Boise State baseball returns with a trip to Texas — and a homecoming for its shortstop
Boise State baseball coach Gary Van Tol got plenty of bang for his buck the first time he hit the road to scout players for his first full recruiting class.
On the day he was allowed to do so per NCAA rules, Van Tol headed to Texas where he saw three eventual commits in action: infielder Cole Posey, outfielder Reagan Doss and pitcher Gabriel Subirats.
Van Tol’s first stop was in Austin, Texas, to see Posey, who will open the season as the Broncos’ starting shortstop.
“In starting a new program from scratch, I thought it was important to bring in guys who kind of think along the same lines that I do and play the game the same way,” Van Tol said. “I saw a guy that was scrappy and a gamer, and that was very appealing.”
The Broncos return to Austin this weekend to kick off Boise State’s first baseball season since 1980 in Posey’s backyard at the University of Texas.
Both of his parents went to Baylor, but Posey grew up about 30 minutes from Austin in Georgetown, Texas. He has attended his fair share of Longhorns football and baseball games, and he has played in Texas’ Disch-Falk Field, which is where the Broncos will open a three-game series Friday.
“It’s big,” Posey said. “There’s always great atmosphere. Texas fans are great. It’s going to be kind of weird playing against them, but I’m excited for it.”
Posey has played in front of big crowds before. As a senior, he helped lead Georgetown High to the state semifinals, which were played in front of 8,000 fans at Dell Diamond — home of the Round Rock Express, a minor league affiliate of the Houston Astros.
Despite his experience playing in front of a packed house, Posey can’t help but feel a little nervous about his homecoming.
“Being a long way from home I’ve only gotten to see the family a couple times,” Posey said. “There’s going to be a lot of people there, and it will be a lot of fun being back home.”
Van Tol said moving from Texas to Boise can be overwhelming, especially for someone fresh out of high school, but Posey had the inside scoop on Boise State.
One of his childhood friends, Brandon Hawkins, is a redshirt sophomore linebacker on the Broncos’ football team. Hawkins first alerted Posey to the relaunch of Boise State’s baseball program.
“He said he loved Boise and loved the area, and everything he told me has held up,” Posey said.
Posey and Hawkins grew up a short drive from one another. Their parents were best friends and, of course, the boys played football together.
They shared the field at Georgetown during Posey’s sophomore season — his last on the football field. Posey was a slot receiver. Hawkins was a big-hitting linebacker.
“I never wanted to run across the middle,” Posey said. “The thing I remember most was older guys taking me under their wing and kind of feeling like one of them.”
Posey was one of 20 new players who joined the Broncos’ original “Dirty Dozen” last summer. Van Tol said the shortstop earned his starting spot during a pair of exhibition games in the fall.
He hit a pair of home runs in the Broncos’ 11-9 win over NNU and added a third the next day against Montana State-Billings. In the field, Posey scooped every ball that went his way.
“He’s a baseball player and just a guy that loves the game, plays the game the right way and competes,” said Van Tol, adding that Posey can also play second and third base. “He probably projects more professionally as a second baseman, but he can make the routine play and handle that shortstop position just fine, and if he moved over to third base, he has enough arm strength to play catch.”
At the plate, Posey will hit near the bottom of the Broncos’ batting order where Van Tol hopes to use his speed and instincts to set up the top of the lineup. Posey finished his high school career with 109 stolen bases.
“He has those instincts, and he’s very confident on the bases,” Van Tol said. “He’s not considered a burner at this level, but he’s a heads-up runner and he has a pretty good idea how to read pitchers. … He’s a very high IQ baseball player, which really fits well in our system.”
Texas went 27-27 last spring, but top hitter Eric Kennedy is back after finishing his true freshman season with a .310 batting average and 28 RBIs. The Longhorns also return their top pitcher Bryce Elder, who earned second-team All-Big 12 honors a year ago with a 2.93 ERA and 86 strikeouts.
The Longhorns (5-0) opened the season last weekend with a three-game sweep of Rice and already have played significantly more baseball than the Broncos. But Van Tol said the delayed start to Boise State’s first baseball season in almost 40 years was by design.
“I wanted to give our guys a little extra time to prepare, especially our pitchers, with it being so early,” he said. “But our guys are chomping at the bit.”
Broncos announce pitching rotation
Ahead of Friday’s season opener at Texas, Boise State released its first pitching rotation of the season Wednesday.
Lefty Travis Weston will face Elder in Friday’s opener. Weston, a redshirt sophomore, began his college career at San Diego State before spending last season at Ventura College, where he posted an 8-3 record and 64 strikeouts.
Right-handed junior Mitch Lines will take the mound Saturday against Texas’ Ty Madden. Lines went 7-1 last season at Lower Columbia College and posted a 2.12 ERA and 72 strikeouts.
Lefty Dawson Day will get the start for the Broncos to wrap up the series Sunday against the Longhorns’ Coy Cobb. Day, a junior, began his career at Seattle University before he spent last season at Mt. Hood Community College, where he made 13 starts and struck out 104 batters.
Boise State will host Northern Colorado in its home opener on Feb. 28.
