Club baseball on the rise under new leadership
VCU’s club baseball team has come a long way in two years.
Kris Mason
Staff Writer
VCU’s club baseball team has come a long way in two years. In spring 2012, current senior outfielder Alex Famodu transferred to VCU after walking onto the Saint Peter’s University baseball team and playing his freshman year. Famodu wanted to continue his playing career at VCU and thought the best way to do so would be to play on the club team, which competes against other universities but is below the school’s Division-1 team.
However, he found it difficult to find information and felt that it was an unorganized group. This is night and day compared to the state of the team now.
“The team camaraderie wasn’t very good,” Famodu said. “There is just a great improvement in the team and the quality of players from now compared to then.”
The team tries to make it easier to gather information about themselves by having a table at the Student Organization and Volunteer Opportunity (SOVO) fair, increasing its social media presence on both Twitter and Facebook and spreading by word-of-mouth.
The team finished 5-8 in Famodu’s first season in the fall of 2012. This fall the team finished with a 4-3 record.
The improvement is thanks in large part to the contributions of senior outfielder/second baseman John Lyons-Harrison and junior pitcher/shortstop Teddy Leinbach.
Lyons-Harrison led the league in home runs this season with three in just seven games. He attributed this to a rigorous offseason training program this summer in which he lifted and ran everyday.
Leinbach is the ace of the staff and led the team in innings pitched. However, he humbly deflected the praise from himself.
“Whenever I go out there I’m confident that we’re gonna get the win, just like I feel every other pitcher should be,” Leinbach said. “I trust my defense is gonna be behind me and when I come out I have trust that other pitchers will do the job. So it is a lot less pressure than you think, actually.”
Despite the improvement, the team is not satisfied with where they are. The goal for the team this season is to make the National Club Baseball Association playoffs.
This will not be an easy task, but the team knows what areas they need to improve in order to make their goals a reality.
“I thought in the fall we showed a marked improvement in defense,” Lyons-Harrison said. “I say we definitely have to work on situational hitting, some two-strike hitting. We are still trying to continue rotation depth behind Ted. We added a few key pieces in that department with the additions of freshmen Ryan Hiser and Mike Blackburn and senior Stuart Cooke.”
“We just want to continue to get as much work in as possible, make sure everyone comes to practice and is working hard in the offseason,” Lyons-Harrison said.
As an upperclassman, Famodu feels he has stepped up into more of a vocal leadership role.
“We have some quiet guys so sometimes when I would be quiet not a lot of things would be said,” Famodu said. “So sometimes if I want something to happen I go ahead and tell everyone what I think should happen.”
Moving forward, the team is expanding its schedule this season and anticipates having 20 to 25 games. The Rams open their 2015 season Feb. 7 at home against Radford University. They play their home games at Rockwood Park or James River High School.
