Rookie Darrik Marstaller jumps off first base on the way to his 18th steal of the season during the 3rd inning of a 1-0 victory over Rivier on April 15th (Gil Talbot photo).Baseball: From The Nashua Telegraph: "DWC stays on run in best season ever"
This article is reprinted with permission of the Nashua Telegraph. It ran on Tuesday, April 6, 2010. Learn more about the Telegraph and see the original article by clicking here.
By TOM KING Staff Writer
NASHUA – On your mark, get set … Go! That's the mind-set of a Daniel Webster College baseball player this season if he gets on base.
The odds are, he won't be staying at that one base doe very long.
At last look, the Eagles have stolen an amazing 123 bases in 150 attempts, and by mid-April were leading the nation's Division III schools with an average of 5.11 steals per game. No fewer than seven Eagles are in double figures in steals.
They will run, run, run and dare you to throw them out.
“You get thrown out, you get thrown out,” said Bruce Brown, a junior infielder out of Lowell who at one point was a perfect 14-of-14 in swipes. “That's just part of the game. That's just the way we are. We're going to live and die by running. We steal. … we're just aggressive, and we're just going to keep going.”
Indeed, it hasn't always been this way, but it's certainly one of the main reasons the Eagles set a record for wins for the program this year (15-13, 8-4 in conference) and have a shot at the New England Collegiate College championship.
“It's a new side we're trying this year,” junior outfielder Zach Cantor said. “It's working. It's a different side, we worked on it in the winter. I was excited for it. I ran in high school (Windham, Maine) a good amount. I ran a lot last year, too. …It can't hurt. I didn't think it would be this successful, but coach made the right decision.”
And according to Eagles third-year coach J.P. Pyne, it was an easy one.
“I knew we were fast,” Pyne said. “I might have the fastest outfield in the nation in Division III. … In the fall, we knew we were more athletic than we've ever been. And once we decided to do it, it's not just about pure speed, but also technique. We can either work for the base, or steal it. You might get caught, but that's the risk you take.”
And it's a risk Pyne said a few mentors in his career have told him is worth taking. First was Will Sanborn, his coach at St. Joseph's College in Maine. During one season there, Sanborn set a goal of 100 steals. In fact, two catchers combined for 18 steals.
“It was a big commitment,” Pyne said, “but everybody bought into it. … We haven't set a goal (at DWC). I know myself as a coach I'd just get too caught up in it.”
The second bug was put into his ear years ago by an old friend, Brian Butterfield, the third base coach for the Toronto Blue Jays. Butterfield told him that it was important to “sell the mentality” of base stealing.
And third, former American Defenders of New Hampshire coach and current Wesley College head coach Tripp Keister, who worked with Pyne on the Defenders staff last summer.
“He told me that in Division III, you're not going to get power hitters,” Pyne said. “You're not going to get guys who hit the ball out of the park consistently.”
Keister told Pyne the numbers and percentages wouldn't make sense on paper, but they'd work more often than not in games. And he was right.
“We don't do it to embarrass anybody,” Pyne said, “but it gets our offense going.
“I want the base, and I want the payoff. It creates havoc for the defense and the opposing pitcher. It makes our average hitters good and our good hitters better. … Leads, jumps, getting back to first, we worked on it so much probably to the point the players were getting annoyed with it we did it so much.
“But we might not win the game, but I would not want to coach against us, because it's just no fun.”
“He had us practicing it all fall through winter,” said freshman outfielder Darrik Marstaller, who played on the Class L Keene High School championship team last spring, had the green light there and has over 20 steals this year. “We can put pressure on pitchers, pitchers make mistakes, helps us score more runs, and if we're good at it, we'll be a good team. All the players on this team are fast.”
The practice paid off, because as Pyne said, he stressed technique over and over.
“Just good reads on pitchers, knowing looks,” Marstaller said. “If you can pick that up on a pitcher, it's not that hard, unless the catcher's got an amazingly quick arm.” One thing Pyne has been consistent on: If a player gets caught or picked off, he need not fear retribution when he comes to the dugout.
“We've been picked off 10 times,” Pyne said. “But I want the kids to think 'When coach tells me he's not going to snap at me if I get picked off, he means it', because that way they can be more effective on the basepaths. You want them to stay aggressive. Heck, recently we were down 10-3 against Newbury and we were still stealing bases. I know the kids were thinking or saying to each other 'Wow, we're still stealing down 10-3.'
“Anybody who comes to watch us for the first time could look at me and say I'm crazy. But my motto from all the way back in fall ball is we live by the sword, we die by the sword.”
And right now, the Eagles are winning by that sword, which is probably stolen.