The Hillsdale Baseball Club completed its 10-game fall season last week and although its successes are not necessarily reflected in the box scores, the 15-member team accomplished a great deal in their inaugural year. Club president sophomore Stevan Bennett said their real victories are in successfully launching an on-campus club, the learning process of self-coaching, and the camaraderie of the team itself.
The year started slow for the Chargers, as they lost their first five games. In the second half of the season, however, they won two games. Their current league, which is based in Ann Arbor, is not intercollegiate, but consists of adult players of varying ages.
“It was evident a lot of guys hadn’t played in a while,” Bennett said. “Most of us hadn’t seen a live pitch in four or five years.”
The team only had the opportunity to practice three times before the beginning of their six-week season. The club is now in the process of planning scrimmages in the spring during the off-season, and Bennett says the team members hope for future improvements in many other areas as well.
One of these goals is to become part of the National Club Baseball Association which focuses on intercollegiate play.
This year, Bennett believes the best experience was simply getting the organization off the ground.
“It’s cliché, but watching everything come together was great. There was a lot of work that went into it,” he said.
Bennett began the process of forming club baseball at Hillsdale last year. He knew there must be other students like himself who had played baseball since they were very young, and who probably missed the joys of playing the game: competition, teamwork, fun, and friendship.
“As a senior it was fun to have a final chance to swing a bat and crouch behind the plate a few times,” senior Dominic Restuccia said. “We got to participate in a great American tradition, and it was a grand old time had by all.”
Although Bennett initiated club baseball at Hillsdale, he credits his teammates for seeing it come to fruition. Baseball is the tenth club sport organized on campus.
This year there were no tryouts for the 15 men who participated on the team. Bennett hopes more men will be interested and the club will grow enough to justify a tryout.
“Anyone interested in playing should join. We are competitive. We want to win and improve, but it’s a ton of fun. We joke that all the other teams hate us because we have so much fun. Most importantly, we make it doable with school,” Bennett said.
