New baseballs, pitching contribute to Winthrop’s strong start

Several factors have Winthrop baseball off to an 11-4 start, its best since 2009.

College baseball’s new flatter-seamed ball has helped. The lower-profile stitches provide less wind resistance, allowing the ball to travel father through the air. The Eagles are batting .268 as a team, their best mark in at least three years, and coach Tom Riginos thinks the ball has a little something to do with the jump. His former boss at Clemson, longtime Tigers coach Jack Leggett, was one of the prominent proponents of the new baseball.

“I was definitely for it,” Riginos said. “We’ve hit a few more home runs, but I think you look at the doubles. The last couple years, the ball has never been able to beat the centerfielder. We’ve hit two or three balls off the centerfield wall, and we haven’t been able to do that. Guys are bigger and stronger, but I think that extra 15 to 20 feet they say it adds on to it has helped us. And I think it makes the game a little more exciting.”

Despite the new, offense-friendly baseball, Winthrop’s quality pitching remains unchanged – a collective ERA of 3.02 is second best in the Big South Conference – and that’s helped the team go 6-1 in games decided by two or less runs.

And playing 13 of the first 15 games of the season at Winthrop Ballpark hasn’t hurt the Eagles either.

“You know your field, you know how the lines are gonna play, you know how to play the wall, stuff like that,” said junior catcher Roger Gonzalez. “You get to follow your own routine and it helps out so much.”

Gonzalez has been another big reason the Eagles are winning more games early this year. He and fellow junior college transfer Anthony Paulsen are both hitting over .333, two of the five Winthrop batters doing so. On Thursday, Gonzalez’s good start to the season – one home run, 12 RBIs, 10 walks and a .971 fielding percentage – was rewarded with inclusion on the Johnny Bench Award watch list, the honor that goes to college baseball’s best catcher. Gonzalez, who began his college career at Miami (Fla.) before transferring to Santa Fe Community College (Fla.), has been a big addition for the Eagles.

“I think him and Anthony Paulsen have both come in and made an impact in our lineup,” Riginos said. “That’s the reason we recruited those two young men to come in and make an impact and they are. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it takes a second year.”

Winthrop welcomes Kennesaw State to Rock Hill this weekend in a useful gauge of the Eagles’ progress. Kennesaw (8-6) reached a Super Regional in last year’s NCAA tournament and is one of the strongest teams in the Atlantic Sun Conference, a league comparable to the Big South. A series win over the Owls would go a long way in confirming that Winthrop should indeed be a contender for a Big South title later this spring.

“For us, it’s going to be a good challenge going into conference next weekend,” said Riginos, whose team opens Big South play at home against Gardner-Webb on March 20.

Winthrop’s offense, aided by the addition of new hitting coach Rich Witten and ready-to-contribute junior college players, the improvement of younger players, and the jumpier baseball, is better than it’s been in at least three years. Last season, the Eagles hit 17 home runs, 77 doubles, and drove in 186 runs in 60 games; they’ve already hit six round-trippers and 22 doubles this season with 70 RBIs, in just 15 games.

And pitching hasn’t been sacrificed in pursuit of offense. Starters Sam Kmiec, Matt Crohan and Zach Sightler are a combined 6-2 so far this season with just 15 earned runs in over 70 combined innings of work. After adjusting to the new baseballs during the fall season, they haven’t been negatively impacted by the different seams.

Gonzalez said that the lower laces make the ball feel smaller, “like you can manhandle it kind of.” And Riginos said that his off-speed pitchers have come around to the seams as well.

“From just catching and throwing them, I love them,” Gonzalez said. “You feel stronger because the laces are lower, you feel like you can throw it harder.”

The success of pitching coach Clint Chrysler’s group is nothing new; it’s been a strength of Winthrop’s since Chrysler showed up in Rock Hill, one the Eagles can rely upon later in the season even if the offense dries up. Riginos attributed this year’s pitching success to the maturation of a deep group, especially his three starters, juniors Kmiec and Sightler, and sophomore Crohan. The pitching depth and quality was appealing to Gonzalez, who had offers from Marshall, North Florida and interest from ACC schools, when he was choosing where to play last year.

“I always want to catch a good pitching staff,” he said Thursday. “It’s so much fun being out there with guys that are gonna dominate. They lead us. If they’re doing their thing out there, nobody can beat us.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 5:47 PM with the headline "New baseballs, pitching contribute to Winthrop’s strong start."