Mark Calvi is entering his 12th season as South Alabama’s head baseball coach, but even he has had a tough time getting used to all the new faces around the program.

The Jaguars open the 2023 season on Friday against Northwestern State as part of the four-team Jaguar Invitational at Stanky Field. They will do so having lost six of their top eight players in at-bats from last season and their top four in innings pitched.

“It’s the newest roster I’ve had in a long time,” Calvi said. “But it’s exciting. There are some returners, but there’s a large group of new guys. There are some talented players. You see foot speed and arm strength and defensive ability. But how they’ll do, we won’t know until we play somebody else.”

South Alabama went 31-23 last season and lost in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament after injuries devastated its pitching staff. Top starters Jeremy Lee and Miles Smith were among several Jaguar arms who were out of commission by season’s end, while Smith and veteran starters Matt Boswell, JoJo Booker and Tyler Lehrmann were lost to graduation.

Lee, a Freshman All-American in 2021, missed the end of that season and nearly all of 2022 with elbow issues that required surgery. The redshirt sophomore right-hander is back pain-free this spring, however, and will start Friday night’s opener.

“He’s been really good,” said Calvi, who added that Lee will probably be on a 75-80-pitch count to start the season. “Is he back throwing 96 (mph) yet? Not yet, but he’s been 90-92, 93, with four pitches for strikes.

“It was a huge blow to lose him last year, but it was the right decision to shut him down. When you make a decision for a kid’s health, you can’t go wrong. … But he’s got a chance to be even better than he was before he was hurt.”

Joining Lee in the opening weekend rotation are a pair of left-handers, freshman Gehrig Conard and Garfield Johns, who will each start in Saturday’s doubleheaders vs. Eastern Kentucky. Sunday’s starter vs. UAB remains to-be-determined, with junior-college transfers Zach Willingham and Danny Diaz among the candidates.

The bullpen returns plenty of experience, including right-handers Jackson Boyd (3.30 ERA in 43 innings last season), Zach Harlan, Walker Johnson, Grant Wood, Collin Brougham, Seth Carter and Eric Lin, a valuable swing man as a freshman last season. Then there is 6-foot-8, 255-pound right-hander Sam Knowlton, whose blazing fastball has returned following two years of arm trouble.

“He’s been recovering nicely,” Calvi said of Knowlton. “He’s been 97 to 101 with a good slider, but we’ll have to ease him in as well. It’s been almost two years since he’s pitched competitively in a game.”

The Jaguars do bring back several key position players from last year, including second baseman and leadoff man Erick Orbeta (.340/.444/.395, 30 RBIs last season). Also returning are center fielder Will Turner and left fielder Joseph Sullivan, both of whom played regularly as freshmen in 2022.

Catcher Diego Altamirano is also back after putting together a quietly excellent season both at the plate and on defense a year ago (.471 OBP, 37.5% caught stealing). Veteran Hunter Donaldson, who can play both outfield corners and third base, will fit in somewhere.

But gone are All-Sun Belt outfielder Miles Simington and several other key position players from last season, including shortstop Santi Montiel, first baseman Hunter Stokes, third baseman Cameron Tissue, designated hitter Landon Jordan and outfielder Charles Middleton. Jordan retired due to a recurring shoulder injury, while Montiel — who started 186 consecutive games at shortstop the last four seasons — elected to end his career and enter the workforce despite having another year of eligibility remaining.

A pair of junior-college transfers — JG Bell (a former Faith Academy star who began his career at Auburn) and Trey Lewis — are still battling for the shortstop job headed into the season. Junior-college transfers Tyler Borges and DJ Donaldson and Spring Hill transfer Micah Morgan are all in competition at first base, though both Donaldson and Morgan — a Division II All-American last season — have been slowed by injury in the preseason.

Right field and designated hitter will be filled by some combination of Hunter Donaldson, Old Dominion transfer Robbie Petracci, North Alabama transfer Austin Thrasher and junior-college transfers Colson Lawrence and Mitchell Heer. Back-up catcher Cole Ketzner could also see some time at DH, Calvi said.

Lawrence and Heer were both two-way players at Wallace State-Hanceville, and will continue to hit and pitch with the Jaguars. Heer will also play some third base.

“I feel good about the returners,” Calvi said. “You look up the middle, and we’ve got three of the four back from last year, and they’re three of our best players. So we have returners in key spots.

“… It’s been a long time since I had to write anyone’s name except Santi down at shortstop. And we had Drew LaBounty before that, so we’ve really only had two guys play there for the last seven, eight years. We’ve got two guys working there right now, and we’ll see how it plays out. By about Game 25, we hope to be settled in on one guy.”

South Alabama is part of a new-look Sun Belt Conference in 2023, with Southern Miss, Old Dominion, Marshall and James Madison having joined to make it a 14-team league. The Golden Eagles in particular are a major addition, a preseason Top 25 team that hosted a Super Regional last season.

Southern Miss joining the Sun Belt means the Jaguars lose them as a regular mid-week opponent, however. South Alabama hosts Alabama on March 14, then faces Auburn in Montgomery on March 21.

“I like the league,” Calvi said. “It gives us a chance to get multiple teams in (the NCAA Regionals) — two or three most years, but maybe four or five. And we were already playing Southern Miss every year anyway, and when we did, we faced their best pitchers and they faced ours. The biggest thing is losing them as a mid-week opponent, finding other teams you can play on a Tuesday or a Wednesday and not get home at 2 a.m.”

Jaguar Invitational

At Stanky Field

Friday, Feb. 16

UAB vs. Eastern Kentucky, noon

South Alabama vs. Northwestern State, 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 17

UAB vs. Northwestern State, 11 a.m.

South Alabama vs. Eastern Kentucky (DH), 3 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 18

Eastern Kentucky vs. Northwestern State, 11 a.m.

South Alabama vs. UAB, 3 p.m.