Collegiate Times

While Hughes has confidence in his starters this season, perhaps Tech's best pitcher, sophomore Jesse Hahn moved to the bullpen to fill the role as closer.

"If you're just grading stuff, he measures up with the best closers in the country -- best arms in the country in college baseball," Hughes said. "If we can get to him, we think the game is over. We think we have enough depth in the starting rotation to have that kid hanging on at the back end of the game."

Even with such immense talent, the move from starter to closer may prove to be difficult.

"The hardest part about (closing) is getting yourself ready to go into a game, staying warm," Hahn said. "You have so much time. You have no clue when they're going to call your name to go in. So you've got to make sure you're ready at all times."

With solid starters and a potentially great closer, Hughes still has slight worries about his middle relief.  

"To me, the biggest question mark is those middle relievers getting it done so we can get to Jesse at the back end of the game," Hughes said.  

First out of the bullpen will be junior transfer Ben Rowen, who features the lowest submarine delivery Hughes has ever seen.  

Rowen throws a fastball, breaking ball, change-up and even a riser similar to the softball pitch, which is brand new to Hughes and elusive for many of Tech's hitters.

Also expected to shoulder much of the load out of the pen are freshmen Ronnie Shaban, Clark Labitan and junior Kyle Cichy.  

In addition to helping out in relief, freshmen Matt Price, Luke Erickson, redshirt-freshman Marc Zecchino and junior Josh Wymer will be splitting up the midweek starts.  

Hughes stressed the importance of these games.  

"Those guys who are going to start these midweek games for us, those are crucial for us because it's just another opportunity to win games, you know? We need to do that because we haven't done that in seven years around here," Hughes said.  

Despite Tech utilizing an extremely young pitching staff, Hughes maintains high expectations.

"They've got to get better," he said. "I think physically and in terms of maturity, they've gotten better. So, productivity-wise, it has to fall into place. And we expect that to happen."

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