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Around the Horn with Coach Hawkins
The Oxy baseball program will be using the Coaches Corner as a bi-monthly blog to update players, prospective student-athletes, parents, alumni and fans on the happenings on and around the diamond. Be sure to check back!
March 23, 2010
The season started very well for the us with a series win over Whitworth to open the season (two out of three) followed by a 1-3 road trip against some of the best teams in the Northwest conference at the Desert classic. We were in every game until the closing frames. Upon returning from Anthem, AZ, we opened conference play with a convincing win at SCIAC pre-season favorite Cal Lutheran.
We lost two close games in the ensuing double-header but made a statement in the series. From there our young club swept an over-matched Cal Tech team, moving our conference record to 4-2 , 7-6 overall. Freshman pitcher Cory Popham improved to 3-0 and Senior shortstop, Jason Jebbia, continued to dominate opposing pitching, living up to his all-region status.
Moving into the next week of conference play, we had a tremendous opportunity in front of us. Sitting in third place, a series victory over Redlands would have propelled us into 2nd. Friday was a very close contest but the bats couldn’t get the key hits needed to seal the victory and Popham’s complete game was wasted as we fell 4-2. Saturday didn’t go much better with the club dropping both at Redlands, the second game by a 4-2 score (again), a game in which the Tigers had the bases loaded in the 9th with no out and failed to score. Pedro Aldape lead the inning off with a solo shot to bring it within three. Stephen Hilliard contributed a quality start to give us a chance to win.
More devastating to us than the losses, however, was the blow dealt to us in the (potentially) season-ending injury suffered by Jason Jebbia. On a play at the plate in the 2nd game of the Redlands double-header, Jebbia was taken out by the catcher without the ball. In a defining moment for Jason, he managed to reach over and slap home plate to secure our first run of the game. His line on the year at the time he went down: BA .517, 4 2B, 2 3B, 4 HR, 24 runs scored & 19 SBs (in 15 games). He was having an All-American type year.
The LaVerne series exposed our lack of depth but we battled throughout and held the lead late into each game. Freshman Pedro Aldape continued to swing a hot bat for us going 4 for 11 on the series and filling a void created by Jebbia’s loss in the middle of our order. Freshman shortstop Logan Allen also had a fine series at the plate and in the field, going 6 for 14 and was perfect in the field. 2nd team All-Conference second baseman Dan Kelley lead all hitters going 7 for 12 on the weekend.
It didn’t get easier this past weekend as we traveled to Orange to face #7 Chapman. Our pitching staff responded by yielding just 13 earned runs on the series but a lack of timely hitting kept us from getting an upset. The scores, however, were indicative of our tenacity and ability to overcome adversity: 6-4, 9-2 and 5-2.
I couldn’t be more proud of our team at this point. We have managed to stay together and work harder every week of the season. We continue to get better, in spite of unprecedented set backs. This team has great character!
November 10, 2009
Our Fall team practices concluded a little over a week ago and the coaching staff was very enthusiastic about our progress since the end of last Spring. Although we finished on a high note last season—winning five of our last six conference games and moving into the 6th spot in the conference standings, everyone in the program felt like we had a great deal to improve on. In our three weeks of non-traditional practices we did just that.
Probably our greatest improvement was on the offensive side. With limited experience returning a year ago (graduating roughly 900 of 1300 AB’s), we batted only .280 as a team in the ’09 campaign. This fall, after a summer where 12 of our 16 returners played in collegiate summer leagues across the country, our offense showed signs that it may in fact be the strength of the club. Starting off slowly with a .254 effort in the first intra-squad, our top ten hitters finished very strong, batting .454 and .555 in the last two contests.
Defensively we were equally as impressive. At the two-deep level, we fielded .949 for the three intra-squads—actually six games of chances. Our number ones were perfect, committing no errors in over 140 chances. We also displayed a level of aggressiveness that was eye-opening at times, leaving our feet at an unprecedented level and throwing behind runners with a purpose that we lacked a year ago.
Our biggest challenge heading into the Fall was developing an aggressive mentality with our pitching staff and we are on our way to establishing that. Of particular importance to our staff is doing a better job of getting ahead of hitters. Throwing a strike in the first two pitches is how we measure that and the entire staff did that at an astonishing rate of 83%.
As we move into the next phase of our off-season, our players are
working very hard in the weight room, on the field and in the
classroom. Keeping the momentum of a great Fall
will be difficult but if we can, we look to return in January as a
decidedly improved team with the leadership in place to take us to
the next level.
