Sometimes it rains

Friday saw a downpour cancel practice. In order to pass the time, the players performed MLB-approved rain-delay skits. Vote now for your favorite one.

Bowling

Fight

Fishing

Joust

Tug O' War

Week 4 in the books

Friday ended up washed out, but we got in a pair of games Saturday with each pitcher on the staff tossing three innings. To work on some situations, we spotted runners at either 1st, 2nd or 3rd, and if they scored, they counted double.

We saw some solid at bats. Dillon Lowe and Brian Sheehan had big days at the plate. Lowe went 3-3 in Game 1 with a pair of doubles and two walks. He scored from second on an infield hit for the walkoff win. Sheehan finished the day 4-6 with an extra-base hit, two sac bunts and a few more well-hit balls. A little extra work in the cage earlier in the week paid off for both.

After a controversial Hammer last week, Big Cat Lawrence left no doubt going 4-8 with a pair of doubles. He also turned in a diving catch in foul territory and gunned down Energy Giver Dan Fetes as Dan tried to tag up and take third base. Great play.

This week's hitter's Hammer went to John Bennett for dropping his first homer on Saturday and adding a double earlier in the week. He's had a strong fall all around. He gave a great speech. He's been one of the steadiest players so far.

The pitcher's Hammer went to Zach Jordan. The big hoss keeps on pounding the zone, and once again walked no one on Saturday. He was speechless upon receiving his first Hammer, but pitched like a man!

Zach Hugg continues a strong showing on the mound. He's still at 0 walks for the fall. He had a 3-1 count on his last batter, but managed to induce a pop up. For the week, we had 15 walks in 50 innings as a staff -- still some room for improvement.

One more week of fall ball left to go.

Mental Toughness: Is it in you?

I found this article online about Mental Toughness interesting. It listed 69 characteristics of mental strength.

Mental toughness is not about showing your emotions on your sleeve, but dealing with a bad day or things out of your control, and sometimes your own sub-par performance. We did not make the post-season last year. I have to do better. The team has to do better.

Mental toughness allows you to be coached. A pair of sophomore catchers -- Kyle Koslowski and Ryan Fitzgerald -- both had major flaws last year and had little chance of playing as freshmen. I once kicked Fitz out of the batting cage for pulling balls foul in batting practice!

We began camp with 8 catchers. We still have all 8 players -- some have now been moved to new positions -- but Fitz ad Kos kept their heads up and are our two most improved players -- in every area of their game -- hitting, defense and baserunning and either could be our No. 1 catcher. Fitz has two legitimate steals this fall! It would have been easy see all the players in front of them and give up. They have proven to be solid leaders by example. They could also end up as our No. 5 catchers if they let up.

I heard a speaker at the annual ABCA (baseball coaches) convention last year. He spoke on emotional maturity. Self-awareness was a big part of emotional maturity which I feel athletes sometimes lack. Sometime athletes need to be more aware of their actual performance. Most players feel they should be "starting" -- however, when they take time to look at their performance directly with what others have accomplished, "starting" is not a reality at that point. Getting to where you should be after someone passes you up takes mental toughness -- and happens everyday.

That is what we are looking for this fall. Mentally tough BASEBALL PLAYERS!

Good or bad?

Intersquad this weekend saw Sean Larson toss an 8-inning no hitter. Hopefully that doesn't mean we can't hit! A couple of runs were scored on back-to-back walks, an infield error and a strike three that bounced in the dirt. Still room to improve.

Larson has been working hard. In addition to running, abs and the band work, he has been hitting the 90 MPH workout on his off days. I have always contended that players need to do more work outside of practice than during -- kind of like academics. As a pitcher, I mastered my mechanics by throwing BP everyday to my college roommate after practice my freshman year.

Larson took home the Hammer. We also gave one out to the hitters. Andrew Lawrence has been starting to show some of the power his big frame should generate. Both speeches encouraged the players to keep working. Jordan Hibbard still remains our all-time best speech giver. Hope to have him talk to the team after the Alumni Game.

A few familiar faces stopped by this weekend. Matty Clark -- for my money, the best hitter in program history -- and Rob Herrmann. Matty spoke to the team after practice Friday. Rob talked hitting with the players on Friday and Saturday, and helped with intersquad. He is headed Down Under for some winter ball in a few months. He is coming off an All Star season in his first year of pro ball. Good to have some talented players hang around!

-- CP

Gametime

Friday's intersquad consisted of a 10-inning contest. We played our starting lineup (white) against our second nine (in the blue shirts). The second nine jumped out to an 8-0 thanks to four walks and a hit batter early on.

The starters fought back to eventually tie the game at 8-all, then again at 11-all. Facing darkness, we spotted a runner at first in the bottom of the 10th -- he scores the white team wins; he fails to score, blue wins.

