By, Timothy Haan
The SLU baseball team after 10 games is off to another rocky start. Although it is early in the season, the Saints are heading to repeat another season below a .500 win percentage. However, even though their record doesn’t show, this team has more potential this season than the past two seasons.
When looking at the Saint’s first 10 series opponents, it is easy to say that their standing doesn’t represent where they will be at the end of the season. St. Lawrence has so far split a four game series versus Bard and a two game series versus St. Joseph’s. They have taken flat out losses against Colby College and Western Connecticut State and have beaten Plymouth State. The only thing this shows is that baseball teams are volatile and so is the sport, especially early in a season.
Let’s take a look at what these losses and wins mean. The losses against Bard are the most detrimental. They are in-conference losses, which hold the most weight when trying to climb up the Liberty League ladder. They also won two of these games and will not see these teams for the rest of the season, the other teams the have already taken losses against, so far, it seems the team has either been on the money or haven’t shown up to play. The coach Peter Hoy, needs to focus the rest of the season on what makes the team click.
SLU also seems to have a very well rounded team this year. They have ten players batting over .300, two of which are batting .500 flat. One of these players, Brendon Frank, is a versatile freshman who is used in both the infield and outfield and has been unbelievably hot at the plate. This young shooter holds promise for SLU baseball down the road and potential leadership.
The top half of the pitchers for SLU have also been above par, with five pitchers having earned runned averages below 3.50. However, there there is a big disparity between the top half and the bottom half of SLU’s pitching. The next drop-off for E.R.As is a 9.00, and the numbers only go up from there. Trust that most of these pitchers have only seen one or two games, and their E.R.As should not embody their skills. One blow-up inning can damage a pitcher’s outright E.R.A, but there is plenty of time left in the season for these struggling pitchers to pick up the slack.
One of the main discrepancies noticed in the playbooks is the number of errors that SLU has been committing. SLU has had 18 errors in just their first nine games, averaging two errors a game, which can turn a win into a loss in a heartbeat. Fielding is one of the only controllable aspects of baseball, and with more infield/outfield repetitive practice, the Saints will hopefully cut out scores of unforced runs against them.
Saints baseball should not be ruled out yet; hopefully, with a bit of luck and extra focus, they can work their way to the top of the league.