Suns Announce Opening Day Roster
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Jacksonville Suns have announced the Opening Day roster for the 2012 season. The 2012 Opening Day roster includes 15 players who appeared for the team during the 2011 season.
The pitching staff includes nine returning players from a season ago. The staff includes 10 right-hander pitchers and three left-handers. The right-handers to begin the season with the Suns are Peter Andrelczyk, Bryan Evans, Kyle Kaminska, Corey Madden, Matthew Montgomery, Joseph O'Gara, Omar Poveda, A.J. Ramos, Evan Reed, and Joshua Schmidt. The left-handers are include Jose Alvarez, Wade Korpi, and Graham Taylor.
Behind the plate is returning catcher Kyle Skipworth, along with newcomers Jose Ceballos and Jacob Jefferies. Skipworth appeard in 106 games for Jacksonville during the 2011 season.
Returning to roam the Suns outfield are Kyle Jensen and Jake Smolinski. They will be joined by some new faces as Jose Duarte, Ryan Patterson, and Donnie Webb join the club.
Familiar faces on the infield for the upcoming season include Paul Gran, Chris Gutierrez, Ben Lasater, and Jeff Dominguez. New arrivals to the Jacksonville infield are Shawn Bowman, Jaime Ortiz, and Curt Smith.
Andy Barkett begins his second season as manager of the Suns after guiding the club to a 70-70 record in 2011, and narrowly missing the playoffs in the first half of the season. Joining Barkett are pitching coach John Duffy and hitting coach Kevin Randel. Duffy has over 21 years of coaching experience and enters his third season in Jacksonville. Randel returns to Jacksonville after spending the last two seasons as the hitting coach for the Greensboro Grasshoppers. During the Sun's 2009 Southen League Championship season, Randel hit .253 with 12 homeruns and 49 runs batted in.
Opening Day is Thursday April 5th at 7:05PM when the Suns host the Huntsville Stars at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. The Suns currently have the maximum of 25 players with 3 players on the disabled list.
Tickets for all Suns home games are currently on sale through the Suns Box Office at (904) 358-2846, or online at www.jaxsuns.com. Tickets are $7.50 for general admission, $10.50 for reserved seating and $13.50 for Homeplate Box seating. Limited sponsorships, season tickets and group packages are still available. The 2012 season is presented by Everbank, official banking partner of the Jacksonville Suns. The Suns are the Double-A Affiliate of the Miami Marlins and a member of the Southern League of Professional Baseball.