Burnsville, Minn. – The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference has announced their 2024 Baseball Preseason awards. USF Baseball has been picked 10th while OF Brady Klehr and P Reese Gaber were named players to watch. Augustana has been voted as the preseason favorite by the coaches.

Head Coach Grant Hieb is ready to get the season started. He said, "I'm excited for this spring as we've added some great pieces to our pitching staff and should be much improved on the mound. We returned almost our entire offense from last year so I'm hoping to be better on both sides of the ball."

In 2023, USF Baseball went 15-35 overall and 14-22 in conference play. The Cougars return the vast majority of their offense from a year ago. Brady Klehr was a big part of that offense last year. He hit .394 for the season and started every game he played in. He had an OPS of 1.058, a slugging percentage of .588, an on-base percentage of .470, and stole 10 bases. Coach Hieb had this to say about his outfielder, "I'm hoping Brady can build on his solid campaign from last year. He's a great leader and one of my hardest workers. He should be a staple in the middle of our lineup again this year." Another player that Coach Hieb is excited to see take the field again is Reese Gaber. Reese had a 7.44 ERA and a 1.99 WHIP. He threw 32.2 innings and recorded 3 saves which was the most on the team. He also led the pitching staff in strikeouts with 42 and only allowed 2 homeruns all season. Opponents were hitting .290 off of Gaber last season and he was named USF's Pitcher to Watch. Hieb had this to say about his lefty, "Reese is in his second year in our program and has made huge strides on the mound since he first arrived. He was initially coming off a shoulder injury but since getting healthy, he has continued to improve. We're anticipating a big year out of him at the top of our rotation."

Cougar Baseball will get their season started on Friday February 16. They will be in Denver, Colo. to take on Metropolitan State University of Denver to open the 2024 campaign.

For all things USF Cougar Baseball be sure to follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also download the USF Cougar App for more!