Coming off a long, grueling season, the Mercy baseball team survived winning 20 games last year with limited depth in the fielding rotation missing a spot in the conference tournament.
Some of the players were experiencing muscle pain and exhausted from the conditioning that led to the group being short-handed for half of the season. The coaching staff worked with the available players who had play out of position and had to see the trainer a couple times to rest their bodies.
Mercy Baseball is prepared to make improvements and staying healthy for the entire season. The biggest focus for the program’s standard is rest will be critical to helping the team succeed and have opportunities of making the conference and NCAA tournament this season.
Coach Chris Schoen explains how the boys taking care of their bodies and practicing is going help them have a great season of accomplishing the goals that did not happen last year.
“The guys staying healthy and being able to work on their skills is going to turn the season around for us,” said Coach Schoen.
Mercy Baseball returns the majority of the group from last season, yet it lost 13 players to graduation and the transfer portal. To fill out the roster, Mercy Baseball brought in three transfers and 14 freshmen. The group came together in late September to discuss their goals and commitment to how they want to vision the season.
The boys have been working day and night batting, pitching and visiting the trainers to receive treatment that will keep them refreshed during the springtime.Schoen also had to make changes to his pitching staff by expanding the coach’s depth of helping the boys avoid injuries.
The returners and newcomers since the fall have made improvements on the skills that the staff has worked on to prepare them on the field in games. The confidence and strength from this group has given them the mindset to win games and dominating conference play as a complete team.
Schoen shouts out his group for the hard work and commitment that the boys have given so far in the early part of the season.
“It’s too early to single out one person but all of them have improved since September and it is showing on the field with our results,” said Schoen.
The leadership from the captains has made the team grow stronger and defines the tenacity of how the team has performed on the field lately this season. The upper class continue to be an ambassador to the newcomers and taken the freshman under their wings to get them involved with the program’s culture.
The leader’s roles are motivating the team in practice, games and being vocal about every person seeing the trainer to get treatment after conditioning. The group has bounced back from games better than last season by learning from the techniques not used in games and trusting the coaches for help.
Senior pitcher captain Matthew Manzoeillo opens about how he wants to improve on leading through adversity and trying to be one of the leaders who can motivate the group to work hard.
“Knowing that every game is a new opportunity. We learn from our mistakes and look to capitalize on opportunities,” said Matthew.
Conference play is the most important to Mercy Baseball if they want to make a postseason run this year. ECC Conference qualifies the top four teams in the standings to clinch a spot in the tournament. Last year, Mercy finished fifth in the standings and missed the opportunity of extending their season.
The season series wins or splits against the opponents are crucial to receiving a bid in the tournament at the end of the season. Mercy focuses on play their best consistently throughout the season to accomplishing the goal of winning the conference tournament and making the NCAA tournament.
Senior outfielder captain Gabe Sanders mentions his personal goal of making all-conference and winning out conference play as the team’s goal for the season.
“We all want to win the conference tournament and go play in regionals. I feel like we have the talent to reach that goal as long as we stay healthy and play the team game,” said Gabe.
Mercy currently 17-14 (ECC 4-4) are sitting in second place in the standings along with a two-game win streak. They lead the conference in batting at .321, second in fielding at .963 and third in pitching at 6.14 era per game.
Junior outfielder Kolongi Goins leads the conference in batting average .452 per game and total hits. Junior outfielder Zach Asline leads the team in five home runs total and 25 RBI totals. Junior outfielder/first base John Nisco is second in the conference at fielding totals for catches.
Sophomore third base captain Peyton Jaimeson is the conference leader in doubles for hitting. Senior shortstop Joseph Gonzalez leads the team in 93 assist total and 16 second base attempts. Freshman pitcher/infield Andre Jenkins leads the team in pitching eras at 4.08 per game.
Mercy Baseball continues conference play with a four-game series against the College of Staten Island with two games on the road and two games at home.
