CSM Stumbles Out of the Gates to Begin Season

CSM Stumbles Out of the Gates to Begin Season

The College of Southern Maryland Hawks struggled in their first few home games of the 2018-19 season.

On March 6, the Hawks played in bitter cold temperatures and lost 26-4 in seven innings to the Montgomery College (MD) Raptors.

"Sometimes you run into a situation where it doesn't go your way and things kind of spiral out of control," head coach Aaron Michael said. "I think the guys all understand that it was just one day and it doesn't have to define who we are. The guys are really pushing forward to try to get that one out of their heads and work on being better the next time out."

Freshman infielder Trevor Drummond had two hits, a walk, and two RBIs against the Raptors. Freshman catcher Peyton Myers also had two hits, scored a run, and added one RBI.

Sophomore Kenny Rickett was CSM's starting pitcher. He gave up eight runs in three and one third innings but only two of those runs were earned. He also had three strikeouts.

"He [Rickett] did his job and, quite frankly, he would have gone a lot deeper into the game had he not had to make so many extra outs," Michael said. "Our defense let him down yesterday. Unfortunately, sometimes it works that way and I was proud that our pitcher didn't blame anybody else. He just took it in stride and kept working hard." The Hawks committed six errors against the Raptors.

Even though the result was not what the Hawks were hoping for, Michael doesn't want his team to act like it didn't happen.

"Everybody says 'Get over it, forget it,' but the reality is it happened, and everybody knows it happened," Michael said. "If you tell them to forget it, then they'll act like nothing ever happened and then a week later when they make a mistake, they'll feel like 'Oh no, here it comes again,' and it'll come back up. We're going to own it, we're going to look at what happened and say 'Ok this happened' and let's figure out why."

"Sometimes you worry about a game like that," Michael said. "How's it going to affect the team, are they going to bounce back, are they going to do better because of it? I think this team has that mentality. I think they're going to be more focused because of it."

On March 12, the Ulster County Community College Senators beat the Hawks 10-0 in five innings in the first game of a doubleheader and 11-1 in six innings in the second game.

"We battled a little bit more, we fought a little bit harder," Michael said. "Our guys still are kind of trying to find their way. We need to learn how to compete hard for seven innings all the way through. Right now we're getting a little better at that but we still have a ways to go."

The Frederick Community College Cougars came into La Plata on March 14 and handled the Hawks 17-0 in five innings in the first game of a doubleheader and 25-1 in five innings of the second game. In the poll released on March 12 from the NJCAA DII Baseball Poll Committee, Frederick was in the "Others Receiving Votes" category of the national rankings.

"Frederick's a very good program and they've been nationally ranked each of the last couple years," Michael acknowledged. "We knew that today was going to be a tall order. They've been playing pretty well and we haven't been so that's somewhat of an expected outcome. I just wish that we had been able to fight a little bit more earlier in the game. We're finding ourselves behind very early and it's hard to come back from that."

While it may be hard to start a season like this, Michael doesn't want his players to get discouraged by the losses.

"My first year we struggled out of the gate a lot like this," Michael said. "It was a testament to the guys that they hung in there. They fought and by the end of the season we were playing much better baseball. So it's frustrating to start a season like this but you just can't lose hope. There's a lot of games left to play. The guys all feel like if we're going to be here, if we're going to put in the work, we'll see good things come in the end and I think that's what they're focusing on right now."

The Hawks have a good chance to regroup when they head down to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina during spring break to play five games over three days.

"A lot of times a change of scenery, getting away can help spark a team," Michael said. "That's what I'm hoping for with this trip, that it'll get these guys going in the right direction."