RSS Feed
|
|
Links: |
 |
Bee Home Page |
|
WNY Events |
|
Classifieds |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Division title among Amherst baseball's lofty goals
"I think trying to win a division title, regardless of how you finished the year before, is a realistic goal," said Davis, assisted by Chris Dolce. "Anything less would be somewhat of a disappointment." Davis hopes a year of experience under his players' belts will help the team turn around a 5-17 campaign in 2007. Ten of the 11 returning players are seniors. "A lot of them have played together for a while," said Davis. "Now we need to find a way to win when it gets into the late innings and we're down two or three." Returning seniors include Alex Dusenberry, Geoff Gallson, Mike Yanity, Derek Duke, Zach Willett, Andrew Hays, Phil Cultrara, Brandon Jeffords, D.J. Filer, and Ben Gaughan. Dusenberry, a returning ECIC Division II second-team all-star, batted .288 and scored 13 runs with four RBIs last year. Dusenberry moves from second base to shortstop. Yanity will start at first base. He could hit cleanup as could Duke (.296 batting average, eight runs, returning ECIC II honorable mention). Duke and Hays are vying for third base. Hays is also battling with Cultrara at second base. Filer and junior JV call-up John Whitehead will alternate games catching. The outfield will feature Willett in left field, junior JV call-up James Gould in center field and Gallson in right field. Gould or Gallson are both quick and could leadoff the batting order, Davis said. Gallson can also play center field. The pitching staff, which Davis calls a team strength, will feature Yanity, Hays, Duke and Jeffords. Statistically, Yanity is the most accomplished returning pitcher. Last year, the left-hander sported a 3.50 earned run average and held opponents' batting averages to .262. If Yanity is pitching, Jeffords might play at first base. Jeffords can also play in the outfield. Jeffords, also a lefty, came out of the bullpen last year and finished with a 3.50 ERA, a 1-0 record, and held opponents to a .255 batting average. "He throws strikes and gets people out," said Davis. "He keeps guys off balance." Davis said Hays has a couple of pitches that keeps hitters off balance and Duke is a competitor who never wants to come out of the game. The rest of the team includes Gaughan (second base or outfield), returning junior infielder Tom Ponticelli (ECIC II second-team selection) and newcomers of senior outfielder Aubrey Gibert, senior first baseman Mike Gruttaduria and junior third baseman D.J. Balduf. Balduf played JV last year. Gruttaduria played JV his freshman and sophomore years and missed the entire 2007 season with a broken right femur bone he suffered while playing for the school's Federation hockey team last year. Overall, Davis likes his team's versatility. "For example, all of our infielders can play other infield positions," said Davis. He also thinks team speed will be a team strength. He said offensively, his team will need to do the little things to have success like bunting teammates over and putting the ball into play. Defensively, he hopes his team will be better. Seventy of the 180 runs allowed last year were unearned. And if the team isn't playing up to its potential, Davis has told the team that there are three JV second-year players who could be called up to play. Because of student enrollment, Amherst has moved from ECIC II to ECIC III. Davis feels all his team needs to do to have success is execute. "We have a plan in place," said Davis. "There are no excuses. They need to execute."
Amherst's first game of the season versus Williamsville East last Friday was canceled and rescheduled for May 1. A game to look out for will be on April 22 when the Tigers host Canisius. Davis has dubbed the game "Throw Back the Clock" game as Amherst will wear retro jerseys from the late 1980s and use wooden bats. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
News
)