Baseball goal: ‘Erase last year’

Last season, Eastern baseball only won two games while losing 23.

“Erase last year,” new head coach Keith Curley said. “Everybody has a clean slate this year.”

Six weeks ago Eastern was without a head baseball coach when they filled the gap by hiring Coach Curley. Before then, Coach Brian Burke left the team to become an assistant at DeSales University.

When asked how his new team would match up against other teams in the PAC Conference this season, Curley pondered a moment before answering: “I don’t really worry about everybody else… We need to play our game. Defensively – keeping teams from getting four or five outs an inning.”

Starting from scratch is what Coach Curley will have to do this year. His inherited team returns three seniors from last year’s squad: Ryan Patroni, Chris Hoffman and Dave Oswald.

As far as who is playing where, everything will be planned out from game to game depending on who is pitching. Patroni, who led the team with a .402 batting average last season, will bat third in the lineup and play centerfield. Junior Mike Young and sophomore John Montague will share time behind the plate catching. Sophomore Mike Santello will play second base.

Pitching is the area that Coach Curley recognizes as the team’s main weakness. With only seven pitchers on the roster, there won’t be much room for error in games, especially on one of the nine days which the team is scheduled to play doubleheaders.

Despite the odds being stacked against them, Eastern baseball could still open some eyes. At this point, their goal is just to get more than two wins this season.