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Coach's orders to run hard at every opportunity help KSU overcome disappointing early season
By Tom Gaffney
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Wednesday, May 21, 2008
It was April 5 and coach Scott Stricklin knew his Kent State baseball team was in trouble.
The Golden Flashes were 10-15 overall and last in the East Division of the Mid-American Conference with an 0-5 record.
''Our guys were questioning themselves,'' Stricklin said. ''We were playing tentatively.''
Stricklin did not believe lineup changes were the answer. He did not believe shaking up the pitching staff was the answer.
So he took a page from baseball's old-school philosophy by making physical and mental demands on his players.
He had them run on and off the field between innings. He had them run to first on walks. He demanded that they run hard on all grounders or pop-ups. He had his players take a primer on fundamentals. He also insisted that mental errors, such as missing signs, would mean an instant benching.
The result was a closing 40 days that saw the Flashes go 23-5 overall, 16-3 in the MAC, and emerge as the top seed in the MAC Tournament that begins today in Chillicothe.
''We needed to kick-start ourselves. The idea was to do everything hard, sprinting everywhere on the field,'' said Stricklin, whose team will play eighth-seeded Central Michigan in the first round today. ''We were making too many mental mistakes, so we took players out of the game who did that. The players knew we meant business.
''I told them that we had to do the little things better and the big things would take care of themselves.''
The Flashes responded down the stretch with winning streaks of 12 games and seven games. In the 28 games after April 5, KSU outscored the opposition by an average margin of 10-6.
Included in that run was a three-game sweep (11-3, 15-1, 6-1) at Bowling Green on April 18-20 that proved to be important. It gave Kent State the tiebreaker in determining the top seed in this week's tournament because the Falcons (31-18, 16-8) finished with the same MAC record as KSU.
The rules concerning sprinting on the field have been eased, but the effect lingers.
''It was an up-and-down season. But once we got going and started playing hard, we started doing everything better,'' Stricklin said. ''We hit better; we pitched better. We weren't making mental errors.''
The Flashes have relied heavily on the top of their batting order — MAC Player of the Year candidate Greg Rohan, Doug Sanders, Chris Tremblay, Anthony Gallas and Ben Klafczynski (Highland) — but have gotten clutch performances from many others.
''Our lineup, top to bottom, has been productive,'' said Stricklin, whose team has a batting average of .316. ''We have 13 or 14 guys who have been very good for us offensively.''
Much of the starting pitching has been handled by Chris Carpenter, Kyle Smith (Louisville) and Brad Stillings. The bullpen has been led by Reid Lamport and Jon Pokorny.
Sticklin has confidence that his pitching staff will hold up in the MAC Tournament with one proviso.
''We feel very good about our pitching,'' Stricklin said. ''The one thing we must do is stay out of the loser's bracket. You can run through your arms pretty quickly the more games you play.''
After three days of games, the championship will be decided at 1 p.m. Saturday. The winner receives the MAC's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Tom Gaffney can be reached at tgaffney@thebeaconjournal.com.
It was April 5 and coach Scott Stricklin knew his Kent State baseball team was in trouble.
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