You’ve been outside. The weather has turned from 20 degrees to a balmy 34. The sun has peeked out from behind the clouds. whenever there’s not freezing rain and wind. And Punxsutawney Phil, perhaps the most entitled groundhog of all time, has predicted an early spring. Yes, these signs can only point to one thing.Baseball.

The ETSU diamond squad has started their Spring Training. Apparently, they use the term ‘spring’ rather loosely.

As mind-numbing as it sounds watching men in fairly tight capris hitting what will essentially be baseball sized rocks with a piece of aluminum pipe, there are quite a few reasons to watch this season.

First, most obviously, is the return of senior first baseman, Paul Hoilman. Paul has had quite a productive off-season. After the Bucs went down in the post-season tournament, Hoilman flew to Nevada to compete in a home-run derby at Rosenblatt Stadium. Short story, he won. Paul cranked out 12 homers in the final round. Pretty good right? From there Paul got to travel to the legendary Fenway Park.

Under enormous pressure, with a wooden bat, Hoilman sneaked into the final round and knocked three over the fence, all over the green monster no less.

Let’s pretend for a second that’s not enough to validate his position. After the derby, Hoilman was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays. He chose to remain in school and finish his degree. Why not? He has a 4.0. Oh and by the way, he’s majoring in math.

Even though ETSU lost Chas Byrne, who couldn’t have a better name for a pitcher if you made one up, to the Kansas City Royals, they will still be returning a pretty good pitching squad. Scott McNally will be the pitcher to watch. In his freshman season, McNally was sketchy at best.

At times the Harrison High grad had a fastball that couldn’t be caught. At other times he looked just like, well, a freshman. McNally had 28 strikeouts in 64 innings pitched, but several games he was pulled for getting himself into trouble.

Look for McNally to show a little more composure this year and become the go-to guy in closing situations.

The Bucs will be facing a tough conference this year with teams like Mercer, who was picked by College Insider baseball to be the “team to beat” in the Atlantic Sun; Florida Gulf Coast, who is always notorious for having pitchers that are nearly unhittable; and Belmont, who may be a good dark horse pick with powerful reliever John Ivie. If the boys in blue can handle all that, they might have a chance of winning the conference title.

If they don’t freeze.

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