Time card punched as fall practices wind down
10/8/2015 11:42:00 AM | Baseball
The Sam Houston State baseball program is just over four months until the start of its season. The afternoon heat at Holleman Field, the temporary home of the Bearkats this fall, has yet to give way to cooler fall temperatures, but the mentality of the team tells you otherwise.
“This is no different than being in the eighth or ninth inning,” second-year head coach Matt Deggs said. “We need to finish strong and so far that's what we're doing. I want to see us finish strong, physically and mentally, and continue to play for each other. The rest of the stuff will take care of itself over time.”
The Bearkats are winding down their NCAA-mandated 45-day fall practice window, taking advantage of their earliest start in recent memory to develop a squad that includes 19 freshmen and 11 transfers, a group that has embraced the Deggs' blue-collar philosophy.
“I've never seen a group of guys who work so hard,” redshirt junior Lance Miles said. “What makes it special is that it's coming from the younger guys as much as from the older guys. Sometimes in a program you see young guys coming in with entitlement who were studs in high school and we don't have that. We just have guys who are ready to work hard.”
Miles, who spent last season redshirting after transferring from Kansas State, is one of six Division I transfers on a roster that welcomes players from Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Louisiana-Lafayette. Among that mix is junior catcher Robie Rojas, who played at Blinn last season and Oklahoma State prior.
“Coming in, I know some of us like me and Dakota (Mills), we're in our first year here but we know how to lead,” Rojas said. “We need to keep punching the time card every day. We're a team that doesn't slow down until the last day when Deggs says, 'okay, we'll see you at Christmas break.' As soon we come back, we'll punch the card again and bring it even more.”
According to Miles, fall ball under Deggs has helped prepare the squad for more than the game itself, packed with life lessons that will also help the team during its 56-game schedule.
“It teaches guys to manage their lives and be responsible, handle your homework and be everywhere on time,” Miles said. “If you can trust a guy off the field, come the spring time, I can definitely trust the guy on the field to make the play and have your back. We're a brotherhood and we're going to sacrifice for each other and take pride in that.”
Deggs adds he is seeing tremendous competition on the mound, helped by a blend of returners like relievers Jordan Church (2-1, 3.49 ERA) and Hayden Nixon (0-1, 3.09 ERA) along with Sunday starter Sam Odom (4-5, 4.45 ERA), who have been bolstered by junior college transfers such as Mills (Blinn), Heath Donica (Navarro) and Cody Brown (Tyler) and freshmen playmakers such as Rylie Gossett.
“We're asking them to go out and set the tone and hitters come in and feed off that tone,” Deggs said. “Go out there, don't give the opponent anything, play rock solid defense, let's locate our fastball, develop a second pitch, compete and attack and they're doing a great job of that.”
Holleman Field, which has not housed a Division I game since 2005, has served as the practice facility over the past two weeks while Don Sanders Stadium undergoes a $1.4 million AstroTurf playing surface enhancement. The unkind and unpredictable hops on the infield along with rough outfield terrain has pushed Sam Houston to be even sharper defensively, and the squad has been up to the task.
“We've done a nice job handling the routine play, especially at this ballpark,” Deggs said. “It's not an easy park to handle the routine and I think it's actually made us tougher playing out here. You're not playing on a nicely groomed ballpark and you've got to toughen up.”
With the end of fall practices looming, the hard-nosed practices have challenged the Bearkats in all facets over the course of five weeks, with the team believing toughness and intensity, on top of talent, will pay dividends come February.
“We will be physically and mentally better than you and when it comes to the eighth and ninth inning on Sunday in a three-game series,” Rojas said. “We're going to be 100 percent. That's what I love about this team.”
For the latest, including daily photographs of the progress on Don Sanders Stadium and commentary on fall practices, follow @BearkatBaseball on Twitter.
