Every year, as spring inches closer, one thing is clear: baseball season is about to begin. For Marist baseball, the season cannot start soon enough.
2023 was a rocky year for the club, which finished with a MAAC conference record below .500 for the first time since 2014. This year, the Red Foxes are ready to learn from their mistakes, put last season behind them and make some noise. A bolstered roster that includes the MAAC Preseason Player of the Year in Bayram Hot is ready to begin the quest for contention in the MAAC, where the program has not won a title since 2017.
Last year was Lance Ratchford’s first year as head coach of the program; he took over for Chris Tracz, who departed after 13 seasons to lead the Army West Point baseball team.
“Reality started to set in that a coaching change is absolutely a difficult thing,” said Ratchford. “As the year started, you could see how this was going to be a more difficult job.”
Ratchford spent three years at Marist as an assistant coach from 2016-18, a tenure that included a MAAC Championship, before becoming the head coach of SUNY Cobleskill. Even though Ratchford possessed familiarity with Poughkeepsie and the team, the first year in his new role was not easy.
“Last year actually felt a lot like my first year as an assistant here, where things weren’t super bad, but they weren’t great yet,” said Ratchford.
The brief yet uncertain time when Marist was looking for a new head coach led to multiple important players exiting through the transfer portal, creating a lack of depth that reared its ugly head throughout the season. The most noticeable losses came on the mound.
The absence of their two best pitchers from 2022 came back to haunt the team, as the staff posted a ghastly 9.38 ERA on the year, the third worst in the conference. They also gave up the second most hits in the MAAC with 601 and third most runs with 508.
Reinforcing the pitching staff was a focus during the offseason, and the Red Fox staff appears to be refreshed from the starting rotation to the bullpen. Highlighting the freshman class on the mound is Aidan Vargas. In his senior year of high school, Vargas recorded 77 strikeouts across 48 innings. As a two-way player, he also posted a .433 batting average and launched eight home runs.
Four of the five transfers brought in for 2024 are pitchers, including graduate student Nate Chudy. Across four years at the College of the Holy Cross, Chudy started 20 games and pitched 105 2/3 innings of work.
“The whole [pitching] staff as a group [has to] throw more strikes,” said Chudy.
A focus this year from the pitching staff will be to throw more first-pitch strikes, an important step in not allowing games to slip out of hand. The Red Foxes gave up 12 or more runs on a whopping 17 times occasions, and they only won three of those contests.
The reloaded pitching staff has gotten plenty of productive work this offseason in facing off with a Marist lineup that oozes offensive talent.
Headlining their roster this year is sophomore infielder Bayram Hot, selected as the MAAC conference’s Preseason Player of the Year. In his freshman year, Hot started 48 of 50 games played, posting a .382 batting average (BA) .446 on-base percentage (OBP), and whopping .964 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) en route to a nod for MAAC Rookie of the Year.
“It’s good, but I try not to look at that as much because there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that,” said Hot. “I’m just trying to focus on playing my same game and playing better.”
Ratchford and Hot have talked about the expectations that come with earning preseason recognition, which does not always translate into success. The last time the preseason selection became the Player of the Year was 2016, and only once since 2019 has the Preseason Player of the Year made an All-MAAC First or Second team.
“[You want to] have that goal of being the first guy named the preseason one to win the regular one,” said Ratchford.
Marist is by no means going to be a one-man show on offense. Alongside Hot, redshirt junior infielder Marco Ali, sophomore outfielder/LHP Ethan Conrad and graduate student outfielder Colin Mackle all finished 2023 with an OPS of at least .799. The Red Foxes’ stars also consistently posted quality at-bats; Hot, Ali, Conrad and Mackle all posted an OBP above .360.
“Getting ahead [will be key], whether it’s throwing first-pitch strikes or if you’re at the plate hunting the first pitch,” said Ali.
The lone position player who transferred in for 2024 is junior catcher Cole Casamento, who comes in from Lackawanna College. Last year in Division II, he posted a .393 OBP and .819 OPS while starting half of his 44 games played.
One of Marist’s strengths last year was on the base paths. As a team, they stole 120 bases in 145 attempts, placing them second in the MAAC. Conrad led the team going 19 for 20. Reestablishing this component of their offense will be essential for a Marist squad that will need to score every run they can get.
This is especially true considering the powerful hole in the Red Foxes’ lineup moving forward. That gap is the size of outfielder Brian Hart, who smacked 14 home runs, good for a share of eighth in the MAAC. Freshmen catcher Scott Esposito and outfielder Lewis Rodriguez will try to help Marist replace those runs after productive high school careers. Esposito finished his senior year with a 448 OBP and .957 OPS. Rodriguez produced a .494 BA, hit five home runs and stole 23 bases. Rodriguez got off to a hot start in his collegiate career, going 5-14, including two doubles and one RBI in the opening series against Southern Mississippi, earning him MAAC Rookie of the Week honors.
Despite the team’s immense struggles a year ago and the uncertainty that this season will bring, the Red Foxes have aspirational goals for themselves this season, including winning the conference championship.
“I think that’s [to win the MAAC is] through and through [the goal] for all of us,” said Ali. “We want to show everyone that wasn’t us last year.”
With a restocked pitching staff and an offensive core ready to swing it, comradery and mental toughness will have to be on Marist’s side for them to fulfill their goal. Ratchford and many players reflected that last season’s ups and downs took a toll on the roster and made it harder to execute on the field.
“We had a really rough start to the year [last year], and I think we kind of let it spiral,” said junior infielder/outfielder Nathan Lincoln. “It was a little bit of a blessing in disguise because now we’ve matured and gone through that little bump in the road. I think we’ve really taken the jump this year, and we’re a lot more focused on our job.”
Marist will play a month-long preseason on the road, starting with a three-game series against Southern Mississippi, who hosted a Super Regional last year – the last 16 of the NCAA baseball tournament – making it one win away from the College World Series.
The Red Foxes will travel across the Northeast and to warmer climates, including a nine-day trip across Virginia, all leading up to March 22, when they’ll open up MAAC play against Saint Peter’s. Ratchford hopes the competitive preseason schedule will have his team ready to face MAAC opponents.
“My main goal as head coach is to be playing our best baseball come the conference tournament, but I believe that we need to be prepared to play our best baseball at [the start of MAAC play],” said Ratchford.
The Red Foxes will host Niagara University for their home opener on Thursday, March 28.
The Marist baseball team is ready to prove themselves once again as a top team in the MAAC. To do that, a strong start will be essential to build confidence for a team desperate not to repeat the same mistakes as last year.
Edited by Max Rosen and Luke Sassa
Graphic by Jaylen Rizzo; Photos from Marist Athletics via Stockton Photo
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