Big Blues baseball trying to overcome winter doldrums

BLUEFIELD — Winter wasn’t kind to anyone in Four Seasons Country, but especially for a baseball team trying to prepare for a season.

“This has been the worst since we’ve had the program,” Bluefield State head coach Geoff Hunter said. “It’s been the toughest winter, it has just stayed cold and we’ve not been able to get on the field.”

The weather has finally cleared, allowing the Blues to find their diamond, but the wintry mess forced Bluefield State to do much of their preseason preparations using parking lots and indoor batting cages.

“We’re looking forward to the season, obviously it has been a tough winter for everyone, even for the (schools) in the southeast,” said Hunter, during Bluefield State’s spring sports media day last month. “We’ve been able to get our work in downstairs, but we’re just ready to go.

“We’ve been in the parking lot, we haven’t been on the field (a lot), but you can still get a lot accomplished. Everybody has got to deal with it and I think our kids have handled it real well. They’ve stayed motivated and worked hard so that is all we can ask for.”

Bluefield State (3-2), which was slated to start its season on Feb. 13, finally started a week later in a 3-1 loss to Morehouse in Georgia. That was followed the next day with a Feb. 21 doubleheader split with Benedict, S.C., winning 16-11 and losing 9-4.

Nineteen days later, the Blues finally played again, sweeping a twinbill Tuesday from defending WVIAC Central Division champion Fairmont State, 6-4 and 9-8, with the nightcap ending with Andrew Shoemaker fanning the final batter with the bases loaded, two outs and a 3-2 count.

“It’s been a tough spring, that’s all there is to it,” Hunter said. “Both of the games (Tuesday) were really exciting and obviously very close...That was pretty exciting. It made the ride home a lot shorter.

“It would have been tough to lose a heartbreaker like that. They were a pretty good team. I don’t know if they were as good as last year...but any time you can get some road wins in the conference, it is a good thing.”

Bluefield State has played five games, and lost 12 to the weather, although Hunter has worked to get them rescheduled.

“We should have played a lot more than we have,” Hunter said. “A lot of other teams, if you look at the WVIAC website, a couple of teams have played quite a bit, but most have been unlucky like us and haven’t been able to get them in.”

Bluefield State hoped to play West Liberty on Friday, and were slated to travel to the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C. to face Shepherd and Elizabeth City State this weekend.

“I don’t really think we have hit our stride yet. We waited around two weeks to play and then we had to wait a couple of more weeks to play,” Hunter said. “We’re hoping to play this weekend, and I just hope the weather cooperates. It looks like we’re going to be OK and we’ll be able to play.”

No one wants to play baseball more than the Blues. Even though Bluefield State’s overall mark was just 12-32 last season, the Blues were 7-9 in the West Virginia Conference’s Southern Division and took Concord to the final weekend before falling short of earning a spot in the postseason tournament.

“We’ve got a very experienced club. We’ve got nine seniors and a junior that is going to graduate,” said Hunter, whose Blues hope to open their home season next Tuesday with a doubleheader against Alderson-Broaddus. “With an experienced team we think it should result in a pretty good year for us.”

Bluefield State competes in the Southern Division of the WVIAC, which includes heavyweights West Virginia State, Concord, Ohio Valley and Charleston, which will visit June O. Shott Field for twinbills on March 20-21.

The top two teams in each of the divisions advance to postseason play.

“I think we can hang with them. I think we have proven that the last couple of years,” Hunter said. “We have a lot of experience on this club and hopefully their confidence will make a difference...

“It’s a real balanced team, a lot of depth and we’re just hoping we can continue to improve like we have the last couple of years. Hopefully we have gained the confidence to know we can compete with West Virginia State and Concord. You just have to go out there and do it on the field.”

Bluefield State will be led on the all-important mound by junior right-hander Austin Pratt, who started his collegiate career at Marshall.

“Austin is our number one guy and has been for a couple of years,” Hunter said. “He has beaten everybody in the conference during his career and he’s going to be the guy that the rest of the pitchers rally around...

“Beyond that I think there will be a lot of guys that will be in the rotation and that will contribute and will help us win.”

While Bluefield State is having to rebuild its entire outfield, the Blues have returnees in All-WVIAC honorable mention selections T.J. Riggs — who could shares catching duties with Adam Parkulo, Wes Fernandez and JUCO transfer Justin Henry — and infielder Ryan Duncan.

“I think our overall team speed is better than it was, we have lot of experience back in the infield,” Hunter said.

“We have three senior catchers, we did lose all three outfielders to graduation, but the guys we have in are just as good, if not better as far as overall players.”

Taylor Castrillo, who can play second and shortstop also returns, as does switch-hitter J.C. Shepherd, who missed most of last season with an injury.

“If we had J.C. last year it might have got us over the top in a couple of games where we really needed that one big hitter,” Hunter said. “Having him back is really going to help us, along with the guys that we have been able to recruit.

“He’ll be a starter in the outfield for us. He’s just a good player, he should be one of the top five players in the conference in my opinion.”

While pitching is always key to any baseball team, in the aluminum-bat era of college baseball, scoring runs is also a vital part of success. Hunter is confident his Blues will be able to do that, and they have scored 36 runs in five games.

“We have some guys that have some experience and have hit .300 or better against some good pitching, but I don’t know if we have guys that will necessarily stand out,” said Hunter, who is also confident in his club’s defensive prowess. “I don’t know if we’ve got anybody that is going to lead the league in hitting, but we’ve got a lot of solid, fundamentally sound hitters on our club.

“I think we’ve got guys that will protect other guys and I think it is going to be a situation where even if we get behind in a game we have the offense to be able to come back and be able to score enough runs to win.”

Hunter has been busy on the recruiting trail, and now has a 29-man roster that hails from 12 states, Canada and Guatemala. Local products include Colin Elswick (Graham), Justin Whittemore (James Monroe), Parkulo (Woodrow Wilson) and Trevor Sargent (Tazewell).

“The kids have done a good job in the classroom so we knew who we had coming back and we knew what we had to go out and get and we’ve been able to do that,” Hunter said. “We have some kids that have transferred in that are juniors this year that I think will really help us, but we are counting on the guys that have been with us.

“That’s the nucleus of the club and those guys have been working hard for four years so I think they feel like this is going to be their year, and hopefully it will be.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

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