Baseball heralds spring, as major league teams begin practicing and scrimmaging in Florida. This week, Hillsdale’s baseball team will join them. While in Florida, the team will play four games against other college teams.
The team left Wednesday and will return on Saturday evening. Head coach Paul Noce said the baseball team always takes an extended weekend to Florida. These games all count towards the team’s total record and the players’ statistics.
Hillsdale will play two games against the University of Tampa, which is the fourth best team in the country.
“That will be a challenge for us, facing one of the top teams in the nation,” senior team captain Scott Lantis said. “But it will be good for us to play competition from the start.”
“We’re really looking for wins on this trip,” freshman Lucas Hamelink said. “We want to surprise Tampa because they won’t be expecting it.”
Hamelink is set to pitch the second game against Tampa.
Hillsdale will also face a doubleheader on Saturday against State University of New York Canton.
While the team will face challenges, Noce said he hopes to see the team’s hard work pay off this weekend.
“It is the first weekend, so it is hard to know what to expect. But I am hoping we come home with some wins,” he said. “I am also hoping we swing the bat better than we did last year.”
“The main goal [in Florida] is obviously to win,” senior Scott Rhodes said. “But since it’s our first couple games and they’ve already been playing for a while, we are going to focus on staying competitive and keeping the games close.”
Noce has high hopes for this year’s team. He said he sees a lot more depth in the team this year than last year, in both pitching and position players. The team has two players for each position, a luxury Noce has not had in years past.
“Our depth is definitely our strength this year,” Lantis said. “We’ve got a big team with a lot of freshmen that are going to help out. But we also have a really strong group of older guys and some good leadership from the top.”
Noce said there will be a couple freshman pitchers in the starting rotation and three or four freshmen in the lineup.
The whole team is looking forward to seeing what these freshmen will bring.
“We are definitely looking forward to seeing Lucas [Hamelink] and Chris [McDonald] play in Florida,” Lantis said. “They’re two of our four starters, so that’s a big deal for them to get a start on the opening weekend as freshmen.”
Following this trip, the team will also travel to Kentucky, Ohio, and back to Florida to play more games. The first home game is on March 20 against Grand Valley State University.
Lantis said he is looking forward to the upcoming season.
“I think there’s definitely a hard-working mentality to the team,” he said. “But at the same time, this is a fun group. There’s good camaraderie that makes it even more fun.”
Senior Mike Vanchieri agrees with Lantis.
“I think we’re going to have fun this season,” Vanchieri said. “I think that’s something we sometimes forget to have. If you work hard and if you have fun, whatever happens happens.”
