The Fayetteville Woodpeckers are ready to open their season to sports fans with their first home game Friday, April 7 at 7:05p.m. at Segra Stadium.
In conjunction with the Houston Astros, the Woodpeckers are rolling out their 2023 opening Day roster ahead of their Carolina League opener against the Carolina Mudcats. The 30 man roster features 20 returners and 10 players that will make their Single A- debut in Fayetteville.
Overall, the Woodpeckers feature four of the Astros top-30 prospects according to MLB.com.
The Woodpeckers will be led by first-year manager Ricky Rivera, along with pitching coach Zack Wilkins, hitting coach Luis Reynoso and development coach Dylan Mazzo. Jennifer Bardales serves as the athletic trainer and Kevin Rivera, the strength and conditioning coach.
Newcomer and Pitcher Michael Knorr joins the woodpeckers from Princeton, New Jersey and was selected by the Astros in the third round of the MLB draft out of Coastal Carolina.
I'm just excited to play again, I haven't played since I mean this time last year in college, so being able to go out there and just compete. It's just gonna be fun,” said Knorr. “Spring training was a lot of just kind of refining what we were doing in the offseason. Last year, they gave us a really good idea of what each person needed to work on. And we kind of took those suggestions and things that we liked, and kind of just started working on it. And it basically gave us a blueprint and we followed it. And when we went to spring training is kind of like a test. See if we're ready and basically just kind of prepared us a little bit more for this year.”
Returning Pitcher Nolan DeVos played out the last month of the 2022 season with the Woodpeckers and is now returning for his first full season.
“We had two home weekend's and then an away trip so that was definitely really fun to come out here and kind of see what it was like,” said DeVos. “They gave everyone certain things they needed to work on.I had to make some delivery adjustments that would help me with my slider and my curveball and kind of working on the consistency with those. That was stuff that I did a lot of this off season and then just getting off the mound a lot and kind of practicing and refining all your stuff over and over. So that was definitely a big change, but it's one that I think will help a lot.”
The Woodpeckers announced their themed events and promotions that are in the works for this year's season, including returning favorites and new additions:
The preliminary promotional schedule also includes 21 giveaways, 6 firework shows, 4 specialty t-shirts, 2 themed jerseys to accompany weekly homestand themes with daily entertainment and activities for every fan.
A full calendar of promotional events can be found online here: https://www.milb.com/fayetteville/news/woodpeckers-announce-2023-first-half-promotional-calendar
Ticket packages are available at fayettevillewoodpeckers.com or by calling 910-339-1989.
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