PICTURED ABOVE (L-R): Ryan Miller and Justin Zeller.

Wheaton, Ill. - From 2008 to 2010, the Wheaton College baseball team set a school record with three-straight 20-win seasons, averaging 23 victories in that time. Now in 2012, Wheaton will look to its talented senior class to lead the way to the top of the conference race. 

The Thunder graduated seven seniors from last year's team that finished 17-23 overall and 8-13 in the CCIW. Among the graduates were four-year starter Danny Pyne at first base (.314 batting average, one error) and pitcher Steve Dennison (3-4 record, 49.1 innings). The 2011 squad still boasted potent bats which were part of breaking almost every school offensive record over the past four seasons. Wheaton hit .300 as a team and set a school record with 22 triples, while also flashing some leather with a team-record .955 fielding percentage.

Lee Driggers (PICTURED LEFT) is entering his fourth year as the head of Wheaton baseball. “The scoreboard will dictate what we should do,” Driggers said. “But this is an offensive-minded team, so we'll try to come out and swing the bats and see where that leads us. As far as pitching is concerned, we always tell our kids to try to compete with their three pitches and avoid walks, which just lead to bad things. If we have the opportunity, we have some guys who can run and we'll try to steal some bases.”

This season's senior class has six players, headlined by four-year starter Justin Zeller. The center fielder earned Honorable Mention as part of the 2012 D3baseball.com Preseason All-American Team. The power-hitting lefty is the Wheaton record holder in career homers (28), slugging percentage (.656) and walks (86). In 2011, Zeller hit .355 with nine homers, 43 RBI and a .638 slugging percentage.

Fellow senior Ryan Miller is also high in the Thunder career record books in a number of categories. As the leadoff hitter from his shortstop position, Miller is coming off a year in which he hit. 321 with four homers, five triples, 18 RBI and 16 steals on 19 attempts. Catcher Austin Driggers (PICTURED RIGHT) had a career year in 2011 with a team-leading 43 RBI to go with his .353 batting average. Drew Golz (PICTURED LOWER RIGHT) pulled double duty both at starting pitcher and starting outfielder (.286 BA, three HR, 19 RBI, five triples). Sophomore Justin Swider is also back in the mix as a returning starter at second base.

Wheaton's head coach is counting on his experienced senior bats to produce in a big way once again this year. “It's always important for the guys who can hit, to hit,” Driggers said. “Baseball is a tough game and you never know if you can repeat the years you've had before. We try to get our kids to be consistent. Last year, we had a few guys get off to poor starts. But we knew that they could hit, so we stuck with them and they came around. We do have an experienced team this year. On days that our big hitters aren't hitting, someone else needs to step up and pick them up.”

Junior Trey Martin (PICTURED LEFT) is also a key cog in the Wheaton attack. As the starting third baseman, Martin led the team with a .362 batting average while adding eight homers and 36 RBI. He was also recently selected Preseason First Team All-American by D3baseball.com. Sophomore Desmond Cato impressed in his rookie campaign in the outfield (.293 BA, 21 RBI, 9-for-9 stolen bases).

The starting rotation on the mound will look very similar to last year as well. The returning trio of Martin, Golz and Evan Rahn were the go-to pitchers during the conference season. Martin finished with the lowest ERA on the team (2.93) and showed his durability with four complete games. The junior finished with a 4-5 record in 73.2 innings pitched. Golz threw 54 innings a year ago with a 3-4 mark and 5.83 ERA. Rahn rounded things out in his debut season with a 4-4 mark, 4.93 ERA and a team-best .203 opponent batting average.

“Our goal is to try to keep them healthy and hope they come back and have solid years,” Driggers said. “When you look at the rest of the staff, I think we've got some guys who are trying to move themselves up into a key role, including Jimmy McDonald and Andrew Bayer. Hopefully they'll be coming through for us in the bullpen and be spot starters as well. We have Matt MaLossi coming back after Tommy John surgery. We don't know where he's going to be or how strong he will be. I think he'll be available for us at the beginning of the season. Phillip Tuttle comes in from the left side and his ball moves quite a bit. He's not a hard thrower but he does have a couple pitches that can get the hitters off balance."

“After that, we've got some new freshmen who we're looking to give us some innings. That's always been our goal; to deepen our pitching staff. Last year, we converted Caleb Hartwell from a position player to a pitcher. He really worked hard to get his mechanics down in the offseason. We're hoping for Caleb to get some innings for us.”

The Thunder's roster is rounded out by six juniors, nine sophomores and nine freshmen. Driggers believes his freshmen will be a bigger help on the mound for his team this season, including Miles Veth, Casey Moll and Alex German.

“When you look at our team, we have a very experienced lineup back and didn't lose a lot last year as far as starters in the field,” said the veteran coach. “We don't have a large senior class, but the guys we have are all three or four-year starters. We do have some young men who improved from last year who were freshmen. Our current freshmen will have to come in and really challenge these other experienced guys to be able to get significant playing time. You can't replace experience, especially in this league.”

The CCIW is loaded once again with quality teams. North Park University (30-12) and Illinois Wesleyan University (28-18) ended last year as league co-champs at 15-6. Carthage College (32-12, 14-7 CCIW) made some postseason noise with a top-flight offense and deep pitching. Augustana College (28-12, 12-9 CCIW) was nationally ranked after a red-hot start to the season. The rest of the conference is rounded out by North Central College (22-17, 13-8 CCIW), Elmhurst College (18-20, 6-15 CCIW) and Millikin University (7-32, 1-20 CCIW).

“I think this league is tougher every year,” Driggers said. “It's the type of league that if you don't show up, you'll get beat. It will come down to winning the series every weekend. We need to go in with the idea that we need to win every three-game series and try to end up in the top four to make the conference tournament.”