SPORTS EDITOR – OTONIEL GONZALEZ
ORIGINALLY PRINTED ON MARCH 2, 2023
The St. Mary’s baseball team is already 16 games into the regular season this spring. They are trying to get a nice streak going after winning five straight games with scores of 4-3, 16-14, and 6-4. Coach Chris Ermis, who is in his second year as head coach at St. Mary’s University, leads the team. He has support from two assistant coaches, Coach Michael and Coach Tim. Coach Michael takes care of pitchers and hitting practice. Coach Tim looks over the catchers, but they all crossover to help the team in any way they can. The coaching staff also gets support from a student assistant coach, Cayden Garcia, who used to play for the St. Mary’s baseball team and wanted to keep helping the team.
Coach Ermis emphasizes that the road to winning depends on how well the team pitches and plays defense. When the team doesn’t commit any errors or walk hitters, it is easier for the team to win. Winning three games without errors and walks; are the ingredients to winning. Coach Ermis explained, “the game consists of adding to a total of 27 outs.” In other words, the faster a team gets the 27 outs, the more chance they will come out victorious.
In several games, the team walked three players and had five hits by pitches, which are not good numbers if the goal is winning the greatest number of games. The common denominator of the team’s losses is when they walk three or more players. Coach Ermis added, “giving out more than three runs in an inning is like a nuclear explosion inning, making it hard to overcome.” Another important aspect of the game is mental strength. The players on the mound can’t get distracted with the player on base and lose focus on the hitter. The best advice for baseball Coach Ermis has is to “forget about the runner and just focus on the hitter. It doesn’t matter if you give up one run.” The best way to win the game is to “give up no walks, no errors, timely hitting and pitching.”
Ninety percent is throwing the ball, hitting the ball and catching the ball. The strategy goes into whether players pitch a hitter differently. The team uses video plays to identify their weaknesses and pitching. Play strategies appear when players make shifts on the defense, depending on what tendencies the hitter on the box has. The coaches do a lot of homework on this type of information, and as coach Ermis shared, “we know other teams do the same with us.” In baseball, the game plan is to figure out how to beat the opponent and counter any strategy they created to make things harder on the team.
Amid the regular season games, strategies and training, the coaching staff must manage the emotions of 45 players, which makes things difficult. The coach shared that he tries to “say hello to everybody and ask them how their classes are going.” They also maintain an open-door deal, so everyone knows the availability of the coaches if anyone has a problem. It’s important for the coaches to let the players know they are there to help, especially for players who don’t have family nearby, or are completely on their own. It is also important to note that chemistry starts in the locker room. Players don’t have to be friends, but they must respect each other. Coach Ermis said that an advantage they have is they, “recruit most of their players. There’s a lot of one-on-one before they come to campus, so they have an idea on what to expect.”
The team is working together to achieve one thing: Go to North Carolina, where the National Championship is. The goal is to reach winning the National Championship every year. Coach shared that getting there “is like climbing Mount Everest. It may seem impossible, but every week it is a step closer to getting to the top.” Coach Ermis shares that he knows what it feels like to win the last game of the season, and knows what it takes to get there. The coach is comparing this team to the 2001 team and is trying to recreate practices that teams use to win. The first step is to win the LSC (Lone Star Conference). Coach Ermis is confident that “if they are able to get through the conference, they are in a good position for the regionals” since the conference they play is “extremely deep.” It always comes down to pitches and defense. Every team can hit, but the difference is on the mound. At the end of the day, what matters happens on the mound.