Western Kentucky is officially ready to play baseball.

The Hilltoppers completed one of the last things on their checklist Wednesday afternoon before beginning the season Friday, which was Media Day.

The media met with first-year head coach John Pawlowski and players Danny Hudzina, Thomas Peter, Austin King and Jackson Sowell.

"I'm certainly excited about the upcoming 2016 season," Pawlowski said. "We've got a great forecast for the weekend, so we're certainly looking forward to that. It should be fun."

After Pawlowski finished his opening statement, he quickly wanted to talk about the incident a couple of weeks ago - where he was pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence. That charge was quickly dropped.

"I just wanted to briefly touch-on the unfortunate situation that occurred the past few weeks. I'm very thankful that situation is behind us and that part of it has been resolved. It was a very tough situation - a nightmare scenario. I was very upfront with my team."

"I'm glad that part is over with. It's time to move on and get ready to coach baseball."

That it is indeed. WKU opens the 2016 season Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. by beginning a series with Youngstown State at Nick Denes Field.

"I'm excited about Friday - opening day, Pawlowski stated. "I think our team is really excited about where we're going. We've had some great practices. I think leading up to opening day has been productive in many, many wheels."

"We need to play with a chip on our shoulder. You work hard, you want to see the rewards come. We have a lot of work to do. I wouldn't count out this team is any way, shape, form, or fashion.

The Tops' opening series rotation will be Austin King (Friday), Cody Coll (Saturday) and Ryan Thurston (Sunday).

"I feel like our bullpen - a lot of those guys are gonna play major roles," Pawlowski noted. "I think they've learned from last year."

Danny Hudzina, a Preseason All-Conference USA thirdbaseman said that it was an "easy transition" in switching coaches.

"I think there's very good communication with how they want us to play," Hudzina said.

Thomas Peter, WKU's main second baseman last season, when asked about being picked ninth to finish Conference USA play, said to "not pay attention to those kind of things."

"We play our own game. No matter what people say, we're gonna play as hard as we can," Peter stated.

Austin King, who is the Hilltopper's main pitcher, said he felt "confident."

"We understand what we have to do this year," King said. "More focus, more success."

Sowell, another pitcher and a Bowling Green High School product said he and the team are "headed in the right direction.

"If we buy in to what he's (coach Pawlowski) is telling us, we'll be just fine," Peter noted.

We'll see how fine the WKU is this season, starting Friday afternoon in Bowling Green.

-Follow InsideHilltopperSports.com columnist and BigRedsReader.com publisher Tyler Mansfield on Twitter at Twitter.com/RivalsTyler.-