SLIPPERY ROCK — The standard never changes when it comes to Slippery Rock University baseball.

That comes with the territory when you have a coach with 21 years of experience and 629 wins with the program.

"We've set the bar high here and it's up to ourselves to reach it," coach Jeff Messer said. "We want to challenge for the conference championship and the regional tournament every year.

"If we don't do that, it's a disappointment."

The Rock is coming off a 31-15 season that ended in a four-way tie for the PSAC West title, the 15th such crown won or shared by SRU during Messer's tenure.

SRU lost the tiebreaker that determined which three teams would compete in the PSAC Tournament. It did receive a North Atlantic Regional bid, but dropped two games there.

"We got beat pretty good by West Virginia State, which was clearly the best team in the tournament," Messer said. "It doesn't bother you so much when the best team winds up winning it."

The Rock opens the 2006 season today against Salem (W.Va.) in a 1 p.m. doubleheader at California (Pa.) University. It will do so without a handful of players Messer was hopeful of receiving contributions from.

Pitchers Mark Tanner, a transfer from the University of Kentucky, and Chris Squeglia, a transfer from Allegheny College, would have contended for spots in the starting rotation, but both had season-ending arm surgery in the off-season.

Outfielder Matt Messer, the coach's son and a would-be returning starter, is now at Manatee Community College in Florida. Karns City graduate Travis Trimbur likely would have started in the outfield this spring, but broke his ankle in the fall and is probably out for the season.

"We're missing some pieces to the puzzle that would have made us better," Messer admitted. "But we still have the potential to be pretty good."

Following the four-game weekend series against Salem, SRU heads to Florida March 8 before its home opener March 21 against Pitt-Johnstown at Critchfield Park.

The Rock will begin the season with six starting pitchers: John Katich, Troy Wilson, Dan Herisko, Derek Blyzwick, Colin Scott and freshman Shaun Valenly from Sharpsville.

Katich appeared in just two games last year before undergoing Tommy John surgery in April. Wilson was 3-1 with a 3.02 earned run average in 2005 while Herisko was 5-1 with a 2.48 ERA.

"Katich would have been our No. 1 pitcher last year," Messer said. "When he went down, we still had some solid No. 2 through 6 guys, but we missed that big gun."

Herisko earned all-region honors a year ago. Blyzwick had a 6.22 ERA last season and Scott won five games despite a 5.36 ERA.

"Derek finally seems to be healthy," Messer said. "We've been waiting two years for him to regain the form that helped him win back-to-back state championships at Moon."

SRU's bullpen is anchored by Butler County products Josh Rape of Mars and Scott Rice and Mike DeCola of Slippery Rock."All three of those guys are looking good," Messer said.Brad Wilson (.331) returns at catcher while Dave Gonos (.267, 4 HR) moves in from right field to play first base with Chris Tolliver (.239, 4 HR). When one is playing first base, the other will be the designated hitter.Billy Herman, a freshman from Grove City High School, takes over at second base for the graduated Chase Rowe."Second base is the position we'll experience the biggest drop-off in hitting," Messer said.Shortstop and lead-off hitter Phil Butch (.298, 10 stolen bases) returns for a third year and Todd Schickling (.362) returns at third base.The Rock stole only 21 bases as a team last season."I don't know if you can get away with playing small ball with aluminum bats, but we do plan on running a little more," Messer said.J.D. Lowry (.383) takes over in center field. He likely will be flanked by juniors Tyler Wilson and Don Ehrenburg early in the year. Fellow junior Ryan Dillon, recovering from an injury, will see action there as well."Overall, we'll have a little more power than last year," Messer said. "We've got four or five guys who can drive the ball out of the park. Tolliver and Gonos could be good for eight to 10 home runs each."Shippensburg always has four Division I-caliber pitchers, and they're the team to beat. But the league should be as competitive as last year and we feel like we have a shot at it."It all comes back to pitching. If you have solid pitching and light hitting, you can still win a lot of games. It doesn't work the other way around," Messer added.

SRU baseball coach Jeff Messer get drenched in this 2003 file photo after The Rock advanced to the NCAA Championship finals. He hopes to repeat the experience this season.