Starting a season off with eight losses in a row isn’t exactly what the Seton Hill University (SHU) Griffins’ baseball team wished for. Winning the next 20 of 29 games wasn’t very probable, but somehow the Griffins found a way to do it in an extraordinary fashion.
“Our improvements through the middle part of the season can be attributed to our young and new guys settling in and shaking off the nerves,” said head coach Marc Marizzaldi.
By Corey Struss,
Staff Writer
Starting a season off with eight losses in a row isn’t exactly what the Seton Hill University (SHU) Griffins’ baseball team wished for. Winning the next 20 of 29 games wasn’t very probable, but somehow the Griffins found a way to do it in an extraordinary fashion.
“Our improvements through the middle part of the season can be attributed to our young and new guys settling in and shaking off the nerves,” said head coach Marc Marizzaldi.
Things just didn’t seem to click at the start of the season, he added, “When we hit well, we didn’t pitch or field well. When we pitched well, we didn’t seem to hit.”
With the start of a new season comes the start of new team chemistry. Even Marizzaldi noticed that everyone needed to adjust to their teammates.
Although the team had a slow start, confidence was never an issue with the Griffins.
“After losing our first eight games, our guys stayed positive and kept believing we were a better team than what we had shown,” explains Marizzaldi.
“Once we got that first win, the confidence started to come back,” he said.
Keeping their confidence, the Griffins had key players step up from an unexpected class: the freshmen.
Freshman pitcher DJ Cannon was named WVIAC Pitcher of the Week twice in a row. On Senior Day, freshman pitcher Rick Raraigh was credited with a clutch win against Wheeling Jesuit.
“Our freshmen have grown up very quickly. We don’t see them as freshmen anymore, but rather as guys that we depend on just as much as our seniors,” admits Marizzaldi.
The freshmen, especially the pitchers, have been “thrown into the fire” and have done extraordinary things without fully adjusting to the college game just yet.
“I’ve seen how the Griffins have stepped it up throughout the course of this season. Even though they got off to a rocky start, they’re doing well now and beating teams with ease,” said Bobby Snyder, a sophomore. “I think this could be attributed to their young and talented pitching.”
“It took a little bit of time to get used to playing with each other, but after that eighth loss, we just started to click,” says pitcher Andrew DiNardo. DiNardo, a sophomore, has been a vital part of the strong pitching core for the Griffins.
Playing six to eight games a week for two months seems like an exhausting task. But the Griffins seem to have an insatiable hunger for the postseason – a drive to prove something.
“We get out there and work every single day, whether it be a game or in practice,” states DiNardo. “Not once have I seen my teammates take their eyes off of our goal – the postseason and a championship.”
The whole team is on the same page right now. If the Griffins’ goal is a championship, and the underclassmen keep performing in key situations, then they will definitely get their chance of achieving this lofty goal.