Pitcher Steve Sturm bounced back from sub-par outings the first two weeks to come in and slam the door -- took advantage of an opportunity.  He aided himself with a nice defensive play (not quite a Billy Chapel moment, though). Good to see him get better.

As happens this fall, the winners celebrate...

... and the losers pay.

Three triangles in 1:25, or we do it again.

"You need to hate losing more than you love winning."

First Base Foot Work

Over the past four years we have been lucky enough to have one of the best defensive firstbaseman in Division 3 baseball.  Unfortunately due to graduation, we need to find out who can fill the shoes of Taylor Gahagen.  If you ever watched any good first baseman play they have phenomenal footwork, which with a little bit of practice any decent baseball player can pick up.  Watch great first baseman like Mark Teixeira, Adrian Gonzalez, Albert Pujols, and Don Mattingly and just watch how great their footwork is. 

-Click Here to watch how to play first base properly.



--AD

Andy weighs in

Assistant coach Andy Dlugosz give his take on the fall thus far.

Making adjustments

Week 2 saw the pitchers throw 65% strikes as a group (483 strikes/743 total pitches). More importantly, in 53 innings pitched, we only walked 12, compared with 12 walks in 25 2/3 innings last week.

Ramsdell took home the Hammer, which could have gone to a number of pitchers. He tossed five innings and needed only 40 pitches! Efficiency. Hugg (78.6%), Ramsdell, Ace, Jordan, Grey, Morris, Murray, Larson and Gascon all threw over 60% strikes.

Offensively, at bats were better as well. We are starting to answer the biggest questions of who will play first, outfield and who will emerge as the top catcher from a large group.

Extra-base hits are also starting to increase. This will determine in large part who plays, along with baserunning.

Adjustments are being made. Here Andrew Lawrence, a.k.a the Big Cat, discusses his early flaws and adjustments he is making
.

Hey, we can't give away too much information!

Checking in with Tommy T.

Tommy Tantillo is one of only two seniors on the squad. Hear what he has to say after finishing Week 2.

Simple pleasures; Week2 ,Day 1

Assistant coaches make very little. A lot of their commitment comes from the love of the game.

Coach Bongiovanni has been with the team for six years now. One of his favorite things to do is dragging the infield. In the video below, you will see him dragging a "sand-trap pattern" on the best field in Division III. As a college student, he spent his summers working the grounds at various local golf courses.

Week 2 of practice saw the pitchers throw bullpens. After their live action this past Saturday, pitching coach Matt Sullivan and myself have begun giving each player one thing to work on. Zach Jordan and Joey Tingue are working on their balance. Tommy Morris on changing speeds. A few on devloping change ups, etc.

Steven Ramsdell was the top strike-thrower from the weekend at 80 percent (24 of 30). Zach Murray got ahead of the hitters the best, tossing first-pitch strikes to 7 of 8 batters (87 percent). Morris tossed a low of 2.1 pitches per batter -- very efficient. These are the things that get pitchers deep into games.

The practice began with a lot of throwing. The best Around the Horn time was 29.90 (I can't recall the team that won -- I'm getting old). We then did about 100 double plays up the middle, while the corners and catchers did slow rollers and bunt rotations.

Coach Dlugosz and Bonge then worked on some front toss and hitting the other way. The ability to hit the other way allows the hitter to make productive outs (moving runners from second to third) and take away the outside pitch (most pitches are to the outer half of the plate).

We finished up with bunting. We did a poor job of executing the first round, but got better. Tommy Morris laid down the Golden Bunt and got he team out of conditioning.

We are looking to extend the pitchers more this weekend with intersquads on Friday and Saturday.

--CP

Pitchers have potential, need to show progress

We completed our third day of practice with a number of intersquad games. We have three teams and are playing a series of three-inning games, winner staying on, losers pay. The L.A. Suitcases went 2-2 on the day. The Chadwick Bay Crushers went 2-1, while the Longballers went 1-2 overall.

Kyle Koslowski took home the Hammer award for his all-around day. He gave the Crushers a walk-off win with back-to-back great baserunning plays, scoring on a ball in the dirt. He hit a big triple and gunned down a would-be-base stealer in a number of close games. Had good at bats.

Most pitchers tossed two innings. Generally, a lot of strikes were thrown, and it looks like we have a lot to work with. Here's what pitching coach Matt Sullivan had to say following a hot and humid day at the Wig.

 

Enjoy the weekend. Back at it on Tuesday!

First video

 

Here is a video of senior communications major Dan Greco speaking with Ian Gallagher. Ian played part-time as a sophomore. He is expected to play some short, third and outfield. Any way to get him in the lineup.