By: Will Harper, Contributing Writer
The baseball team is off to a slow 4-9 start. Despite some good performances from individual players, the team as a whole cannot find a way to win games. In Head Coach Interdonato’s words, “We’re hitting poorly and pitching poorly.”
Some players have performed extremely well so far. Senior Brett Hash is off to a hot start, hitting .345 with three homeruns and 11 RBIs in just 13 games. Adam Scott ’17 set the school record with a 17 strikeout game against the University of Pittsburgh. However, as a whole the team is struggling. The team’s total average in the box this year has been .239, while their opponents have been hitting .325 off the pitchers. If Hash had not been in the lineup, the Terrier’s average would have plummeted to .223.
The team is also struggling to hold leads and finish games. The squad almost blew the 4-1 lead in the game Scott struck out 17 against Pittsburgh. They also allowed 11 runs in their 18-11 victory over Georgetown University. In the game against Pittsburgh, Scott went eight and third, and his pitch count was climbing. When he left the game, he was up to 119 pitches. He struck out the first batter in the ninth, then gave up what Coach I described as a “cheap hit.” He was pulled and closer Jordan Accetta ’17 gave up another hit, struck a man out and walked a man before an error occurred scoring two.
Additionally, in the game against Georgetown they burned five pitchers to get through the rough, long game that saw both teams put more than 40 batters in the box. Senior starting pitcher Spencer Kulman went the first five only giving up three runs and was on his way to a quality start. Then he loaded the bases and gave up a homer in the sixth, making his stats appear much worse than they actually were. The Terriers spent the following three and a third going through four different pitchers trying to get out of the game.
Interdonato says the team is in a slump. “We had a lot of success in both [hitting and pitching] in preseason inter-squads, and it just hasn’t translated to in-game,” he says. “Like anything, to play this game you have to be confident. Right now we’re not having a lot of success pitching and hitting, our guys aren’t confident and until that changes, then we’re going to have a hard time making those results change.”
The Terriers are in the midst of a 14 game home stand, and so far this year, they have fared much better at home (3-4) than on the road (1-5). They are looking to turn their luck around in the coming weeks.