NU men's baseball team looks to rebound after slow start

By Jason Leonard
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

The Norwich baseball team has played nine games this season and is hungry, looking to grab their first win.

"I think all of our guys are real anxious to get back out there and play ball. The weather has been kind of nasty, lately, so we just want to get outside and start playing," said Bill Tucker, a player on the Norwich baseball team. "We train all winter to play a month of games, so I hope we get them all in."

During Spring break, the team traveled down to Florida where they stayed for six days and played a total of seven non-league games.

"Almost all of the games, with the exception of one, we lost by only one or two runs. It seemed in every game it was just one inning which made the difference in who won," said Tim Goodrich, a sophomore, civil engineering major, from Whately, Mass.

"We played a division two team from New York; they were really good. We hung with them the whole game but had a disappointing loss of 7-5. We were in every game; it was highly competitive, even though we lost every game," said C J Daly, junior, a history and English major from Orange County, California.

In Florida, the Cadets played teams that were in both division three and division two.

"In the six days we were down in Florida, there was great weather, unlike Vermont. We played a lot of good teams down there, some top division three teams and even a couple division two teams," Goodrich said.

"By that point, we had been in the field house for about a month. We were all sick of the snow and sick of being inside, so it was great to finally get out on the diamond," said Bill Tucker, a junior business management major from Halifax, Mass.

"We had only one practice. There were so many games it wouldn't have worked well to practice more than that," Daly said. "We didn't get to have as much free time as I would have liked, but it was worth it to play baseball and get the experience our team needed."

On their only day off, the team went to watch the Florida Marlins play the Boston Red Sox. Many of the players talked about how the trip had a positive effect on the team.

"It was a good time down there. We had fun and went out at night, sometimes. I think it was a good bonding experience and helped the newcomers and upperclassmen to come together," said Josh Creighton, junior, a communications major from Scituate, Mass.

Daly added, "In the first few weeks of practice, you don't really get to know many of the new guys on the team. Us older guys learned a lot more about the freshmen who we hadn't played with before. Especially the rooks, who some of us don't necessarily get to hang out with much at school."

Norwich played their first league games in a double header against Suffolk University on March 29.

"The first game against Suffolk, we lost 5-15. It was a rough game. In the third inning, we jumped out to a 5-3 lead, then in the next half an inning we gave up nine runs."

Pitcher Razi Malani started the game off for the Cadets.

"He pitched well in the beginning, there. His fastball was working pretty decent. But Suffolk's a great hitting team; they were able to get ahead in the count a lot, where they had the opportunity to drive some fastballs," Tucker said.

"Our lead fell apart on us down the stretch. We made a couple errors and had one really bad inning, giving up nine runs in the fourth. That pretty much did us in for that game," Creighton said.

Daly said that in the first game they got an early lead and lost it. "We do this a lot, where we're ahead and we don't play like we have the lead, but like we're the ones losing, still."

In the second game against Suffolk, Norwich had a disappointing loss of 4-6.

"Our starting pitcher was Drew Myers. He pitched a solid game and gave us a chance to win there at the end," Goodrich said.

In one of the early innings a Suffolk player hit a grand slam.

"They put together a couple hits, then a guy got walked, and then they hit a grand slam. We came back and got it within two runs at 4-6," Tucker said. "In the bottom of the seventh, the last inning, we had the bases loaded with the tying run on second. CJ Daly smoked the ball down the third baseline, and the third baseman made a great diving play on it."

The third baseman caught the ball in the air, and then stepped on the third base bag, making a double play.

Daly's reaction when he saw the guy make the catch was, "It was highly upsetting. I mean, that's what every ball player dreams about, bottom of the seventh inning, bases loaded. I smoked the ball, and the guy made a nice play on it. It's all a part of the game."

Norwich's next baseball game is scheduled against Plattsburg State.

"I don't know too much about what to expect from Plattsburg. They're a non-league game, and I think they're a pretty solid team. We're playing a nine inning game, so it will be nice to get out of our conference and play a full nine," Creighton said.

"I definitely expect we'll beat Plattsburg. From what I hear, they're decent, but I know we can beat them," Goodrich said.

Bill Tucker thinks that the team's record can only get better from here.

"I think the two games we just had will be the toughest we'll have all year," Tucker said. "We faced the two best pitchers we'll see all year, and from here it just gets easier and easier, really.

"The fact that we were so close in those two games against Suffolk bodes well for the rest of the season," he said.

"It's not like we're playing bad baseball; all of our games have been so close and competitive. We just need that little extra something to get us over the hill," Daly said. "I think this year's team compared to last year's is better talent-wise. We should be able to put together a nice string of wins; we just need to get the bats going.

"The pitching is doing really well. We just need to get firing on all cylinders," Creighton said.

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