings.


Some around the conference have questioned whether the Warhawks have the pitching necessary to win another WIAC title. While compiling it’s 12 & 1 record, the UW-Whitewater pitching staff has held its opponents to four runs or less in all but four games.