Defiance Baseball Has Four Named to HCAC Watch List

GREENWOOD, Ind. – The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference announced its 2011 Baseball Preseason Watch List on Tuesday, with Defiance placing Nicholas Bratt, Zach Stallkamp, Alex Timofeev and Nick Welling among the 42 student-athletes to be honored from the 10-team league.

The four-man group will look to lead the Yellow Jackets in 2011, as DC hopes to build on the momentum of a 16-win campaign one year ago. The 16 victories surpassed the combined win total of the previous two seasons for Defiance and was its highest total since winning 19 in 1999. With the increased success, came several new program records that included 400 hits, 76 doubles and a .958 team fielding percentage.

Fourth-year head coach, Derek Woodley, will lean on Bratt, Stallkamp, Timofeev and Welling to anchor a group of 22 returning lettermen from the 2010 squad, including five returning starters from the lineup and over 80 percent of its innings pitched.

Bratt tallied his first preseason honor from the HCAC, by taking over as the ace on the hill for the Jackets during his sophomore season. The righty hurler opened with a 3.06 earned-run average in his first five starts and ended the year among DC's top three arms with a 5.63 earned-run average, nine games started, three victories, 46.1 innings pitched and 27 strike outs. Bratt was 3-0 with a 2.54 ERA in games won by Defiance and highlighted his breakout season with a complete game effort in a 5-2 win at Bluffton.

Stallkamp was touted as an HCAC Player to Watch, after leading Defiance with a .384 batting average and earning Honorable Mention All-HCAC status one year ago. The rising junior also topped the Jackets with a .515 slugging percentage in 31 games as an outfielder and designated hitter during the 2010 season and ranked 21st in the HCAC in batting average. Stallkamp batted .450 in DC's 16 victories and raised his average 42 points over the final five games by collecting 11 hits in his last 20 at bats.

Timofeev was also an Honorable Mention All-HCAC performer during 2010, by batting .336 as a junior and ranking among DC's top bats with 11 extra-base hits, 27 runs batted in and an .867 OPS in 34 games of work. The first baseman drove in a run in 18 games and collected 14 multi-hit outings, while leading Defiance against non-conference foes with a .432 average, .463 on-base clip, .596 slugging percentage and a 1.058 OPS.

Welling will take over as a full-time starter during his junior campaign, after the utility player batted .288 over 20 games during the 2010 campaign. The Jackets' projected starting third baseman excelled in league action with a .359 averaged and topped the DC lineup with a .564 slugging percentage and 1.021 OPS in those games. Welling also batted .400 at Craig A. Rutter Field and batted .308 while starting seven of the team's final nine contests.

Defiance was picked eighth in the 2011 HCAC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll with 29 points, only five back of Bluffton (34) and directly in front of Hanover (25) and Earlham (13). Franklin (94), Manchester (89), Anderson (76) and Transylvania (73) made up the projected top four in the preseason rankings, with Rose-Hulman (61) and Mount St. Joseph (55) rounding out the top six.

Defiance will get the 2011 season underway in Fort Myers, Fla., when it plays Monmouth and Thiel on March 7.