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Baseball Majoring in Chemistry 3/1/2004
Baseball Majoring in Chemistry Hockey and baseball have little in common. However, as in both these sports, the ultimate goal is to win every game and at the base of winning is strong team chemistry. The Vanderbilt baseball team’s goal this season is to win as many games as possible and score more points than all of its opponents. But Head Coach Tim Corbin said such success only will be found if his club has good team chemistry. “What matters is what the team chemistry is, and you don’t know what that really is until the season is over,” said Corbin, who is in his second season with the Commodores. “My expectation is for (every player) to push each other to his limit. If they can do that, they will get better everyday. And I want them to get better now because with that, success at the end of the season should come.” While true team chemistry requires natural development, Corbin took his team to a movie as a bonding experience. In addition to providing an opportunity be together as a team off the field, the night at the movies gave the Commodores a glimpse of what may be ahead for them, said junior shortstop Ryan Klosterman. The team saw the movie “Miracle” based on the 1980 U.S. Olympic ice hockey team that upset the Soviet Union team to win the gold medal. “‘Miracle’ was very inspirational for us,” Klosterman said. “To see where the U.S. team came from and what they were able to achieve was unbelievable. It was a bunch of low profile players who hadn’t received much attention. Then they got together, practiced extremely hard and in the end achieved their goals and stunned everyone. “We have a lot of low profile players who just give 110 percent everyday at practice and when you put us all together we have strong team unity like they did, which hopefully will lead to success for us.” In addition to finding parallels in the players, and possible the success, of the 1980 U.S. hockey team, Vanderbilt has been practicing on a similar surface. The Commodores have not missed a day of practice despite snow, rain, frozen ground and freezing temperatures. “There is no such thing as cold weather,” Corbin said. “It is all just weather. I tell the guys not to waste one second thinking about it. Instead I tell them to put all their energy toward practicing the best they can, and they did a great job of practicing in the cold.” Vanderbilt returns all but two players from last season’s team, which finished second in the SEC East and advanced to the SEC tournament. In addition, Corbin has added depth with a Top 25 recruiting class. “Finishing second in the SEC East is enough credibility to get into the regional, but we didn’t because of our midweek troubles,” Corbin said. “We recruited more pitching. That will enable us to throw better arms in the midweek, which should cure some of the problems from last season.” “The competition is a bonus for our team,” Nicolas said. “We have a lot of depth on the mound and both in the outfield and the infield. We have a team full of great players, and it makes everybody play at their highest level because (the competition) makes you realize you have to play your best all the time or else somebody can step in and take your spot.” As hockey enters the heart of its season, the Commodores began their season with a home series Feb. 20-22 against Southern Illinois. |
