2019 Baseball Season Preview
CATONSVILLE, Md. – The CCBC Catonsville baseball program begins the Maryland portion of their schedule on Thursday, March 7, when they take on cross-county rivals, CCBC Dundalk, right here at the Bird’s Nest. The Cardinals went 23-27 last season, including an appearance in the semifinals of the Region XX tournament.
DOWN BY THE GULF COAST
The first half of the season began in the Sunshine State for the Cardinals, as they played the first seven games of the season in Florida. The Cardinals went 2-5 during that stretch, playing four NJCAA Division 1 teams in six days.
“Overall, I thought the trip was very successful as our freshmen gained some valuable experience. The team was competitive in each game outside of a blowout loss to a very strong College of Central Florida team that is currently ranked #1 in the nation for NJCAA D1”, said head coach Dan Blue, who returns for his 16th season with the Cardinals.
“We were able to win a couple of games against very tough competition and I believe the experience gained will definitely benefit us later in the season.”
YOUNG AND LEARNING
The Cardinals retain only six players from their roster from last season. With a lot of freshmen on the roster, the ceiling is high for the team, though it may come with some growing pains.
“I think as we begin to play on a more regular basis and continue to gain experience/ grow as a team, the future is very bright. Whenever you have inexperienced teams, it just takes some time,” expressed Blue.
Coach Blue has high expectations for the sophomores on the rosters and he has high expectations for them to lead by example.
“We only have four returning sophomores who actually saw significant playing time last season (Jalen Bowen, Andrew Caccamisi, Easy Goita, and Zeke Maldonado), which likely means that we have a very large learning curve that we will need to go through before finding consistent success,” states Blue. “These 4 players have to lead by example and be willing to help the freshmen through the ups and downs of a college baseball season.”
FRESHMEN TWENTY
With twenty freshmen on the roster, expectations for the freshman class to perform from the get-go. There are impact freshmen throughout the roster, who can lead the team to a deep run if they can continue to perform at the college level.
“I'm extremely excited about our freshmen class and along with some early commitments for next year, I feel that we are in a position to be very strong for the next few years. We've got a few very talented freshmen arms in the rotation and have some quality depth in the infield. I like our overall team speed as well,” said Coach Blue.
After suffering a rash of injuries towards the end of last season, being healthy is a big key for the team this season.
“Of course, we need to stay healthy and players also have to make the adjustment to playing at the college level. The faster they are able to make that transition, the better off we will be as a team.”
ON THE MOUND
The Cardinals lost all of their rotation and bullpen pitchers from last season and they have freshman pitching in key spots this season. The freshmen are going to take some time adjusting to the college level but the sky is the limit for the pitching staff.
“I believe that we are a bit shallow in pitching depth partly due to a couple of unexpected transfers and a couple of injuries. However, that also allows opportunities for people to pitch in high leverage situations and show what they can do when given their opportunity. I believe there is plenty of talent on the staff but most of it is unproven due to inexperience.”
Tyler Green, Kieran Garner, and Travis Weaver are the top three starters of the team. Green went 2-0 during the Florida trip with 3.27 ERA and 7.36 strikeouts per 9 innings to lead the team. All three starters have made two starts each thus far this season.
“Our top three starters (Tyler Green, Kieran Garner, and Travis Weaver) all have terrific stuff and should be the anchors for the staff throughout the year. Although all 3 are still freshmen, Garner, whose fastball sits in the low 90's, has already committed to UMBC for next season,” said Blue.
BATTER UP
Though there are a lot of freshman on the roster, the Cardinals’ coaching staff focused on building a lot of depth for the roster this past offseason and the team will be using a “Next man up” mentality.
“After last season’s rash of injuries which left us severely shorthanded for the last month and a half of the season, I feel much better about our overall team depth. I think we are solid defensively up the middle with Moises Aristy Jr. at SS, Zeke Maldonado at 2B, and Aronne Dutton in CF,” said Coach Blue
“We have some very good team speed with Maldonado, Dutton, Aristy, Easy Goita, Hunter Reeling, and Andre Lambert all very capable of stealing double digit bases for the year.”
The team is enriched with players that are capable of stealing bases, but that does not come at the expense of less long balls.
“We also have a nice mixture of some guys who can run and some guys who have pop in the bat which means that we can win games in a variety of ways and not rely upon only one aspect for success,” expresses Blue.
REACH FOR THE STARS
After a rash of injuries and a disappointing end to last season, coach Blue and the team are building towards returning to the Region XX tournament this season.
“Our biggest hurdle will be developing the younger players so that we are again ready to challenge for a regional title at the end of the year,” expresses coach Blue.
MARYLAND MY MARYLAND
Weather has delayed the second phase of the season for the Cardinals, but it is scheduled to begin with the home opener Thursday, March 7th against CCBC Dundalk in the Battle of I-695.
Over the next two months, the Cardinals will travel throughout the Old-Line State as they compete against the Maryland JUCO Conference foes and build towards competing in the Region XX tournament in the second week of May.
“If they are willing to work hard and make changes, the talent is there to make another run in May,” concludes Coach Blue.