Last season was a wave of ups and downs for the Marist baseball team, but the most consistent variable of their success was the performance of their pitching staff.
When all was said and done, Marist finished below .500 both overall and in conference play: 20-35 and 10-14 respectively. They did manage to sneak into the MAAC Championships as the final seed and win two games there to round out their season.
But their overall results deserve a deeper dive.
Throughout the season, the Red Foxes gave up 10 or more runs a whopping 22 times (40% of their games), winning just twice. But in the rest of their games, those in which they give up fewer than 10 runs, Marist sported a record above .500: 18-15.
In 2025, the staff will look to right the ship and emphasize commanding the strike zone to keep more games within reach.
The Red Foxes simply were at the mercy of their pitching in 2024. When the pitching staff gave the offense a chance, they were an above-average team. But far too often–40% of the time, to be exact–pitching took them out of the game.
That is if “keeping the team in the game” means giving up fewer than 10 runs.
Unsurprisingly, a glance at the team’s pitching stats paints an ugly picture. They had the second-worst team ERA in the MAAC, gave up the second most earned runs, the second most hits, and the third most home runs. Upon closer look, perhaps the most pressing issue was the lack of command.
Marist managed to be middle of the pack in walks, issuing 320 over 480 innings throughout the entire season, good for sixth in the conference. However, they led the conference in wild pitches and hit the third-most batters. A lack of overall command can impact other stats too; not just walks, wild pitches and hit-by-pitches.
Consistently falling behind in the count can force pitchers to come to the middle of the plate and allow hitters to crush bad pitches in the counts where they are expected, a contributing factor to the number of hits and home runs the team coughed up.
Mike Coss, Marist baseball’s associate head coach and pitching coach, is coming off his sixth season with the program after he graduated from Marist himself in 2018, concluding a career in which he racked up the fourth most appearances in program history.
Coss placed some of the blame for the pitching struggles on the overall youth of the staff. He referenced the opening weekend of the season against Southern Mississippi where the first two starters (both redshirt freshmen) had yet to throw a college inning. The third was a Division III transfer who had yet to pitch at the Division I level.
Coss also acknowledged that regardless of the level of experience or any other factors, his pitchers need to consistently find the strike zone to give the team a chance.
“We’ve really flipped the script this year [and] if we’re gonna get beat, let’s get beat in the zone,” Coss said. “We can’t continue to self-inflict mistakes and I think there’s been a real buy-in on that end where the guys realize you’d rather give up three hits to score a run than walk the bases loaded and then one bloop single scores two.”
That new mentality encompasses the view that free baserunners, for these purposes defined as a walk or a hit by pitch, can often prove to be more damaging than they may seem at first glance. Even a simple leadoff free baserunner can feasibly turn into a run without allowing a hit. And an inning with two or more free baserunners feels almost certain to result in runs.
With that in mind, here is a look at the number of free baserunners the Red Foxes allowed per game throughout the season:
MARIST (7.91 ERA)
| 320 BB + 101 HBP = 421 BB and HBP |
| 480 IP |
| 7.9 FREE BASERUNNERS PER 9 INNINGS |
| Formula: Free Baserunners per 9 = (Total IP/(BB+HBP))*9 |
That is nearly eight free baserunners per game. In comparison, here are the numbers for Fairfield, the best pitching staff in the MAAC last season according to ERA:
FAIRFIELD (5.08 ERA)
| 190 BB + 66 HBP = 256 BB and HBP |
| 505 IP |
| 4.6 FREE BASERUNNERS PER 9 INNINGS |
| Formula: Free Baserunners per 9 = (Total IP/(BB+HBP))*9 |
Below is the number of free baserunners allowed per game for every team in the MAAC, accompanied by their team ERA for comparison. The chart starts with Fairfield, the best team by ERA, and ends with St. Peter’s, the worst team by ERA:
| MAAC Team ERA Comparison | 2024 Season |
|---|---|
| TEAM AND ERA | FREE BASERUNNERS PER 9 INNINGS |
| Fairfield – 5.08 | 4.6 |
| Manhattan – 5.29 | 7.6 |
| Niagara – 5.64 | 7.3 |
| Canisius – 6.41 | 6.5 |
| Rider – 6.67 | 6.3 |
| Quinnipiac – 6.92 | 7.2 |
| Mount St. Mary’s – 7.26 | 7.6 |
| Siena – 7.51 | 9.9 |
| Iona – 7.86 | 9.7 |
| Marist – 7.91 | 7.9 |
| St. Peter’s – 9.95 | 10.9 |
Per nine innings, Marist gave up the fourth most free baserunners per game on average. And those four teams at the bottom – St. Peter’s, Siena, Iona and Marist – were the four worst teams by ERA in the conference.
Meanwhile, Fairfield–who by a large margin gave up the fewest free baserunners per game–had the best ERA and went on to win the MAAC regular season championship.
As bad as these numbers may seem, they also provide room for lots of optimism heading into next season. If Marist can take a step toward Fairfield by allowing fewer free baserunners, they are almost certain to earn more wins and build upon their 2024 season. Besides, they managed to generate some success in the MAAC Championships despite their subpar pitching.
Coss knows this and kept it in mind when adding to the staff this offseason. Regarding the characteristics he was looking for in his new pitchers, “being able to command the zone” was the most important asset.
“We brought in guys that we thought commanded the zone and had a decent amount or a lot of college experience previously,” said Coss, emphasizing his desire to avoid a situation like last season where the team is forced to rely on inexperienced arms.
Someone who fits the frame Coss referenced is junior right-handed pitcher Jake Burt, who made his way to Marist from Brookdale Community College in New Jersey and walked only 20 in 62 innings last season.
If the Red Foxes can find the zone more frequently, it will also help them manage their arms on a game-by-game basis.
“With a college series where you play Friday, Saturday, Sunday and you’re going to your bullpen early on a Friday, that kind of affects the next two days as well,” Coss said. “I think that kind of flipped as we got deeper into the season and some other guys stepped up and we started getting more length and that saved the bullpen for us.”
As far as in-game strategy, Coss signaled that last year the staff may have tried to outdo themselves in some cases; they tried to be too perfect by hitting perfect spots with difficult-to-locate off-speed pitches. That resulted in a lot of misses leading to the issues outlined above. This year, they are trying something different.
“Our catcher is gonna set up right down the middle and [we will] go into a model where you throw your best stuff right down the middle and let it move wherever it goes whether it’s a slider or two seam. Let those pitches move but don’t be so perfect trying to hit one spot,” Coss said.
That might just be the adjustment the staff needs. Sometimes trying to find perfection leads to the exact opposite. When it comes to pitching, sometimes it requires taking a step back and going back to the basics, throwing the ball down the middle.
Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax once said, “I became a good pitcher when I stopped trying to make them miss the ball and started trying to make them hit it.”
That may be exactly what the Red Foxes need to do this season.
Edited by Marley Pope and Dan Aulbach
Photo From Caitlin Bombassei