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!

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 6^th 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.

Fall 2008