The men’s Roughrider baseball team smashes the competition with a 45-10 record winning the ACCAC regular season title, according to goroughriders.com.

 

The team’s currently ranked second in the NJCAA. Head Coach Sky Smeltzer says, “I think that this team’s success has everything to do with its staff, five sophomores, that’s been the key to our success for sure.”

Standouts

Among the honors for players this season, “Pitcher Merrill Kelly, catcher Dominic Piazza and infielder Brett Sowers were named 1st Team All-ACCAC and 1st Team NJCAA All-Region I Division I,” in addition to honors for Rick Anton, Cam Schiller,  Bobby Rinard and Kirby Yates, according to goroughriders.com. 

Despite the team’s success Smeltzer says, “Frankly I think we lost five games we shouldn’t have. I think there were games when we weren’t there mentally and I think that we’ve cleared some of those early season hurtles that we’ve had.”

Team chemistry

However, Smeltzer adds, “I’m happy that our freshmen have fit in the program. I enjoy the chemistry of the team and I think that’s because of the sophomores helping the freshman feel more comfortable.”

In addition to the new players, the team also has two new assistant coaches, Brandon Bailey and Ryan Cougill. 

Bailey is impressed with the players including Merrill Kelley. “I knew he was going to be good, but he’s been dominant. He’s come along way… he brought in our pitcher’s program and comes to practice every single day with the mindset he is going to make himself better and it’s paid off.”

“You know, as the year started we set our goals to win the regional, state and national championship and all those goals are still attainable and reachable.”

Bailey adds, “You always have a guy or two who steps up once the season starts. In my mind the one guy who has improved the most is Ty Forney. He’s one of those guys who turns his game up when he puts on a uniform and steps between the white lines.”

Stepping up

Stepping up is what this team has done. “You know, as the year started we set our goals to win the regional, state and national championship and all those goals are still attainable and reachable,” says Smeltzer.

“We’re going to graduate a lot of sophomores. We have a group that’s been here for two years and they’ve had a lot of wins. We’ve got a lot of really good players that we need to replace,” says Smeltzer. They’ve currently recruited 23 players for next year.