Apologies to opposing pitchers, but by the time VCU outfielder Trai Harris digs spike marks into the batters box, it’s too late.
He already knows.
He’s scanned the scouting reports and made a mental Xerox. He knows which side of the plate you’re working. He’s looking for your strikeout pitch. He knows that you probably don’t want to throw it to him because of where he hits in the order. So, he knows to look for fastballs early.
Don’t get out of control, though, and try to sneak a breaking ball by him. He’s got that possibility tucked in the back of his head, and he’s waiting for you to do anything-even the slightest twitch of the fingers-that might tip a pitch.
By the time you deliver the ball, Harris said, “It’s just seeing the pitch and reacting to it.”
The results: a .358 batting average (third on the team through 16 games of his second season in the outfield for the Rams).
Sophomore slump? Foreget it. Harris said success in his second year is all about a state of mind.
“I’m more comfortable as a player and as a student of the game,” Harris said, comparing this season with his rookie season last year. “I don’t try to get outside of myself as a player. I’m more in tuned to myself.
“My swing is where I want it to be. My timing is better than it ever has been and I feel more dangerous as a hitter than I ever have.”
Despite cracking the starting lineup early in the season and eventually hitting .271 with 13 runs scored and eight RBI, Harris’ freshman season was admittedly overwhelming.
Harris ripped through Peninsula District competition as team captain of the Woodside Wolverines in Newport News, but that was nothing like the game in the Colonial Athletic Association.
“The talent level is so much better,” Harris said. “I think maybe at the beginning of the year that I was trying to prove myself that I belonged, and I was getting out of the things that I know I did well. I was trying to do more than I was capable of.”
Harris spent the first few games adjusting to D-I competition, pinch-hitting, playing different spots in the outfield and even filling in as a designated hitter.
He eventually carved himself a spot as a regular in the lineup, starting 30 games. But cracking the lineup wasn’t something Harris had to worry about heading into his second season.
He spent the offseason in the batting cage, training with coaches on every part of his swing from pitch recognition to what they call “muscle memory.”
The effects went beyond changing his game, changing his attitude as well. Harris came into this season with a newfound confidence and with less than a third of the Rams games in the books he’s either reached or eclipsed his 2004 totals.
If you want, you can flip through the box scores to find the point where Harris says everything finally came together for him. (Hint: it wasn’t his 4-for-5 performance in the season opener.)
Harris said he felt the best when the team traveled to Alabama to battle the Auburn Tigers, even though in three games that weekend Harris was just 2 for 12 with only a single run scored.
The numbers don’t show how hard he was hitting the ball against a team that’s spent most of its season floating around USA Today’s College Top 25. He got attaboys from teammates as he smacked liners across the field, and it was then he said he could feel himself maturing as a hitter.
“I couldn’t be mad because I knew I was swinging well,” he said. “It’s just that the results weren’t there. Coaches kept telling me, ‘don’t be worried about results. Just get the process down.'”
Since the series with the Tigers, Harris is hitting .387. In the Rams last full series, he abused the Richmond Spiders, hitting .352 (6 for 17) for the weekend with six runs scored and five RBI. An 0-fer in the third game of the set was the only sign of the Spiders possibly being able to keep him off the basepaths.
“That’s the best feeling in the world as a hitter,” Harris said, “when you feel a pitcher cannot get you out. And that’s been happening more this year than any other time in my career.”
Harris said the Rams sweep of Richmond could have been a combo of the Spiders declining and the Rams surging, but for him, it was certainly an indicator of the potential noise VCU could make as conference play starts this weekend.
“A couple of games there we played how we’re supposed to play and it was evident that we were the superior team on the field,” he said. “And that can happen a lot. We have the talent to do it. We have the coaching to do it. We have the drive. It’s just a matter of putting all the pieces together all the time.
“If we play how we’re capable of playing we’ll be playing deep into the postseason this year.”