Posted: 05/02/07

The show must go on
Baseball team works toward all time school wins record in final games

Kelley Ruch | contributing writer
kruch@smcmail.smcvt.edu

While other St. Michael's College teams are finishing up their regular seasons, waiting on final playoff brackets and preparing for the postseason, the baseball team finished up its season on the verge of a record, but without conference playoffs.

Going for the record

The baseball team finished its season with a record of 16-24, one win shy of the all time St. Michael's single season win record. (Kelley Ruch, photo)

With only a few games remaining in the season, the baseball team had a shot at breaking the St. Michael's all time single season win record of 17. The team finished its season with a record of 16-24, falling one win shy.

Head coach Seth Cole says he knew the team would have to do very well to beat the record, but that it wasn't out of reach.

Junior captain Evan Grenier and junior Ed Fennessey both say they think the team was playing well, and had a chance to break the record.

The team needed to win seven of their final nine games in order to reach 17 wins.

Grenier says the team’s season got off to a slow start, as they came back from a spring break trip to Florida with a record of 2-8, but he has been impressed with some of the first-years who have stepped up since then.

“Some of the new freshmen pitchers have been doing well, Mike Robert in particular,” Grenier says.

Robert, also known as “Dave” to his teammates, transferred from Babson College, where he was recruited to play baseball last year.

“I definitely felt a lot more welcomed on the team here,” Robert says. “It’s a lot more fun and we’re playing better because of it.”

For the love of the game

Head coach Seth Cole says he tries to keep the team motivated at the end of the season even though they have no conference playoffs to prepare for. (Kelley Ruch, photo)

St. Michael’s baseball is recognized by the NCAA, but they are not members of the Northeast-10 Conference, and therefore do not have a postseason. Without having playoffs to compete for, the players must motivate themselves and each other to stay competitive until the end of the season.

“The better we do, the more people will look at us and give us respect,” Robert says. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get into a conference before we’re done here.”

Fennessey says it’s also their love for the game that keeps them going.

“We play for pride and respect and mostly we play for fun,” Fennessey says. “We want to earn respect and come out and show other teams we can play.”

Cole says he makes sure they don’t lose their drive.

“I try to stay positive with them and make sure the drive is still there,” Cole says. “Our players, especially the upperclassmen, get it and are pretty self-motivated. The first-years who aren’t used to playing so many games in the season need a little of that push, and our upperclassmen deliver.”

Not belonging to a conference doesn’t hinder Cole from recruiting players. He says he is up front with the recruits and lets them know their situation from the beginning. On an annual basis, Cole says he might lose one or two prospective players as a result.

“If they’re looking to make national tournaments, then probably St. Mike’s isn’t the best place in terms of baseball,” Cole says.

When it comes down to it, the players Cole recruit end up coming to St. Michael’s to play because they love the game he says.

“Bottom line is our recruits are looking to have a good experience and play baseball for a few extra years,” Cole says.

Stepping in the conference direction

“We play for pride and respect and mostly we play for fun,” junior Ed Fennessey says. “We want to earn respect and come out and show other teams we can play.” (Kelley Ruch, photo)

When taking over the position as head coach, Cole said he was going to work to get the team into a conference. A year later, although not in a conference, steps have been made giving St. Michael’s more recognition with other colleges in the NE-10.

“We’re playing many more games this year than we have in recent years,” Cole says. “We’re playing some of the schools in the conference now and showing that we can compete with NE-10 schools.”

This past week, the team beat the College of St. Rose, which Cole says is a good step forward.

“A lot of it now is out of our hands and is up to the conference,” he says.

St. Michael’s is geographically located so far away from other colleges within the division that the time taken up by traveling caused the players to miss too many classes, Grenier says. Because of this, the team had to leave the conference.

“The requirements were too much between sports and classes,” Fennessey says. “It’d be great to get back in, but rather unlikely.”

Cole says he believes if other schools in the NE-10 truly want St. Michael’s back in the conference, their coaches will be able to work with him to make it work. Travel would be first and foremost on the list of things to change.

“Right now there are 30 conference games that make up the schedule, which if you look at on the surface, we’ve already played 30 games this year,” Cole says. “But some are against Middlebury and Norwich instead of Bryant and Southern Connecticut, where it’s a one hour road trip instead of five.”

If they were able to reduce conference games from 30, to something even like 26, it would be manageable, Cole says.

“We wouldn’t have any grand visions of consistently being at the top of the conference,” he says, “but we certainly want to compete.”