Seamingly unfazed

When the IU baseball team steps onto Phillips Baseball Field in Charlotte, N.C., today to open its season, it will be a vastly different team from the one that began last season with a victory against DePauw at Sembower Field in Bloomington.\nThe Hoosiers begin play for the 2006 season with a three-game set versus Charlotte, where Tracy Smith will be managing his first games as the Hoosiers' coach. More significantly, IU will feature 14 new members to the 2006 squad, including nine freshmen seeing their first collegiate baseball action.\n"I'm excited and at the same time a little anxious (about the first game)," freshman outfielder Chris Hervey said. "It will just be good to get it out of the way and everything."\nAlong with Hervey, who will start in the outfield, the Hoosier newcomers will have to fill a large offensive void left by graduation and illness. \nLast year's graduating class included infielder Corby Heckman and outfielder Joe Kemp. Along with Kemp and Heckman, IU will be without senior first baseman Ryan Parker, who is currently battling Hodgkin's Lymphoma.\nThe trio combined for a .331 batting average, 17 home runs and 147 RBIs a season ago. The RBI total between the three of them accounted for 44 percent of the IU offense.\nHelping Hervey replace the lost production will be a cast of transfers, freshmen and upperclassmen seeing their first major playing time.\nThree transfers are set to see major playing time in the infield. Tad Reida, a sophomore who spent last season playing at Wichita State, will start at third base. Junior college transfer Keith Haas and freshman transfer Brett Sager will battle for playing time at second base.\nAlong with the transfers, freshman Billy O'Conner will start at catcher and junior Michael Nilles will start at first base, coming off a season in which he hit .349 in 35 games for the Hoosiers.\nThe offense has seen the most change, but the pitching staff is littered with new faces as well. Freshman Tyler Tufts will be put into the starting rotation for the opening weekend.\nAll of the new faces in the dugout won't change the team's expectations though, Smith said. On the contrary, Smith holds high, yet reasonable expectations for his club.\n"I realistically think we can go down there (to Charlotte) and win all of them," Smith said. "What we need to do is concentrate and think about things before they happen. If we do those things, there is plenty of talent here to get the job done not only this weekend but in future weekends."\nLike Smith, the older players expect the new players to step in and be able to do their jobs. The team captains have done their part to help the younger Hoosiers get ready for their first weekend of IU baseball by staying positive.\n"The main thing we tell them is that you've worked really hard up to this point," senior pitcher Josh Lewis said. "There's no reason that you shouldn't be successful."\nWith the help of older members of the team and the coaching staff, Smith hopes the new Hoosiers will have the confidence they need on the field this weekend.\n"We just want them to be confident in what they've done," he said. "They've practiced hard, they know every situation; now you just go out and have fun and let your ability take over. That's what we really need to do"