At home at second base
4/19/2011 8:58:00 AM | Baseball
By Brandon Scott
Towards the top of the Bearkat hitting rotation, batting second is a talented athlete with a high ceiling. He's meticulous with good reason.
After all, baseball is a game of percentages. Even though success seems to come naturally to senior second baseman Ryan Mooney, it's no coincidence he came into the 2011 season with a .301 career batting average as a two-time Academic All-Southland Conference player.
If life were a game of percentages, Mooney would still be a winner. Thanks to what he calls an excellent upbringing and a strong support system, Ryan always had his priorities in check - school first, baseball second.
"They brought us up well, I think," Mooney says when speaking of his parents.
He wasn't a "can't-miss" prospect out of The Woodlands High School, but Ryan had what Coach Mark Johnson referred to as a "good package" skill-set, which is what scouts are typically looking for.
Ryan didn't play baseball year-round in high school because he was on the football field playing wide receiver in the fall. He was a late spring signing in 2007, after committing to Angelina Junior College early in the spring as a fall-back. But when the Bearkats eventually pursued Ryan, the decision to sign with Sam Houston was an easy one.
Hitting coach Jim Blair remembers Mooney's athleticism as a prospect.
"He had a natural ability," Blair said. "We felt like he was a good athlete. He definitely had room in his frame to put on weight and to get stronger. But he had good hands in the infield and had a natural ability to find the barrel consistently at the plate."
The two-hole batter hits for contact, rather than power and Mooney is no different. He drives the ball well, putting it in gaps that often allow him to use his athleticism to round to second base, where he belongs.
Second sits at the top of the diamond, two bases from home plate either way you look at it. Second base is always a good place to be. Ryan started 54 games at shortstop last season, possibly the hardest position on the field. He even ranked third on the team last season with a .357 batting average.
More than halfway through the his senior season, Mooney is one of two Bearkats hitting more than .350 and ranked among the Southland Conference's top hitters.
But the Mooney success story goes beyond his good genes and knack for winning. Ryan has grown mentally, learning how to deal with the adversity that comes to any hitter or athlete in general.
"He's obviously having success, and when you have success it's easy to hold on to things," Blair said. "He's really developed from a mental standpoint as far as learning how to play the game."
Even though Mooney played well in 2010, his junior season was full of adversity. The Bearkats were doing more losing than winning, contrary to everything Ryan Mooney represented.
He was a high school state champion in 2006, district champion in 2007, a part of a 37-25 Bearkat squad in 2008, before his breakout season in 2009. But you figure out quickly how big of a competitor you are after a disappointing season.
The energy was negative. No one wanted to be at the clubhouse. Coach Blair says this year's group, which is basically the same as last year's, could have responded one of two ways. Failure could drive a group into the ground, or it could be a learning experience.
"They've kind of seen it on the other spectrum," Blair said. "Some of these guys have seen what it takes to win and a lot of the same guys, last year, saw what happens when you lose baseball games. They've seen both sides and they know what they want to be a part of a conscious effort to do what it takes to when baseball games."
Mooney calls last season miserable, which says a lot for a guy who routinely does everything well. From T-ball, to pitching machine, all the way to select ball as an adolescent, Ryan Mooney was a talented player who knew how to play the game. The question last year was how he and his teammates would respond to adversity.
"The thing we kept hitting on was don't let last year happen again," Mooney said. "We struggled obviously, but none of us seniors wanted to repeat that. So we had high expectations for ourselves."
That's why the Bearkats started the season on a tear, going through a stretch where they won 11 straight games. With a little more than a month to go in the season, Sam Houston sits in third place in the Southland standings.
Going forward, it's the well-balanced personality of leaders like Ryan Mooney that will determine the Kats' consistency and success. Good thing Mooney is no stranger to either.
