Hornet baseball has just began their season, and they look to improve on a tough, last season. The Hornets finished last year 13-22-1, but lost 8 games by one run, so that easily could have been different.
“We are not a really powerful team,” said Hornet Head Coach Nick Fuscardo. “We are athletic, and we are fast.”
This year’s team has a fine balance of newcomers and veterans, it seems to be a deep team throughout. Power-hitting first baseman, Garrett Donahoe, will be returning to the diamond after taking a year off, and will definitely add some excitement to the line up.
Donohoe was an all-conference player in 2011, before taking last season off. The team is very excited to have his huge bat back in the heart of the lineup. Donohoe is batting in the fourth spot, and Santa Ana College transfer, Uriel Salinas, batting in the three hole.
If Fullerton can get men on base in front of them, they can do some damage.That should not be a problem, with Dakota Wix in the lead-off spot. Wix, a Cal State East Baytransfer, is off to a torrid start to the season.
“He has gotten at least two hits in each of his first three games,” Fuscardo said. “The kid can flat out run, and is quite the catalyst for us.”
The team is also expecting a lot from Long Beach State transfer, Erik Lewis. He is a left-handed bat that should add some depth to the already deep- batting order.
“We got a great returning player, named Ryan Joyce,” Fuscardo added. “If he can hit the ball consistently, he can make some money in this game.”
Fuscardo believes that Donohoe and Joyce both have great potential at the next level, and may even be players to look for in the MLB draft.
All of the offense would be for nothing if the team had no pitching. Fuscardo is also very happy with the depth of the pitching staff, and feels like they are extremely deep in the starting rotation and bullpen.
“We have Jeff Curran, who is a very solid left-hander,” Fuscardo said. “He can run it up there in the middle 80’s, with a good breaking ball.”
Curran got the first win of the season for the team, and figures to be the “ace” of the starting rotation.
“We have a returning redshirt player named Juan Berumen,” Fuscardo added, “He has been a pleasant surprise for us, and can be really good this year.”
Freshman pitcher Jacob Miller has showed great potential, but Fuscardo is not exactly sure what his role will be on the team.
“He can really run the ball up there, and even touch 90, he may even close some games,” Fuscardo added.
It will be no easy task for him to gain the closer job. The Hornets are pretty set it seems with Sean Michael, who has saved two games so far this year.
“We are kind of pitching in reverse this year,” added Fuscardo. “We threw some big arms in the back few innings, and need the starters to just give us five to six solid innings.”
The Hornets defense will be huge for them this year. In the first few games, it has been apparent that the team needs to play good defense to win.
“They key is going to be playing smart and disciplined,” Fuscardo said, “We won our first two games and only had one error, and then we made three in the first loss.”
The Hornets are playing in one of the toughest divisions in the nation, but aspire to have the line up to compete. The team is definitely expecting to improve on last year. They are off to a 5-2 start, and seem to be firing on all cylinders.