The first official pitch of the 2009 NAIA baseball season will be thrown in Brownsville on Friday afternoon when the Wayland Baptist Pioneers take on the University of Texas-Brownsville Scorpions at 4 pm.

Wayland head coach Brad Bass returns seven position players and two starting pitchers from last year's team that finished the season with a record of 43-16-1 and was ranked #13 in the final NAIA Top 25. Among those returnees are NAIA All-Region catcher Brett Sheppard, All-Region pitcher Todd Jeffress, and All-Sooner Athletic Conference second baseman Brett Cook.

Options are good things to have, and this year, more than any other in his 20+ years of coaching baseball, Bass has plenty of options.

"This team has more depth than I have ever, ever had in all my years coaching baseball," says Bass. "One injury isn't going to hurt us because there is somebody that can step up and fill the void. I'm not just talking about position players, but also pitchers. We have guys in our pen this year that would have been the ace of the staff in past years."

Jeffress, the WBU career leader in wins (25), innings pitched (278.1), starts (46), and shutouts (6), went 11-5 last year with a 3.57 ERA in 98.1 innings of work. The senior from Plainview will take the mound first for the Pioneers on Friday.

The three other scheduled starters for Wayland in Brownsville will be juniors Christopher McNeil and Todd Weldon in games two and three, and sophomore Trevor Stringer in game four.

McNeil, a 6-5, 270 pound southpaw, transferred in at the semester from San Jose State University, where he made 15 appearances in relief a year ago, going 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA.

A transfer from New Mexico Junior College, Weldon is a hard-throwing right-hander. He went 8-2 at Garden City Community College his freshman season, and was 2-0 at NMJC last year.

Stringer had a 7-3 record for the Pioneers as a freshman. He pitched 77 innings in 22 appearances and became the first WBU pitcher to earn NAIA Pitcher of the Week honors after he defeated #1-ranked Lubbock Christian University in the final game of the regular season.

Bass says that Jeffress is once again the ace of the staff, although "anyone of the other three we have starting this weekend has the skills to be number one. It's just that Todd has proven that he can do the job in the past and so that's what we'll go with for now.

"Once the others have a few games under their belts, we may make a change so that we can take better advantage of Todd's skills in the field, as well."

Coming out of the bullpen for the Pioneers is senior Jason Kimzey, a returning southpaw that appeared in 14 games, 11 as a starter, last year for Wayland; senior Paul St. Marie, a recent transfer from St. Martin's University who will be unavailable during the opening weekend; sophomore Corey Weldon, a transfer from Frank Phillips College; sophomore Sean Lookingbill, a member of the WBU junior varsity as a freshman; and freshman Ryan Stuck, an All-District 6-4A first team pitcher from Ft. Worth's Western Hills High School.

Junior right-hander Brett Swett, a transfer from Lane Community College in Oregon where he led the league in wins with a 5-0 record and a 1.00 ERA before an injury sidelined him a year ago, will act as set-up man. Sophomore Marcus Limon, a Lubbock Estacado graduate who led the University of Texas-Arlington in saves last spring, will be the Pioneer closer in 2009.

The Pioneers' lone position player lost from last year's squad was shortstop Vinny Biancamano who hit .357 with 14 doubles and 14 home runs a year ago, but sophomore Eddie Allen, while not having the same pop in his bat, has more range and plays the gaps better, according to Bass. Allen is making the transition from third base, where he played all 60 games in 2008.

Joining Allen on the left side of the infield will be either senior Keith Martin or Limon at third base. A left-handed power hitter, Martin hit .369 with 11 doubles and 11 home runs last season, primarily from the five-hole in the batting order. He has made the move from first base to third this year, but will also see some time as the Pioneer designated hitter.

Cook returns for his final season at second base. The two-time WBU batting champion, broke the school's home run record a year ago with 20 long balls from the left side of the plate. He also had 18 doubles, six triples, and a team-high 72 runs scored and 58 RBI. He will move down one spot in the batting order from the two hole to the three spot.

