AIKEN, S.C. – University of South Carolina Aiken baseball head coach Kenny Thomas admits that the landscape of college baseball has changed with the new aluminum bat specifications for the collegiate game.

The close of USC Aiken's first fall campaign under the new rules came earlier this week and Thomas admits that things are going to be more different for the Pacers this season than they have been over the past few seasons.

"The game has totally changed with the new bats," remarked Thomas. "We are not going to be able to play like we have over the past few years, waiting for a Travis (Howard), Ken (Raborn) or Chad (Jacobsen) to hit a home run. We, just like everyone else, are going to have to manufacture more runs and play defense … I think our running game is going to be critical this season. We truly are going to be a run and gun type team."

To accentuate Thomas' point the normally long ball potent Pacer offense concluded this fall's 16 Cardinal-Navy intra-squad scrimmages with only four home runs. Three of the four dingers came off the bat of Jowan Gray (Aiken, S.C./South Aiken).

The new bats according to Thomas will put the onus a little more on the coaches in making their players better hitters.

"With the new bats, you have to be technically sound," mused Thomas. "You have to square the ball up on these new bats. They perform almost exactly like a wooden bat."

Small ball may be the new name of the game for the Pacers, but Thomas admits that this year's Pacer pitching "is even going to be more important than ever" for the Pacers to succeed.

"We have a group of 14 to 15 guys that are extremely talented," mused Thomas. "We are going to count on our guys on the mound heavily this year. It is a very talented group that includes some very strong young pitchers. These young pitchers are going to have to mature quickly for us to be successful."

Last year, USC Aiken entered the season ranked in the preseason top 10 and figuring that they had some of the best depth in the entire country.

The USC Aiken coaching staff learned a hard lesson that even with what is envisioned as top-notch depth, things can change very quickly as the Pacers were saddled with numerous injuries throughout the course of last season.

"Every year, I say we have depth, but this year I feel that we really are strong at every position," said Thomas. "We just need to prepare every player that they could see the field at any point in time since we found out anything could happen last year."

USC Aiken closed out its fall season in prime fashion earlier this week with Thomas raving about his team's productive fall.

"I guess you could say we learned a lot about all of our players this fall," Thomas articulated. "We had some surprises and some things that we expected."

Thomas also noted that he felt that their unique Cardinal-Navy intra-squad fall scrimmage series prepared his squad exponentially for the coming year.

"The best thing about us having our 16 Cardinal-Navy games is that everyone had a chance to play," said Thomas. "It gave some of our younger and newer players the chance for some action, while also showing the older players that there is competition behind them."

USC Aiken will commence the 2011 regular season with 18 consecutive home games.

For the seventh straight year, USC Aiken will play its first three-game series of its season against Lincoln Memorial. The Pacers and Railsplitters will begin their season-opening three-game set at 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 4 at Roberto Hernandez Stadium. The series will conclude with two single 1 p.m. games on Saturday, Feb. 5 and Sunday, Feb. 6.