Why are we doing so bad in baseball & lacrosse?

[knights1212]

I read somewhere that we had almost all of our pitchers back in baseball this season yet we are getting pounded in almost every game. We have no excuses now as Central Michigan beat us badly Saturday in Indiana and one of the Indiana schools pounded us yesterday. I think we are like 2-12 or such so far. The Indiana and Michigan schools also are northern teams so why are we doing so poorly? Maybe Fred Hill did do a decent job even the last few years that he was our coach. It would be nice if we were at least competitive.
As for lacrosse they finally beat a team in winning at Delaware to get to 3-5. It has been ages since we sniffed even a .500 record. I can't imagine after having a lacrosse team for so many years that we are struggling every year. It wasn't long ago that there were only about 40 schools with lacrosse in D-1. I think there are now about 70 or so and we are in the bottom 25%. How can all of these teams like Denver etc. that have not even had lacrosse for that many years be so much better than RU?

 

[CuredbywinningRU]

Baseball is more surprising than LAX because of Fred Hill's legacy of success with that program despite its underfunding and poor facilities. The pitchers simply aren't getting it done and we lack power hitting in a big way.

LAX is less surprising to me - years ago when we were competitive nationally, the # of D1 Lax programs was much smaller. Since then new programs have arisen to take recruits and despite the fact that there are exponentially more HS LAX players nationally to fill those rosters, we're simply not getting our share of the top kids. What is surprising despite this is the fact that the current coach was able to take a non-sports entity like Sienna and get them to the top 20, but, like his recent predecessors, he can't get this team out of its mediocrity.

Another factor, not 100% determinative, but a factor, I would think (athough it doesn't explain why we lose to the types of Stony Brook) is that, unlike other sports, many of the top LAX kids come from private schools and/ or from upper middle class towns and while we certainly have gotten kids from some of those programs and towns though the years, including some on the current roster, RU has always had a hard time getting its share of kids from that demographic (for sports and otherwise) and that hurts in LAX since we're not making up for it with recruiting of top kids from non-private schools on a consistent basis. In contrast, take a look at the rosters of Hopkins and UVA (the most extreme examples of course) and note the % of kids from top private school LAX programs and fancy towns. You can even look at the roster of the Univ of Richmond - new to mens LAX but a very successful new program - its roster is loaded with kids from private schools and upper middle class towns. Ohio State (hardly a "preppy" school), which just upset #3 Denver, also has multiple players from private school LAX powers like Gilman, Calvert Hall and Georgetown Prep. On the other hand, Stony Brook, which has passed us by, doesn't have a private school/rich town filled roster, so that differential with RU is harder to explain.
This post was edited on 3/16 10:32 AM by CuredbywinningRU

 

[Leonard23]

Coaching, recruiting, $ & facilities. In other words, we haven't committed to & invested in winning. We're satisfied with just giving kids an opportunity to participate & play, kind of like a youth rec program.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[RUboston]

I started a similar thread on baseball recently. I looked up our starting outfield and two kids were listed as 5'9" and the other as 5'10". That may be giving them an inch or so as the heights and weights on a roster are sometimes exaggerated a bit. Only one starter was listed as over 6 feet. As of the date of that post, the starters had accounted for only 4 HR's in 1733 at bats. It also looks like the pitching is getting pounded day in and day out. If you review the box scores, the team is also making a lot of errors.

So it looks like a combination of poor pitching, no power, and bad defense.

 

[CuredbywinningRU]

Right, RUBoston, great defense was a hallmark of Fred Hill's teams. That has changed drastically the last few years.

 

[RUboston]

I just checked the stats. Only one player is hitting .300, and he is at exactly .300. The season is only 14 games old, and there is time to turn it around. Let's hope they can do it.

 

[RUboston]

On the defensive side, it looks like our middle infielders (one who appears to have been replaced) made 13 errors in 87 chances to start the season.

 

[RUtrumpet92]

Well, we are up 8-4 over Canisius in the 4th inning as I type this up, so we've got that going for us.

It's going to be rare to see us keep coveted recruits in state vs premiere Southern programs when you consider facilities and weather considerations. Players with dreams of playing in the pros will probably feel they can develop better with more outdoor time over the course of their college years. We have to be smart in our recruiting focus to get strong players who are willing to stay in state and then develop the heck out of them.

We've given up 23 unearned runs in 115 innings to this point and scored 12 unearned runs in 125 innings. That's like starting every game down 1-0. Tough to overcome against strong competition.

 

[RUboston]

RU wins it 12-8.

 

[RUboston]

There seems to have been a lot of juggling of the infield lineup from the first few games of the season. The SS and 2B who started the season were not in the game today. The original third basemen was at second. I don't know if this is due to injury, giving them rest, inadequate play, or the coach is giving everyone a chance to play to see what they can do before conference play starts.
This post was edited on 3/16 3:49 PM by RUboston

 

[e5fdny]

Originally posted by CuredbywinningRU:
Baseball is more surprising than LAX because of Fred Hill's legacy of success with that program despite its underfunding and poor facilities. The pitchers simply aren't getting it done and we lack power hitting in a big way.