Juniors Josh Lucas and Bobby Curtis will share time at first base. Lucas, a 6-2, 220 right-hander from Gateway Community College in Arizona, hit .303 with nine doubles and four home runs with a wooden bat a year ago and was named the GCC Offensive Player of the Year.

Curtis, a left-handed hitter who suffered a deep bruise to his right bicep during a recent intra-squad scrimmage, was hitting the ball well prior to his injury, according to Bass. He should be fully recovered in another week.

Other Pioneers who will see time on the infield are junior Paul Rodriguez and freshman redshirt Calvin Bass. Rodriguez hit .267 last year with two home runs and 18 RBI and can play either corner position. Bass, a second baseman, will be used primarily as a pinch hitter or runner this spring.

Sheppard had minor surgery on his hand during the Christmas break and will most likely be out of action until the middle of February. Senior Javier Garcia and sophomore Beau Stringer will open the season sharing the catcher's position, although newcomer Jordan Lettau, a senior transfer from St. Martin's University, will also be in the running to take over as Sheppard's backup once he returns.

"No one is going to be able to replace Sheppard, either offensively or defensively, but I'm pleased with the way the others are competing for the job. Javy has shown a lot of improvement so far this spring, and all the pitchers like throwing to Beau. Jordan has thrown well since arriving and also has a chance once he becomes eligible."

The Pioneer outfield is jammed this spring with a combination of returning players and newcomers. Junior Michael Prell, who will begin the season leading off the batting order for Bass, returns to left field. He hit .360 last year with ten doubles last spring. Tyler Berg, a junior transfer from Mesa Community College,

Pedro Gomez, a junior switch-hitter who was a starter in the outfield at New Mexico Junior College two years ago when the Thunderbirds won the NJCAA World Series, will get the nod in center and will hit from the two-hole. Returning sophomore Scott Keane will also see some playing time in center.

Senior Franky Busani will start out as the Pioneers' clean-up hitter and will see action both in right field and at the designated hitter position. A 6-4, 230 pound right-hander, Busani transferred to WBU at the semester from New Mexico State University where he hit .350 with 16 home runs last year. He was named Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week during the 2008 season after going 7-for-14 with two doubles, two home runs and seven RBI against San Jose State University.

Jeffress, who was second on the team in batting in 2008 with a .374 average with 11 doubles, 10 homers and 40 RBI, can play all three outfield positions.

Other outfielders who will see playing time during the 2009 season are returning senior Johnathan Torres, who will also be used some as the Pioneer DH, and sophomores Scott Keane and Ben Seymore. Newcomers Courtney Williams, a senior transfer from Prairieview A&M, and Tyler Berg, a junior transfer from Mesa Community College who hit 17 doubles and three triples as a sophomore, will also see significant playing time.

Four days after their return from Brownsville, the Pioneers head back down south to take on Huston Tillotson University and Mount Mercy College in Austin. Wayland makes its first appearance at home the first week in February with a doubleheader scheduled for Tuesday the 3rd against the University of the Southwest, followed by a doubleheader against Eastern New Mexico on Sunday the 8th.

Culver Stockton College from Missouri makes it's first-ever appearance at Wilder Field on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 14th and 15th.

The Pioneers open Sooner Athletic Conference play on the road in Shawnee, Okla. against Oklahoma Baptist on Feb. 19. The home conference season begins the following weekend when St. Gregory's University comes to town.

Also appearing at Wilder Field in 2009 will be Oklahoma City University, which finished third at the NAIA World Series last year, on March 13 and 14; the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma on March 27 and 28; the College of Santa Fe, a brand new program, on April 9 and 10; West Texas A&M on April 14; and Oklahoma Christian University on April 24 and 25.

The regular season concludes with the three-game series against archrival Lubbock Christian University. Games one and three will take place at Wilder Field on April 30 and May 2, while game two will be in Lubbock on April 1.