Xavier is coming off a successful 26-11 season in 2011. It will be particularly important for the junior class to step up and make a huge contribution.

The Saints have only three returning players with at least 30 starts and they lost nine of 15 varsity players who had any varsity experience.

Mack Mattke, Corbin Woods and Andrew Sodawasser will lead the team. A competitive sophomore squad from 2011 will move up to the junior level and provide the bulk of the 2012 Xavier roster.

Key losses:

Ean McNeal and Dave Mehring, who provided half of the Saints’ mound victories, have graduated. Nate Even (.363) and Blake Helms (.349) leave the biggest holes in the Xavier offense. Other graduates included Eric Zenisek, Alex Ries, Colby Brecht and Colin Brown.

Kevin Hosch has also expressed that he will forgo his senior season to prepare for college football at Northern Iowa.

Key Returning Players:

Senior utility player Mattke and junior infielder Wood led Xavier in every offensive category in 2011 and Sodawasser participated in 30 games, but his only offensive statistic was that he scored 14 runs.

Mattke had a 5-3 pitching record with a 3.11 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 45 innings. Wood (1-1) and Tyler Hines (1-2) combined to put up 53 innings. The underclassmen will be responsible for filling in around the core of Saints returning.

Outlook:

While Xavier has a nice core returning, the Saints will be asking their relatively inexperienced junior class to make the difference. That would indicate to me that they may get off to a slower start than what the program might be used to.

However, the case can be made that year in and year out the Saints put a very competitive team on the field and this year will be no different. The juniors represented themselves well as sophomores and should be ready for the next step.

I see Xavier as a step behind at the outset of the 2012 season, but they will develop and represent Xavier well.