Experience and offensive firepower could be what gets the St. Joe’s baseball team over the hump in 2022.
Following their season opener against Quinnipiac University on Feb. 18, the Hawks are looking to build upon a season that saw them lose both of their Atlantic 10 (A-10) tournament games.
The team won two of the three games this past weekend and according to fifth-year outfielder Brendan Hueth, there is great energy in the clubhouse to start the season.
“I think everybody here knows this is the best team that we have had here in a while,” Hueth said. “You can feel that there is something good going on.”
In the last two full seasons, Hueth was selected to the second (2019) and first team (2021) All-Conference A-10 team. Last season, he posted a team-best .375 batting average, drove in 25 runs, and had a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. According to Hueth, consistency in practice preparation is the key to sustaining his success from a season ago.
“I just go out, stick with the process,” Hueth said. “[I] go through a routine and just try to stay the course and just stick with it.”
According to Head Coach Fritz Hamburg, Hueth is not the only offensiveweapon the Hawks have in their lineup. In their first two games of the season against
Quinnipiac University, the Hawks scored a whopping 28 runs. Hamburg said the return of players like Andrew Cossetti, Nate Thomas, Brett Callahan and Liam Bendo should allow the offense to be at its best.
“We returned all of our starters positionally,” Hamburg said. “When you have that kind of experience, you have high expectations.”
Hamburg said his team is a veteran ballclub, and they are a confident group that is looking to avenge their disappointing performance in last year’s A-10 tournament.
“I think last year was big to get to the tournament,” Hamburg said. “[We] didn’t play great when we got there, so we have a lot to prove.”
The offense isn’t the only group that is surrounded by optimism, however. According to fifth-year pitcher Ian McCole, the pitching staff has high expectations for itself as well.
“We’ve got the staff to go out and put together a good season,” McCole said. “[We can] have some good numbers and have an opportunity to win the whole conference.”
McCole said the team as a whole is ready to take the next step in the right direction this season.
“[We are ready to] win the conference tournament for the first time since we’ve all been here,” McCole said. “We had a little hiccup in the tournament last year, but now we’re ready to go out and do what we all want to do,”
Hueth said the sky is the limit as far as the team’s aspirations of capturing the 2022 A-10 Championship are concerned.
“It is in our hands.” Hueth said. “I think we have got a lot of good players here.”
Hamburg said he does not want to put any limits on how well the team can do in 2022, but he said they had a productive preseason and fall and have already played well out of the gate.
“We are gonna have a lot of fun along the way,” Hamburg said. “I think if we take care of business and we stay healthy, we can make a deep run.”
The Hawks will head to Baltimore from Feb. 26-27 to take on the University of Maryland Baltimore County Retrievers in a three-game weekend series.
