The University of Akron Athletics
Zips Baseball Newsletter
May 24 | Baseball
Hello Baseball Alumni/Friends,
We have concluded our season coming up short again not qualifying for the MAC Tournament, but I can confidently indicate we showed vast improvement over the course of the season especially with our young guys.
Our win total in the conference was the same as last season at 10, but unlike last year, we probably needed two more wins to qualify compared to only needing one last year. We won four series (Ball St., Western Mich., Ohio, Central Mich) taking two of three games, losing two series with only one win (BGSU, Miami), and getting swept three times (Northern Ill., Buffalo, Kent St.). This year had two teams at the top of the divisions you normally wouldn't see with Buffalo and Northern Illinois having a great year. On the last day of the season, Buffalo held a half-game lead on Kent St. because of one less game played as a result of a rainout they had with us. Buffalo lost to BG on a walk-off triple with two outs as we were finishing our game against Kent. Kent St. won the MAC title by a half-game with two outs at the end of the season with a 4-1 win at Lee Jackson Field.
Our annual Diamond Classic game vs. Kent State at Canal Park last Thursday evening was a game for the memories as everyone who paid the $5 admission charge benefiting Children's Hospital got their money's worth! After giving up four runs in three innings to Kent, our guys came back in the 4th with a big inning tying the game up. Thirteen innings later and both bullpens not giving up another run, Kent St. finally prevailed with a 5-4 win on a sacrifice fly. That was a tough and disappointing loss mostly because of how many times we had the winning run in scoring position to end the game.
As we evaluate the season and move forward, we feel good about how the young guys progressed and the valuable experience they gained. We had 11 freshmen join us this year and all but one saw playing time. Most of them were pitchers including three forming our weekend rotation by the last third of the season. Most of the year, our weekend consisted of two freshmen starters as John Valek began and finished as our Saturday guy. JT Brubaker has tremendous upside, but starting Friday games took its toll and his confidence level kept taking a hit. We could've helped him a little by supporting him with more runs, but offensively, we couldn't sustain consistency throughout the whole year.
Our most improved group was the pitchers, especially the young guys in the bullpen. Overall, we finished 9th in the conference with a 4.98 ERA as Buffalo had the best at 3.65, but we began at 5.79 following our preseason games with the second toughest DI schedule. Our young guys had to throw both feet in the ocean before they learned how to swim at this level! They really finished well and look very promising for us.
Offensively, we finished last at .245 and certainly doesn't feel good even with a lot of young guys in there. As I've mentioned previously, it's sticking with the game plan as a hitter, staying disciplined, staying mentally focused, and being confident in order to be consistent. We battled consistency all year. Our guys worked hard, but couldn't seem to maintain a consistent swing from day to day. Coming thru with a clutch hit was very sporadic, possibly because of low confidence. I've spoken a few times to our guys over the year regarding how we need to set our expectation level much higher for ourselves. We still have holes to fill in the lineup and continually attempting to find the good combination of offense and defense in the player. Defensively we finished 8th with a .960 fielding percentage. Not bad, but without run support for our pitchers, we'd need to field 1.000 to win more games!
Senior Jared Turocy, the third Turocy brother to play for the Zips, was our leading hitter (.356) and finished second in the MAC while garnering All-MAC Second Team honors. Jared, Sam Trecaso, and Bryan White have finished their baseball careers and we wish them well. Bryan has a couple job offers to choose from, while Jared and Sam need to finish a few more classes before graduating
Currently, we have 8 new players joining us next year. Seven freshmen and one JC player make up the class of 5 pitchers, an infielder, an outfielder, and a catcher. As I updated our roster board yesterday for next year, our club currently consists of 11 freshmen, 18 sophomores, 4 juniors, and 3 seniors which includes redshirts in all the classes. I anticipate several more joining us for fall practice which eventually will be trimmed down to 35 players for opening day vs. Winthrop University in February.
I encourage you to gather your former teammates and join us for our alumni golf outing July 22. I would love to sell out and make this a great event we can be proud of. If you have anything you can donate for raffle prizes or if you would like to participate in the outing, please contact either me or Alexa Doutt by email at asd9@uakron.edu or by phone at 330-972-2695.
Also, if you would like to support your (our) program in other ways, feel free to contact me to discuss the numerous ways your support is needed and appreciated. Providing a positive life-long experience is our goal. Times are changing for the good in our athletic department and we need to continue that growth. You can make a huge difference in the experience of our baseball players no matter of your contribution size. We have a large number of alumni and collectively can make a proud experience for them! Remember how you felt? A motto I live by daily, "If you want it done right, do it yourself". Let's not rely on someone else to do it, let's do it ourselves! Please help in any way you can! Follow this link to find out how to donate to Zips athletics.
Thank you and hope to see you in July.
Head Baseball Coach
330-972-7290
GO ZIPS!!
