Erskine Baseball Coach Dan Massarelli, who will leave Due West after this season, is flanked by All-Conference first baseman Joe Whitmer, left, and ace pitcher Josh Meurer. The three are discussing an early season series with Alabama-Huntsville (Feb. 5-6) in which the two teams will use wooden bats. Erskine is celebrating 100 years of athletics.

Erskine Baseball Team Boasts 10 Seniors

DUE WEST, S.C. – The 1999 Erskine College baseball team will be celebrating 100 years of Erskine Athletics with a senior-laden team aiming to return to the CVAC tournament finals and bring home Erskine's first CVAC baseball championship.

“This is probably the best team I've seen since I've been here,” said Head Coach Dan Massarelli, in his fourth season at the helm after assisting for two years and playing for the Flying Fleet. “We're definitely better than we were last year at this point.”

Erskine finished 17-33-1 last year and entered the conference tournament as the No. 8 seed before a Cinderella tournament performance allowed the Fleet to place second in the CVAC.

“Our goal this year is to win the conference championship,” Massarelli said. “Our motto is `First place or no place.' We have the talent to get back to the championship game.”

Two record-setting players will lead the Fleet this year, including junior first baseman Joe Whitmer, second-team All-CVAC last year, and senior pitcher Josh Meurer. Massarelli said both are pro prospects.

Whitmer, from Canton, Ohio, led the team in eight offensive categories and hit .340 last year with an Erskine single-season record 43 RBI and 108 total bases. He had 17 doubles (second all-time at Erskine), nine homers (third all-time), a .590 slugging percentage and had 13 out of 17 stolen bases.

Muerer, 6-8 last year with a 4.18 ERA, will be the staff ace. He pitched 107 innings last year and had 115 strikeouts, second all-time at Erskine, with 37 walks. Opponents hit only .255 against him.

Seven starting position players will be three-year lettermen seniors, and there are a total of 10 seniors on the team.

“The seniors will carry us,” Massarelli said.

There is a sense of urgency for Massarelli, who will be leaving Erskine after the season to accept a graduate assistantship at Walsh University beginning in the fall of 1999. He will finish the 1999 season at Erskine and will move to Ohio in late May.

“Dan has done an outstanding job with our baseball program and athletic fields,” said Erskine Athletic Director Chip Sherer. “The team was runner-up in the CVAC last spring, and each of the 10 seniors on the team will graduate. Our soccer, baseball, and softball fields have never looked better, all because of Dan's hard work. His high expectations for himself and his team will be hard to replace.”

Massarelli has a career 30-60-1 record at Erskine.

If the team is to return to the CVAC title game, a stronger pitching staff will need to develop behind Meurer.

Citadel transfer Barry Peters from Simpsonville's Hillcrest High School will be counted on as the No. 2 man on the mound. Senior Brandon Coker, who shut out Barton 8-0 to propel Erskine to the CVAC championship game last year will also start on the mound. Freshman Dustin Crites from Massillon, Ohio, listed as one of the top Division II newcomers in the nation by NCAA Collegiate Baseball Magazine, rounds out the four-man rotation.

“We should have a stronger pitching staff than last year,” Massarelli said.

The large senior class, most of whom have played since they were freshmen, came to the Erskine program with Massarelli and holds several team records. They have the most hits in a season with 426 last year, they are third all-time in highest team fielding percentage (.950 in 1996) and have turned the most double plays in a season with 48 last year.

Key players include senior third baseman Nick Sule from Bethlehem, Penn., who hit .333 last year, with 34 RBIs, seven doubles, four triples, four homers and had 14 of 19 stolen bases. Sule is 13 RBI shy of setting the all-time Erskine mark and is the Erskine all-time leader in triples with 11.

Darrell Howery, a senior utility player from Tampa, Fla, is a career .300 hitter at Erskine who hit .333 last year.

Senior Chris Eyrick from Jacksonville, Fla., has started every game since 1996 at shortstop or second base. He has started 134 consecutive games.

Massarelli says the schedule is challenging. “I feel we play one of the toughest schedules in the South Atlantic area in Division II baseball,” he said. “We are playing five teams that have been nationally ranked in the preseason, two of them in the top 15.”

Erskine has begun practice for the 1999 season and will play its first game Tuesday, Feb. 2 at home against USC-Spartanburg at 2:30 p.m.

For a complete look at the 1999 Erskine baseball schedule and roster, click here.

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