LAX is less surprising to me - years ago when we were competitive nationally, the # of D1 Lax programs was much smaller. Since then new programs have arisen to take recruits and despite the fact that there are exponentially more HS LAX players nationally to fill those rosters, we're simply not getting our share of the top kids. What is surprising despite this is the fact that the current coach was able to take a non-sports entity like Sienna and get them to the top 20, but, like his recent predecessors, he can't get this team out of its mediocrity.

Another factor, not 100% determinative, but a factor, I would think (athough it doesn't explain why we lose to the types of Stony Brook) is that, unlike other sports, many of the top LAX kids come from private schools and/ or from upper middle class towns and while we certainly have gotten kids from some of those programs and towns though the years, including some on the current roster, RU has always had a hard time getting its share of kids from that demographic (for sports and otherwise) and that hurts in LAX since we're not making up for it with recruiting of top kids from non-private schools on a consistent basis. In contrast, take a look at the rosters of Hopkins and UVA (the most extreme examples of course) and note the % of kids from top private school LAX programs and fancy towns. You can even look at the roster of the Univ of Richmond - new to mens LAX but a very successful new program - its roster is loaded with kids from private schools and upper middle class towns. Ohio State (hardly a "preppy" school), which just upset #3 Denver, also has multiple players from private school LAX powers like Gilman, Calvert Hall and Georgetown Prep. On the other hand, Stony Brook, which has passed us by, doesn't have a private school/rich town filled roster, so that differential with RU is harder to explain.

I agree with CuredbywinningRU here in his last paragraph.

Richmond while new on the scene has the "look" the parents of the places mentioned like.

And Stony Brook on LI is helped with the old real estate maxim...location, location, location.

tOSU has decided they want to be a player in LAX and when they do it, they go all in.

 

[Caliknight]

1) Lacrosse was 8-8 last year
2) Denver funds their program better and hired the most successful coach in history. It isn't surprising they are good. Our program needs more funding and facilities,

 

[RUboston]

RU needs to recruit some lacrosse players from my home town in MA - Duxbury. They've won their league for the past 15 years and were state champions in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 & 2012. They were State Finalists in 2003, 2010, & 2014. Every year six or seven kids go to good Div. I programs: Duke, MD, Ivies, Johns Hopkins, etc.

 

[Caliknight]

There is a least one kid on the team from there, so obviously they are recruiting the school.

Folks, check out the roster before making some of these comments. Much more productive conversations can be had.

 

[RUboston]

I did check out the roster prior to my post. I didn't see anyone from Duxbury. Not only that, I did not see a single player from anywhere in MA, a state that is pretty heavy into lacrosse and only a 3-4 hour ride away. Many of the other HS's up here (Billerica, St. John's Prep, Lexington, Wellesley, Wayland, Hingham, Xaverian, Longmeadow, etc.) have great lacrosse programs and provide many players to top notch programs. Maybe RU has had kids in the past from MA, but not on the present roster.

 

[e5fdny]

Originally posted by Caliknight:
1) Lacrosse was 8-8 last year
2) Denver funds their program better and hired the most successful coach in history. It isn't surprising they are good. Our program needs more funding and facilities,

Which is what Michigan and tOSU are doing.

Remember people, as Cali has said in the past when a B1G teams starts a sport they don't do it just look good....they do it to win B1G Championships.

Lets hope this is the attitude across the board going forward for RU Athletics.

 

[Caliknight]

Originally posted by RUboston:

I did check out the roster prior to my post. I didn't see anyone from Duxbury. Not only that, I did not see a single player from anywhere in MA, a state that is pretty heavy into lacrosse and only a 3-4 hour ride away. Many of the other HS's up here (Billerica, St. John's Prep, Lexington, Wellesley, Wayland, Hingham, Xaverian, Longmeadow, etc.) have great lacrosse programs and provide many players to top notch programs. Maybe RU has had kids in the past from MA, but not on the present roster.

Looked at the roster again and the kid was taken off. I am guessing he is no longer in the program. A number of those programs listed are solid, but there are historically better ones closer to Rutgers, and places we have kids on the roster from already, like Yorktown and Ward Melville, not to mention some of the Jersey schools like BR.

Certainly not against getting kids from Ma., but there is a ton of kids other places. I am ok not recruiting there too heavily.

Looking at some of the top schools rosters, you want a well balanced team which I know is what we are going for. Having talent from emerging areas, NJ, NY, Maryland, Canada, is what we are going after.

Syracuse is a good example of this. They have kids from all over, and always have. They don't rely on kids from prep schools exclusively, even though they probably could. In fact, most of their best players historically have not been from private schools or even schools that are in upper crust areas.

 

[RUboston]

Just checked the lacrosse rankings. Ohio State is no. 15. How long have they had a lax program?

 

[Caliknight]

25 plus years.

 

[BuggsyRU]

Originally posted by Caliknight:


There is a least one kid on the team from there, so obviously they are recruiting the school.

Folks, check out the roster before making some of these comments. Much more productive conversations can be had.

And yet no apology to RUBoston, after you "looked again and suddenly he was gone?"

Looking before making a comment is some sound advice you should take yourself....before calling someone out for not looking.