SJFC Baseball: A team to watch this season
Before the snow has even cleared, baseball season is in full swing nationally and at our local colleges. Despite the snow covered grounds our Rocloop college teams are practicing and fitting games in down south over spring break.
St. John Fisher’s baseball team is among those teams who make the trip down south to start their season. This year the team made the trek to Florida where they played in the Russ-Matt Central Florida Invitational.
Coming off of a record breaking 28 wins last season, the Cardinals have a lot to live up to. Coach Dan Pepicelli expects his team to live up to the previous season with help from starting pitcher Ryan Hanson. Hanson, a senior, “takes on all the tough assignments and performs at the highest level” says Pepicelli.
Hanson leads the team but Pepicelli says “he cannot say enough great things about this team and how hard they’ve worked.” He is proud of the entire team and says the 29 players have amazing chemistry, which is an important factor in their team success. Since the chemistry is so great and the players have a system that has proven to work, they’re not planning on changing very much this season as far as strategy goes. Although the team has a formula that works, Pepicelli says each year the team seems to increase their intensity from the previous season.
For the upcoming season the team is going to focus most on the games within their conference in general instead of just focusing on one or two tough teams so they are not vulnerable to other good teams they may come across.
The team already has three wins under their belt as of the middle of their spring break trip to Florida. When they return to cold New York they’ll start their season here with a game against Muhlenberg on March 14. Pepicelli encourages people to come watch this team because “they always try to compete as hard as possible and treat the game with class.”
Cardinal’s 2008 Baseball Schedule:
2/23/2008 Williamette University W 8-7
2/24/2008 Rose Hulman Institute of Technology L 4-7
2/25/2008 Johnson & Wales University W 9-3
2/26/2008 John Carrol University W 9-8
2/27/2008 York
2/28/2008 York
2/29/2008 Cornell
3/14/2008 Muhlenberg
3/15/2008 Muhlenberg
3/16/2008 Lincoln University
3/19/2008 Elizabethtown
3/20/2008 Lebanon Valley
3/29/2008 R.I.T.
3/30/2008 R.I.T.
4/3/2008 SUNY Brockport
4/5/2008 Stevens
4/6/2008 Stevens
4/9/2008 SUNY Fredonia
4/16/2008 SUNY Oneonta
4/19/2008 Ithaca College
4/20/2008 Ithaca College
4/23/2008 Keuka College
4/24/2008 SUNY Cortland
4/26/2008 Utica College
4/27/2008 Utica College
4/30/2008 University of Rochester
5/2/2008 University of Rochester
5/5/2008 University of Pitt-Bradford
