In The News

January 30, 2003

NU baseball team gears up for another season

By Dan Robinson
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Bill Tucker is heading into his third season playing for Norwich's baseball team and is eager to get this year's season underway and make a run for the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) league championship once again.

"I am looking forward to the season, just like everybody is, I am sure," said Tucker, 21, a junior business management major from Halifax, Mass. "I think we have a real solid team this year."

Before the spring training trip to Florida or the season's 35 scheduled games, the team is spending their first couple of months getting geared up for the approaching year in Shapiro Field house.

"I am pretty excited about the upcoming season, because we have a good nucleus of guys coming back," said head coach Bill Barrale. "There are 14 players that were with the program last year coming back."

"A lot of our returnees started as freshmen, and we are going into our junior year, and it's time to start producing," said C.J. Daley, 21, a junior history major from Orange, Calif. "Hopefully, we can win the GNAC and get a good seed into the NCAA tournament, and accomplish all our goals."

"I think we are going to have a very experienced team, because we have a lot of players coming back," said Josh Creighton, 20, a junior communications major from Scituate, Mass. "I think we have a really solid line up, and we have a lot of upper classmen leadership."

Barrale is going into his third season as the head baseball coach and is excited about getting started.

"We are looking to take 24 guys on the team, and right now there are about 35 interested in trying out," said Barrale.

"I think having 30 some odd guys trying out for the team in Vermont is a spectacular number," said Luke Bussard, assistant baseball coach. "I am sure we can find some great players out of the 35 who try out, and be competitive for the conference championship."

With that many people trying out for a team in Vermont one has to ask the question of what kind of facilities are needed for such an early preseason in the dead of winter.

"I have been to other campuses, especially in our league, and we have, really, I think, the best indoor facilities in the conference and all of New England in Division III," Barrale said. "I know a lot of players might not like practicing in the field house, but it's a good facility with the batting cage and the indoor mounds we have, and the two diamonds painted on the floor."

"I think overall we do the best we can with the facilities. Granted, you always want more, and you have to stop worrying about that and focus on winning games," said Bussard. "Most of our season is spent inside, practice-wise, so I think inside-wise we have a great facility."

"We can get a lot of work done in there, and a lot of other teams are in gyms," said Barrale. "We spend most of our time, the end of January, all of February and even into March, in the field house."

With other spring sports also in need of the field house space, the teams are forced to share the different time slots.

According to coach Barrale, it's not hard to do; it's just a part of what goes into the season. Also, any college you go to, all their spring teams have to share the indoor facilities, and the only thing is "it just limits the time."

"I would like to have a little more time. We have about an hour and 45 minute slot to practice in, so you have to be real organized to get what you want to get done in that short amount of time," said Barrale. "That is the only disadvantage, I think, and then to shuffle the schedule around from the early slot to the late slot, it's not fun for anybody."

There are rotating slots of time to practice in the field house. They start at 4:00 p.m., and there are four spring teams at Norwich.

According to coach Barrale, that is "what you have to do to make it work when there are other sports on campus, and that's fine."

"I played college ball in New England, and we used an indoor facility, so you just have to make the best of what you got," said Barrale. "I think we can get the guys ready, but the hard thing is, it's not really baseball, because baseball is not meant to be played inside, so when we get outside for the first time, it's a little different."

According to Coach Barrale, that is the reason why the team goes to Florida during spring break: to get used to playing some games outside.

"The Florida trip is great for the pitchers to get their arms loose and to get everyone loose," said Bussard. "It's warm weather, it's good baseball weather, and it's a good time to see other talent."

"I am looking forward to going down to Florida and playing some baseball," said Tucker.

"We are playing a lot of games this year, more than the past two years, and we need healthy arms to go out there and give us innings," said Tucker. "The last year or so the offense has been coming around. Hopefully, that will keep improving, and our defense will be where it always is."

According to Bussard, it also is a great time to figure out a starting lineup

"As a Division III program, we do not have support from the school per se to [go to Florida]," said Barrale. "Of course they all want to do it, and we have to fundraise to do that, and it puts the burden on the players and me to spearhead the whole thing, so I am financially responsible, ultimately."

According to Coach Barrale, it's not really the school's position to give any of the sports teams money, because the baseball team does not have to go to Florida.

"I think it's important to go, ... to play games, and it's a great experience to play some good teams," said Barrale.

"Also with the players fundraising the money, it gives them a sense of ownership on the trip and gives them more responsibilities," said Barrale. "It's team building, and it brings us all together, and it's not easy, because it's a lot of money every year to do it."

The Florida trip gives the team a chance to work out any problems before the start of the season by going up against other teams in an aggressive league. Even with this competition, every year the team has the ability and put themselves in positions to win the league, according to Barrale.

"There are nine teams in the conference, and we've always been better then the four teams at the bottom, and the four teams at the top, we've always had a hard time beating them," said Barrale. "We are always right there in the middle, and I assume it's going to be the same situation this preseason."

"It's a matter of executing the plays on defense, and also putting the ball in play on offense," said Bussard. "I think if you have good coaching and good players believing in what we are doing as a team."

According to Barrale, last year the team was in a lot of one-run games with their opponents, and they had a chance to beat them but they fell short of victory.

Barrale is still very confident in his team to "make a push for the championship", and he strongly feels that his team can win the conference.

"It's just the matter of playing some good baseball games on a couple good days, and really there isn't any big difference between the top teams and us," said Barrale. "I think it's good quality baseball, and our goal is to go out and win a championship, and I am excited about it."

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