UMPI Baseball Looks to Revitalize Season Following Sluggish Start

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - After a slow start to their season with just one win out of eight games during their spring break road trip in Florida, the University of Maine at Presque Isle Baseball team is determined to turn things around. Focused and optimistic, the team is dedicated to putting in the hard work needed to achieve their goals for the remainder of the season.

Joey Lippo, UMPI Junior:” I’d say we have a more offensive team this year, we have a good defense as well but our offense is what is gonna win us games and if we just keep the ball in play and score as many as runs as we can, we should do good”.

The Owls had a packed schedule last week, playing eight consecutive away games in Florida. Although the team didn’t have as much success as they hoped, they continued to grow and become more competitive with each game.

Joey Lippo, UMPI Junior: " Our road trip, it didn’t turn out as well as we wanted to obviously but the first couple games were kind of discouraging, being some of the first games we had outside. We didn’t hit the ball as well, we couldn’t see fly balls, but as the road trip went on, we played better defense and we were in alot of games”.

According to the team, the lack of outdoor practices and games had a significant impact on their performance during the trip and even affected their practice sessions.

Tim Burns, UMPI Senior:” it does a lot, I mean i have a little bitter situation, I’m infield, you can take up some ground balls, outfielders have it tough. But i would say just not being able to have the game situations, you know a lot of people have a field, they can do scrimmages and things like that cause game situations are a lot different then practicing inside”.

Roger Stinson, UMPI Head Baseball Coach:” its a huge thing, i mean have a machine i bought for my outfielders, its a tennis ball machine, we use little gloves; finger gloves to you know give them the soft hands, give them as best a realistic as we can for a fly ball, you know the little whiffle ball. You know we try to hit as much fungo’s we can in here. you know not saying its bad, it works great, its better then having nothing. I’m ready for the parking lot, i know the guys think I’m nuts but back in my day we played in the parking lot alot in the spring”.

Despite these challenges, Coach Roger Stinson remains confident that the team will improve as they continue to train and compete throughout the season.

Roger Stinson, UMPI Head Baseball Coach:” There’s going to be days that one guy is not going to click but as i told the guys, we can’t have games that nobody clicks; You know you’re not always going to go three for three but, we need at least a hit out of everybody and that’s going to be the key. Yesterday (March 21st, Tuesday) we spent all day, they got sent off and was up in using our virtual machine in a cage, hitting, and i had them report the swings, report what i wanted them to do and i got some good reports back from the guys. So they’re putting the time and effort in, it will carry over onto the field, it will just take time”.

Looking ahead, will remain on the road for most of the season before hosting their first home game on April 25th against the UMF Beavers.

Jonathon Eigenmann, news source sports.

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