By. Nathan Cram
Bangor, ME- Every year at Husson, the baseball team take a trip to Florida to start their pre-season play. They played multiple teams, so it is kind of like their own personal spring training. This gives the teams the opportunity to get back into the groove of playing before the start of the regular season and conference play. They played teams like Montclair State, Rhode Island College, and a few other teams that made the trip down south.
Photo: Husson Athletics
Husson baseball head coach Jason Harvey graduated from Husson in 2006 and has been coaching the Eagles for 9 years. Harvey believes that the trip was a success and his team really developed during the week down south. “We played some really good baseball throughout the week. A couple letdowns on a couple games, but for the most part we were right there in the mix of it.”. They came out with a record of 2 wins and 5 loses. Still room for improvement but a decent start to the baseball season. “I’m not sure the record shows the level that we played at.”
Now any baseball team knows that it takes an entire team to win a baseball game. Every team has strengths, but they also have weaknesses. Coach Harvey believes that one of their strengths is in the depth of his pitching lineup. “I thought our pitchers threw the ball really well. Both starters and relievers came in ready to go and really kept us in games.” Pitching may be one of the team’s strong points, but Harvey actually thinks that making contact with the ball was their biggest weakness in Florida. “At the end of the day we just didn’t come up with some hits, one or two hits here or there. We could’ve easily been 4-3, or 5-2, then we really would’ve ended on a high note.”
Spending a whole week in Florida really allows the coaching staff to get a good look at their players. They can see who they think should be in certain spots in the batting order and who can make a difference when it’s late in the game. Harvey knows that he has some players he know he can count on when the season approaches. “JT Whitten obviously has had three great years here. I expect him to continue that going into his senior year. Andrew Curran, another senior has been another spark plug in the outfield and catching.” As well has upper class men, Harvey also has some younger players that he thinks will develop as the season goes on. “Mike Wong out of Lewiston is a freshman, who struggled a little bit defensively but offensively was really good. He lead the team in hitting. Sam Huston from Bangor played third base and he’s going to be another competitor as the season goes along.”
Just like any every sports team, they all all have season and team goals that they like to set before the season starts. Whether players want certain stats, or coaches want a great record. For Coach Harvey the goal is simple, to win the NAC championship at the end of the year. “Our goal every year is to win the North Atlantic Conference championship and right now no one is taking anything away from us.”
The baseball regular season starts on March 20th, when the Eagles take on Bates College at the Winkin Complex at Husson University.