Coming off of a 26-15 season in which the Red Hawks made the NCAA tournament for the 13th consecutive year, the longest such streak in Division III baseball, Head Coach Karl Steffen expects nothing less from his team this season.
In fact, he is looking for improvement. “Over the years we’ve developed a winning tradition. When players come into our program, they know how high our expectations are year in and year out.”
RPI lost some leadership during the offseason as pitcher Brian Brzek and senior infielder Flynn Cochran, last year’s runs leader, both graduated. Brzek will be serving as an assistant to Steffen this season.
“We lost our shortstop, second baseman, catcher, three or four pitchers … over the last couple years, we’ve had quite a few kids graduate.” After a brief pause Steffen added with a smile, “Which I guess is good.”
Steffen is very optimistic about the players he has to fill the gaps, and believes that the core of last year’s team remains entact. “We still have some of our big guns back. Dan Quinn is back with us. We have a number of guys that have returned.”
A question mark early in the season for RPI is whether or not they can improve their defense. Last season, the team committed 100 errors.
“Our team defense last year wasn’t very good,” Steffen commented. “Going into this year, if we want to be successful, we have to solve our defensive shortcomings.”
The Red Hawks’ infield will have a new look to try and do just that. Sophomore Adam Lasek will be at shortstop, and Rich Mundy, a relief pitcher last year, will move to second base. Joe Ihnatolya (.387, 12 HR, 52 RBI), who set the school’s single season home run record in 2004, and Quinn (.341, 7 HR, 42 RBI) will anchor the unit at the corners.
Coach Steffen’s pitching staff will be extremely youthful entering the 2005 season. Steffen, however, is extremely excited about his new additions behind this year’s returning ace, Chris Sullivan (7-1, 3.41 ERA, 38 SO). “We’re going to look to him on the mound.” Also look for sophomore Luke Calzone (3-3, 6.06 ERA, 59 SO) to move up from the number three starter and take on a bigger role this year. Freshmen Tim Klein and Joe Zongol will round out the starting rotation for Steffen.
“We have some youth in our pitching core, but they also are very talented, so we’re hoping they can make the adjustment and give us some good quality innings this year.”
There will be some early tests for this young squad. During spring break in Florida, the team will be battling Division II teams, as well as some schools from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Steffen admits it will be a tough road for his team. “[The NAIA] is a different organization … but they have scholarships. They have rules there too where if a player played professionally and they only lasted a year, they can play for an NAIA school. Some of those teams are really exceptional. It’s going to be good competition for us. We try to play a good schedule to see good pitching to let us know where we stand.”
The NCAA changed some rules this year, disallowing teams to play the majority of games in the fall. The coaching staff, therefore, could not gauge the team’s progress, making the Florida games the only meter for the team. “That’s hopefully what we’re going to find out down in Florida, who can handle the pressure and get the job done, and who can’t.”
Steffen and his team know that the Liberty League title is up for grabs again this season. “In reality, last year we didn’t win the regular season, we won the league tournament championship. Clarkson finished ahead of us and so did Rochester, so obviously those teams are going to give us a lot of competition.” Steffen added, “I think our whole league was pretty balanced last year.”
Expect another solid season out of the reliable Red Hawk baseball team. “I think it goes without saying we would be disappointed if we didn’t win the league and we didn’t get the NCAA bid that goes along with it.”
“We’ve won every league title that there ever has been, but we’ve never won a Liberty League title.” RPI captured all nine UCAA tourney crowns, but now the league has changed its name, and Steffen wants to be the first team to win in this new league.
Steffen wants a 14th straight tournament badly, but is also demanding more in 2005. “Each year, our goal is to go all the way to the World Series.”
