After finishing their 2018 season with a 21-27 record, the St. Joe’s baseball team aspires to jump to the top of the Atlantic 10 Conference standings in the 2019 season. With seven freshmen and eleven sophomores, the Hawks have many inexperienced members who may look up to veteran leaders to accomplish that goal.
Taking a leap like this one however, does not happen overnight, according to Head Coach Fritz Hamburg. With a young group like this one, the team has concentrated on overhauling the culture.
“I think our expectation is we’re out here to win a championship,” Hamburg said. “But we’re not going to win a championship today. We have to take it each day and try to get better. I think there’s a lot of reason to have optimism and good thoughts about where this ballclub is going to go.”
With only three seniors and one graduate student, senior first baseman Charlie Concannon said the team has a new dynamic to work with.
“Really anything short of a championship and a playoff run, we don’t consider that too much of a success,” Concannon said. “This is a totally different team and we have totally different goals going forward. You can tell when you see this group, it’s a different feel, and we’re really excited to show what we have on the field.”
Concannon was an offensive leader for the Hawks last year and will take the same role this year. He has been a mainstay in Hamburg’s lineup for each of his seasons at St. Joe’s, starting more than 40 games in each of his three previous seasons and leading the team in batting average, hits and slugging percentage. Concannon said he has taken on a bigger leadership role as they transition into this season.
“Overall, I just feel like our leadership, there’s more guys walking in stride that way and we always want that but sometimes it goes off the tracks a little bit,” Hamburg said. “But I think this group is on the tracks.”
One player that has a lot of experience on the team is right-handed pitcher Dominic Cuoci, who exercised his fifth year of eligibility after getting injured halfway through last year’s season.
Cuoci started all of his 16 games before getting hurt last year. He said his injury will help him look at his last season as a Hawk in a slightly different way.
“One thing that I’ve learned from this year is that our actions speak louder than our words,” Cuoci said. “I think years before we kind of got caught up in talking about a lot of stuff. This year we’re definitely trying to focus on not just our play.”
The older players will certainly have a lot to handle, as the underclassmen not only have strength in numbers, but also in their talent, according to Concannon.
“This freshman class is one of the most talented, and a lot of these guys are some of the most talented players that I’ve seen.” Concannon said. “They’ve bought in completely to that and they’re going to be really exciting to watch this year.”
Freshman infielder Nate Thomas and freshman catcher Andrew Cossetti are two players that Hamburg said he will look to insert into his lineup however he can. Thomas currently holds the starting spot at third base.
“Right now, there’s a couple of them that will have immediate impacts and there’s some that could have significant impacts as we go along,” Hamburg said.
The freshmen class will be looked to in aiding the Hawks in attaining their ultimate goal of winning a championship. The upperclassmen see no difference between them, as they are all striding towards the same goal, according to junior pitcher Hayden Seig.
“Whether it be on the mound or whether it be at the plate, they’re just as important,” Seig said. “I think those guys are taking that seriously and I think those guys will be instrumental in our success. And the truth is, although you have to be a leader on the field, those guys can step in and be leaders just as well.”
