A lot of college baseball coaches will say pitching and defense are the two most important items to have on a team.

Western Michigan University baseball head coach Billy Gernon is one of those coaches who definitely would agree with that.

And having a record-setting hitting senior (Cade Sullivan), who has been picked as one of the top-50 first basemen in the nation, well, that's pretty good, too.

The Broncos (21-31 overall, 18-11 for fourth place in Mid-American Conference in 2023) open the season on Friday, playing Michigan at the Chicago White Sox/Los Angeles Dodgers spring training compound at Camelback Ranch, Ariz. The two teams play a four-game series before WMU travels to Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., for four games.

WMU opens MAC play on March 15, weather permitting, at home against Toledo. This season, the league has expanded its postseason tournament from four to six teams and moved it back to Avon, Ohio, near Cleveland, a neutral site. The first and second seeds receive first-round byes and the winner gets the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

"We play 13 non-conference games against Power 5 universities and four against Pepperdine, which has won a national championship," Gernon said. "Last year, we had the 33rd toughest non-conference schedule in the nation and this one will be close to that.

"Our players and staff want and embrace a tough schedule as we believe it best prepares us to win the MAC. It's a gauntlet, but we have a veteran club with veteran leadership and our coaching staff returns all but Jordan Keur, who took the head coaching position at Grand Valley State."

In other words, he will find out quickly about his pitching and defense.

Second-year pitching coach Daniel Schlereth has both veterans and some new faces with which to work. WMU has 15 pitchers returning from last season, when the Broncos qualified for the MAC Tournament. It has also added transfers and freshmen who will probably see action, too.

While one of the aces of last season's staff, Dane Armbrustmacher, has graduated, the Broncos do return All-MAC Second Team redshirt senior Brady Miller and bullpen ace senior Hayden Berg from last season. Miller went 7-4 with a 5.36 earned run average and Berg appeared in 20 games with four saves and a team-leading 4.47 ERA.

Redshirt junior Luke Thelen, who started 10 games last season, dialed up a 100 mph pitch during scout day. All told, of the staff who made 217 appearances in 2023, 190 of those return. Senior Nolan Vicek earned the Pitcher of the Year award in this past summer's Northern League, leading the league with a 1.94 ERA, tying for first with six wins and finishing fourth in strikeouts, 48.

Gernon has also brought in Sam Carlisle, a sophomore who prepped at Portage Northern and who went to Purdue Northwest last season; Jayden Dentler, who went to Otsego and comes from Northwood University; Turner Doran, a junior who came from Southwestern Illinois College; and freshman Adam Lehmann. Lehmann won a state title as a junior, but was the catcher, then helped Penn High School in Mishawaka, Ind., win another state title last season as its top pitcher.

"I'm comfortable with my first 10-to-12 pitchers," Gernon said. "But we have to defend."

Sullivan is a good person with which to start. The All-MAC first baseman led Western Michigan in hitting, .306, and put himself all over the WMU season and career records list. For the season records, he was tied for first in home runs, 18; third in runs batted in, 59, and total bases, 129; and ninth in runs scored, 53. On the career list, he's tied for first in home runs with 28 and is fourth in slugging percentage, .573. On the MAC 2023 stats list, he was second in home runs; third in RBIs; and ninth in slugging percentage, .617, and runs scored.

Oh, and in a preseason poll for this season, he wasn't named the favorite to be the MAC Player of the Year.

At second is sophomore Grady Mee, who started 32 games and hit .277 after redshirt junior Brendan Harrity was injured. As for the leftside of the infield, Gernon is looking at either Harrity or junior Michael Maloney from Southwestern Illinois College to man both the shortstop and third base positions. Maloney hit .325 and drove in 37 runs last season at SWIC. The head coach has to replace the graduated Jimmy Allen, who made only one error in MAC games at short last season, and Gavin Doyle, who hit .290 and led WMU in doubles with 17, at third.

"This could be one of our more athletic infields because we have three shortstops playing in three separate positions," Gernon said.

In the outfield, Gernon is looking at senior Josh Swinehart (.283 batting average) in left field and as a backup to Sullivan at first; senior Jackson Kitchen, .276 batting average and a team-high 16 stolen bases last season, in center field; and redshirt junior Dylan Nevar, .263 batting average, in right field. Nevar was a Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Freshman All-American and the MAC Freshman of the Year in 2022.

The returning catcher is senior Greg Budig, who started 46 of the 52 games. As for the designated hitter spot, it will be between sophomore returner Connor Ostrander, who hit .286 in 2023, and junior CJ Richmond, who transferred from Iowa Western Community College where he hit .290 with 10 home runs.

Off the field, the Broncos have been outstanding. The team had a 3.68 grade point average in the fall, the best ever for a WMU baseball team, with 31 of the 37 players on the roster making the Dean's List.

"It's a cultural thing and we talk about academics as much as we talk about winning the MAC," Gernon said. 

With good pitching and defense, winning the MAC could happen this season.