When Nick Faunce looks across the locker room at his teammates, he sees one thing: experience.

“Everybody’s risen to the occasion at some point,” Faunce, a junior outfielder, said. “We’ll all be able to handle the pressure that comes along with the season and the environments we’re in.”

Kansas’ increase in experience is perhaps the biggest difference with this year’s roster from a season ago.

Just last season, Kansas was the youngest team in the Big 12 with really only one senior contributor. On the flip side, Kansas had one freshman and two sophomores in its lineup on a regular basis, as well as one freshman and three sophomores who combined to pitch 55 percent of the team’s total innings.

Kansas’ young players showed 11 one-run losses and a 28-30 record – the team’s first losing season since 2002. While the Jayhawks have gotten past the disappointment of last season, it remains a motivating factor coming into this season.

“Just talking to guys in the locker room, we kid around about it, but then we’re like, ‘No, we can’t have a year like we had last year. We’ve got to lock it up, get down to business and get back to where we were,’” junior first baseman Preston Land said.

With Friday set as the national start date for teams to begin practices, Kansas enters the season with the kind of experience it lacked in 2007. Kansas returns six starting position players from last season, as well as nearly its entire pitching staff.

But even little turnover from last season hasn’t stopped coach Ritch Price from shuffling his deck.

In the field

Sophomore Robby Price moved from third base to second base in the fall, which coach Price said is a “more natural position” for Robby. Filling in for Robby at third base will be freshman wunderkind Tony Thompson who, at 6’5”, 220 pounds, is expected to be an imposing force in the Kansas lineup.

In center field, Faunce is in line to replace Kyle Murphy, who was drafted by the Texas Rangers following his senior season.

“Nick Faunce won the job in the fall,” Price said. “He did not enter the fall as the No. 1 guy on our depth chart and at the end of the fall that’s where he positioned himself.”

Although he wasn’t the favorite to replace Murphy coming into the fall, Faunce said he felt like last season was a precursor to him claiming a starting spot this season.

“I’ve been in a lot of games, pinch running and doing some late defense work last year, so I don’t really feel like I’m getting thrown into a whole new situation. I was kind of eased into it by my previous years,” Faunce said.

But both Price and Faunce acknowledged that the competition for center field would continue this spring. Price said if Faunce should struggle, senior John Allman could shift from left field to center field, which would open up left field for either senior Casey Larson or freshman Brian Heere.

On the opposite side of the outfield, senior Ryne Price has moved to right field after leading the team with 19 errors at second base in 2007. Coach Price said Ryne, who was a catcher in high school, would also catch on occasion to relieve junior Buck Afenir.

“Ryne’s excited to be out of second base,” Price said. “I think he’s relieved to have the pressure off him from playing second base where he can relax, play hard and focus on swinging the bat.”

Despite Ryne’s struggles at second base, Land said the team needed Ryne and his tenacious attitude somewhere in the field.

“He’s a dirtbag on the field,” Land said. “He dives for everything. He busts his butt to get to every ball he can get to.”

Not every returning starter from last season is on the move. Afenir will remain behind the plate, and Land will stay at first base and senior Erik Morrison is still at shortstop.

On the mound

Compared to all the shifts being made in the field, Kansas’ rotation and bullpen situation seems pretty bland.

All three weekend starters from last season – junior left-handers Andy Marks and Nick Czyz and sophomore lefty Wally Marciel – return, although Marks will be sidelined with a shoulder injury until sometime between March and April.

“His rehab is going very, very well,” Price said. “We’re hopeful to get him back on schedule or even a little bit early, but my hope is he’s 100 percent when we bring him back.”

Even without Marks, Price is confident in his staff. He said both Czyz and Marciel had strong falls and he expected sophomore left-hander Shaeffer Hall, senior right-hander Andres Esquibel and junior lefty Sam Freeman to compete for starting spots in Marks’ absence.

Further alleviating Marks’ injury is the time the Kansas coaches will have to work with their staff before their first game.

“The best thing that’s going to take place is, from a pitching standpoint, our guys will be game ready to pitch when we get to Hawaii,” Price said. “That has not always been the case. We’ve pushed our pitchers.”

In the bullpen, Kansas returns its top set-up man, senior right-hander Hiarali Garcia, and closer, junior righty Paul Smyth.

Price said Smyth, who saved seven games in 2007, had improved his slider and change-up since last season.

“Obviously, he needs to continue to improve his off-speed pitches so he can miss some barrels and strike some more guys out than he did a year ago,” Price said. “We need him to take another step in his development toward trying to be the same kind of guy Don Czyz was for us two years ago.”

So while last season was a forgettable one on many levels for Kansas, there’s really no substitute for the experience the Jayhawks now carry into 2008.

“The big thing for us is a year ago we were the youngest team in our league and we pitched the youngest guys in our conference on the weekend,” Price said. “They were all put in pressure situations. If we grow from that experience, we shouldn’t have as many growing pains and our level of performance should improve.”

—Edited by Sasha Roe