On a rainy night, players on the Syracuse club baseball team are busy taking cuts in batting cages inside of Manley Field House.

After having five series already canceled due to inclement weather, SU has yet to start the spring portion of its season.

Because of weather limitations, all three North Atlantic regions of the National Club Baseball Association split up the season between the fall and the spring. But that still doesn’t take into account that winters in Syracuse can be even longer and more brutal then expected.

“The winter isn’t really a problem because we don’t play games in the winter,” senior and team president Nick Dellefave said. “It’s when the winter runs into the spring, which it’s doing right now.”

The weather is just one of the many challenges that the club baseball team faces every season.

One of the biggest obstacles that the team has to overcome is the fact that there isn’t actually a baseball diamond on campus.

It’s is forced to practice either in Manley Field House or out on Hookway Fields, but neither is really a fitting spot for a baseball team to practice — and it hurts the players’ abilities to hone their fundamentals before the season starts.

“The biggest disadvantage we have is pitchers, because we don’t have a mound,” said Dellefave.

Some of the other teams in the conference have an edge on Syracuse in that they actually have a Division I baseball team.

There are some athletes at schools like Penn State who get recruited to play baseball, but for one reason or another aren’t on the varsity team. This forces SU to play against top college baseball recruits without being able to have the same kind of “trickle down talent” as Dellefave called it.

Despite all the difficult circumstances surrounding the situation the baseball team is stuck in, the appeal of joining the team is pretty high. Dellefave estimates that about 70‒80 students tryout every year, with only 5‒10 being selected.

“I’ve loved baseball since I was two years old, and getting the chance to play it for four more years is the reason I stuck with it,” senior Connor Clowes said.

For some of the newer players on the team, there is an adjustment period that happens when they grasp the team’s situation. Many high school baseball teams practice every day and don’t have to go through some of the same struggles that the Syracuse club baseball team has to go through.

Freshman Pat Doherty is fond of practicing in Manley Field House and has enjoyed being able to work on more than just conditioning during the offseason.

“It’s pretty cool just being able to do real baseball stuff in the winter, like take batting practice and take infield,” Doherty said.

Dellafave acknowledged the rumors surrounding SU attempting to make baseball a Division I sport, but couldn’t comment on their validity.

For now, Syracuse will focus on making the most of the tough situations that it’s continuing to deal with.

Said Dellefave: “Being on a club baseball team in Syracuse, we’ve kind of become experts at playing the hand we’re dealt.”

Published on April 13, 2015 at 10:24 pm

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