BASEBALL Improvement Is Key for Hoyas New Squad Begins 2002 Season With Goals in Mind By John-Paul Hezel Hoya Staff Writer
Charles Nailen/The Hoya The Georgetown baseball team confers on the mound last season. They face William & Mary tomorrow.
The newest edition of any team on any level sets written or unwritten goals at the beginning of its season to drive the course of the team. As the Georgetown baseball team prepares to open up its 2002 season tomorrow at William & Mary, the Hoyas are no different.
Thursday night, two days before the opener, Head Coach Peter Wilk handed out a sheet of goals and guidelines for his players to read, discuss and ultimately follow. Accountability, effort, loyalty and hustle are a few of the specifics, but one goal stands out above the other, one that Wilk stressed in an interview that afternoon.
“Our goal is to get better each Sunday,” Wilk said. “I know some coaches will set numbers and all that stuff, but for a program in transition and rebuilding, I don’t believe a number goal is a healthy thing to set up . We need to keep focused on the fact that we’re going in the right direction, and people are excited about it.”
The Hoyas embark on their 56-game 2002 schedule after finishing last year 17-39 overall, 7-19 in the Big East. The seven conference wins more than doubled the team’s total from the previous two seasons combined.
The Hoyas do not open their Big East schedule until March 16 at home versus Seton Hall, but they will play some important non-conference games before that date. Georgetown travels to California over spring break to play the University of California at Berkeley, Cal Poly and St. Mary’s.
“I think it’s going give our kids a taste of big-time baseball,” Wilk said. “It’ll be like playing Notre Dame, Rutgers and Seton Hall every week.”
In its college preseason issue, Baseball America ranked the Big East as the sixth-toughest conference in the country. Only the Atlantic Coast Conference, Pacific-10, Southeastern Conference, Big 12 and Conference USA rank ahead of it.
In the individual polls, Notre Dame is No. 6, and Rutgers is No. 25. The Fighting Irish have a preseason All-American in junior center fielder Brian Stavisky, while the Scarlet Knights have the No. 1 prospect in college baseball in junior right-hander Bobby Brownlie.
This season is the second that Georgetown will play its home games at Shirley Povich Field at Cabin John Park in Bethesda, Md. The Hoyas used to play where Parking Lot T now sits next to the Leavey Center, but recent construction of the Southwest Quadrangle forced the team into Maryland.
The move, however, did not thwart the Hoyas’ success at home last season, as 15 of their 17 victories came at Shirley Povich Field.
Now Georgetown seeks to improve on that win total with young players, strong leadership and a third-year coach who has begun to build an annual contender in the Big East.
“I think we’re one year away,” Wilk said. “After this coming year’s recruiting class, guys we’re putting to bed right now, I think we’ll be able to compete day-in and day-out in the Big East. I think this year we’ll be more competitive than last year, but not quite where we need to be.”
Guiding the Hoyas upward will be seniors Phil Pierorazio, Eric Sutton and Mike Green, whom the team voted as captains of the 2002 edition of the Hoyas. Wilk is very pleased about the team’s decision.
“Pierorazio brings a presence to the field. Green’s not a `rah rah’ guy, but people follow him because the way he plays the game, and Sutton’s kind of the same way. He’s our ace pitcher,” Wilk said. “They’re three very easy kids to follow.”
Wilk has done his part recruiting a talented group of freshmen that add another level to the depth charts. Matt Johnson of Bellvue, Wash. and Alta Loma, Calif. native Bill Quinn have earned the starting jobs on the left side of infield, Johnson at shortstop and Quinn at third. Jimmy Supple, meanwhile, is the best defensive first baseman.
“[Johnson’s] the best short stop I’ve had since I’ve been here. He’s got a gun, an absolute cannon,” Wilk said. “[Quinn’s] gonna hit his share of balls out of the yard.”
Freshman right-handers Tom Braun, out of Kingwood High School in Houston, Tx. and Eddie Pena, from Dr. Michael Krop High School in iami, Fl. will likely step into the three and four spots in the rotation. Braun was a 30th-round pick by the Oakland Athletics in last year’s Major Leauge Baseball’s amateur draft.
Senior left-hander Eric Sutton and sophomore right-hander Kevin Field will hold down the top two spots in the rotation, and will throw this weekend against William & Mary. Sutton, who started a team-high 12 games last season, has a devastating curve ball and has Major League scouts monitoring his progress. Field threw two complete games in 2001 and pitched the team’s lone shutout, a 9-0 whitewashing of West Virginia on May 5, the Hoyas first shutout in league play since 1996.
“He’s an outstanding kid,” Wilk said. “He could easily be the number one on anybody’s staff. We kind of look at him at 1A here.”
Coming out of the bullpen will be senior Tony Pina, who recorded five saves a year ago, and sophomore Kevin Galvin, who will fill the middle relief job. Pina and Galvin could, however, share both roles.
Senior P.J. Martinez is sidelined recovering form elbow surgery he had this summer.
Offensively, the Hoyas will have large spikes to fill at the top of the order. Junior Jason Boice, who led Georgetown with 54 hits, 50 runs, 18 doubles and 85 total bases last spring, is out for the season with a chronic back injury. The team is in the process of finding Boice a group of doctors that can hopefully help him recover from the career-threatening injury. Meanwhile, Green will be given the first opportunity to bat lead off and spark the offense.
“He doesn’t have Jason’s speed, but he has Jason’s plate discipline,” Wilk said. “He can take a walk. He’s a smart baserunner.”
Sophomore Michael Lombardi, who batted .301 in 46 starts as a freshman, will start at catcher. He handles the pitchers with care and confidence, and will have to step up even more offensively in the middle of the order.
“He’s a leader,” Wilk said. “He’ll have a bigger roll offensively this year, and defensively, he’s one of the best in the conference.”
Wilk and his coaching staff have yet to decide on the remaining spots in the line-up, but there are a number of players will definitely play.
“The nice thing about this team is that there’s probably 11 kids on this team that legitimately have a beef if they’re not in the starting line-up. We haven’t had that since I’ve been here. We’re a lot deeper, we’re a lot more athletic. But we’re young.”
Sophomore Ron Cano, who started at shortstop last season, can play five different positions (shortstop, second base and all three outfield spots), and Wilk will need his bat in the line-up. Junior att Carullo will also start at either first or second base, after missing most of last season with an injury.
“He’s probably our best hitter,” Wilk said. “A gap-to-gap double guy.”
Junior Tony Lee, like Cano, can play a handful of positions, and senior John Blodgett, who missed last season with a broken leg, will get a chance at earning consistent playing time.
“He could be a pleasant surprise,” Wilk said. “He’s going to get a shot. He brings a certain intensity and leadership to the locker room as well.”
Although there are many questions that naturally accompany a non-scholarship team, the biggest for the Hoyas heading into tomorrow’s opener will be the outfield, where the departures of Jim Vankoski and Mark Carlini have left a giant gap in defensive play. Cano and sophomore Carlos Gazitua, who knocked in 20 in 22 games last year, and will try to fill the hole left by Vankoski, and the entire offense will need to fill in for Carlini’s .342 batting average. Carlini was also named to the All-Big East third team.
“Our outfield play, to call it average, I think would be a compliment. I’m very concerned about our defensive outfield,” Wilk said.
If the Hoyas are to get better each Sunday, each player on the team must contribute and pick up the slack left by the last year’s seniors.
The Hoyas face William & Mary tomorrow at 1 p.m. on Shirley Povich Field.
