New Washington baseball coach Jason Kelly said the goal this season, which starts Saturday at Santa Clara, is for the Huskies to finish the season in Omaha, Nebraska, site of the College World Series.
Kelly knows what it will take to get there, because he was the pitching coach for the Huskies on the 2018 team that reached the CWS for the first time in program history.
“I saw it with my own eyes, and this team may be more talented than that team,” Kelly said. “But that group really played hard and played well together. If this group now develops that personality, I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t be capable (of reaching the CWS).”
Kelly left the Huskies after the 2019 season to become the pitching coach at Arizona State, then spent last season as the pitching coach at LSU.
Now he takes over at UW for Lindsay Meggs, who retired after 13 seasons. Kelly was the pitching coach for seven seasons under Meggs at Washington, and he also worked for Meggs at Chico State University.
“I learned a lot from Lindsay,” Kelly said. “My first (coaching) job was with him at Chico State when I was 23. There were actually three players on our team that were older than me. So I cut my teeth with him and learned a lot of leadership and discipline and how to manage a ballclub from him.
“But we’re different personalities completely. I’m probably a little more relaxed, a little more of a player’s coach.”
Junior outfielder A.J. Guerrero concurs with that.
“Just like (Kelly) said, it’s more lax and he is more of a player’s coach,” said Guerrero, who hit .299 last season with 10 homers and 42 runs batted in. “We really want to be here, and we want to play for these guys.”
Washington has not had a winning record in the Pac-12 since 2018, but the Huskies finished the regular season last year on a 12-game winning streak before losing twice in the Pac-12 tournament.
“That really gave us the knowledge that we can do this and we can compete,” Guerrero said. “And that we can play with anybody.”
Kelly, 43, agreed that the Huskies have the talent to compete with anybody.
“We’ve got (eventual) professionals at a lot of positions, and we’re going to have professionals on the mound,” Kelly said. “So the talent is there…. I think we can be in the top third of the conference, and if we stay healthy, I think we can challenge anybody.”
One of those newcomers recruited by the previous staff is junior pitcher Kiefer Lord, a transfer from Division III Carleton in Minnesota.
Kelly said Lord has “an electric fastball that has been up to 99 (miles per hour) and kind of sitting in that 96 to 97 range with a good down curveball.”
Lord was 4-1 last season for Carleton, with a 1.65 ERA in 49 innings. He had 81 strikeouts and seven walks.
“Obviously it’s a huge, huge change in talent level,” Lord said of now playing for UW. “I think it’s gone really well. I’m happy with how I’ve done so far and I like my opportunities to develop. I feel like I’ve gotten better under (Kelly).”
The Huskies open with four games at Santa Clara, then four games at San Jose State before playing at home for the first time this season with a four-game series against Northern Colorado (March 3-5).
Washington begins Pac-12 play March 10 at home against Utah.
The Huskies are very eager to get started.
“I’m excited to get going, let these guys loose and let them play a little bit,” Kelly said.