By Isaiah Espinal. This past season has been a roller-coaster for the Queensborough Community College Baseball team. There were a lot of good moments and bad moments. The season started not how we expected with three straight losses. The team’s first game was on March 19th and was against Suffolk Community College. We didn’t do well that game with a score of 17-7 and we were in the losing end. Our coach told us that it was our first game that we shouldn’t beat ourselves up, but we needed to fix the errors. We needed to work on our communication on the field and not letting the ball get past us. We also needed to have more discipline while we are up to bat and forcing the pitcher to throw strikes.
The next game we played was even worse we lost with a score of 30-3. We jeopardized ourselves by not making plays nor putting the ball in play. It was just a disaster on the field from our part. The third game was the same, we couldn’t even get a hit in that game. It seemed like we didn’t know what we were doing. The score to the third game was 22-0. At this point we were feeling defeated, but we knew we had to keep on giving our all to the games.
A series is when you play a certain team more than once. In some other leagues you have a series of three games but in CUNY you have a series of four games, and one is a doubleheader. A doubleheader is when you play two games on the same day.
We got our first win on the last game of the doubleheader on that Sunday against Suffolk Community College a number 15 ranked in the nation. It was a big win for us and a huge turning point. The team won 2 straight games beating BMCC three games out of four. During that series the team dealt with an altercation with the other team and the coaches had to get involved. Both teams were arguing with one another and even ended getting warnings from the umpires.
The third series was against Kingsborough Community College. QCC fell short losing three games out of the four. During the last game there was another altercation between the two teams leading into a player from Kingsborough hitting one of the players from QCC. The player from QCC kept a calm attitude and didn’t react violently back at the Kingsborough player who was physical with him.
From that day on things did not go as hoped for QCC baseball team. Losing 10 out of the next 12 games and even missing out on a CUNYAC championship game. However, the team won the last game of the season with a score on 6-4 against Monroe College-Bronx.
QCC Players Reflect
During the fall semester they have fall ball and winter workouts. Fall ball is practice and it consist of going over the same routine they were doing during the spring season. They had practiced every day except Sundays. Practice was roughly between the hours 4-6pm or until sundown. Winter workouts is just batting practice and lifting so that the players can start to get ready for the upcoming season. Winter workouts is tough with the lifting and all the running they must do. Most players will be tired by the end of practice, and some will feel pain in their legs and their upper body. The biggest challenge that the team is facing right now is focusing on school due to having early classes and practice starting at 4pm and ending around 7pm they get home tired and most of the time they forget and don’t focus on their due school assignments.
The team dedicates extra time to go to a field for some extra baseball practice. The team created a bond by practicing, playing together and they would go out to eat together. There are 6 players that are going to return to the team and there are 9 new players joining the team.
The team’s biggest strength currently is their hitting. They have a lot of good hitters with fast speed and good contact that will put the ball in play. I asked the sophomore player Lucas Torrech what do you believe will be your biggest challenge this season and he said “My biggest challenge this season is to win a championship. My other challenge is to show the freshman what to expect during the season.” This is a big task because a lot of new incoming freshman are coming from high school where the players probably didn’t get to be in a as competitive environment as they will be in college. In college some players have thrown up to 90 miles an hour. I asked every player on the team what are their plans and their focus this season and they all said that their focus this season is to compete for a championship and compete for a spot to play in the regionals. I also asked the team what they can work on as a team, and they said to communicate better when they are on the field and work on their past mistakes to avoid repeating those same errors.
