Feb. 1, 2008

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The West Florida Baseball team will take the field to defend their 2007 Gulf South Conference Championship, on Saturday, with a doubleheader starting at 2:00 pm at Pelican Park. Despite losing two top pitchers and seven everyday starters, including two of the top hitters in school history, in Bo Williams and Peter Antoske, the GSC East coaches voted UWF as the favorite entering the 2008 season.

Head Coach Mike Jeffcoat is pleased with the way his roster, especially the pitching, is shaping up. "The pitching staff should be the strength of this club with Jon Sintes, the top starter back from last year, and the 2005 GSC Freshman of the year Kyle Ramsey back from Tommy John surgery." Jonathan Sintes (Jr / Fort Walton Beach, Fla.) finished last year with a 10-4 record and an ERA of 2.81, and 85 strikeouts in 89 innings pitched.

The Argos received 32 points in the voting, to edge out West Alabama with 31 votes, to be the winner in the east. Meanwhile, UWF received two of 15 votes to win the postseason tournament, despite no players on the pre-season all-conference team. Delta State was overwhelming favorite to win the tournament with seven votes. Both West Florida and West Alabama received three votes each to win the East Division. Interestingly, Ouachita Baptist received more votes (47) than Delta State (43) to win the West. OBU was the only school besides Delta State and the Argos to get two or more votes to win the conference tournament, as they received three votes to win it all.

In all, five schools from the conference are ranked in the top 40 of the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's Pre-season ranking. West Florida starts the season ranked 29th, while Delta State owns the conference's best ranking at #11. Ouachita Baptist is ranked 12th, while Montevallo came in at #16, and Southern Arkansas was tabbed as the 32nd ranked team.

West Florida had three players named as top newcomers in the GSC for the 2008 season. Outfielder/Catcher Kevin Mierzwinski (Jr / Orlando, Fla.) transferred to UWF from Stetson University, while Pitcher/Infielder Craig Westcott (Jr / Chalmette, La.) comes from Delgado Community College. In addition, pitching prospect Billy Whitaker (Jr / Orlando, Fla.) was the third newcomer to watch for the Argos this season. Whitaker transferred from Santa Fe community College.

The Argos ran the table last year in Millington, Tenn., winning five games in five days as the No. 3 seed in the East, and captured the school's first ever Baseball GSC Championship. Head Coach Mike Jeffcoat was rewarded with the 2007 Coach of the Year in the Gulf South Conference for guiding his team to the championship.

The Argos open the 2008 season at home with a three game series with Rollins College. A doubleheader is on tap for Saturday, and a single game on Sunday. The road to another successful will be full of challenges, with #2 Columbus State, #3 Florida Southern, and #11 Delta State all on the schedule this season. Florida Southern will be the Argos first road test, while Columbus State comes to Pensacola on March 1st and 2nd.