As the Winthrop University baseball team returns to the field for fall workouts after an early end to the 2020 season, several new faces will be in the dugout.
Six freshmen and three transfers join the squad, including five in-state players. The group also features two left-handed pitchers and two right-handed pitchers.
According to pitching coach Austin Hill, some of the new freshmen have been attending Head Coach Tom Riginos’ high school prospect camp since ninth grade.
“They get on our radar and obviously as you’re recruiting you want to find guys early and start building that line of communication, building the relationship up,” he said. “When Sept. 1 of their junior year hits…you get those guys on campus, get their families on campus and start hanging out with them.”
Hill said Winthrop also has several guys from junior colleges who the coaches didn’t begin talking with until after those players got to college. “There’s a lot of routes to get here and there’s a different starting point for each guy,” he said.
One newcomer is Joey Tepper, a senior transfer from Furman University. Tepper committed to Winthrop this past May after Furman cut its baseball program as a financial result of COVID-19.
“We knew Joey out of high school, he’s a Fort Mill guy,” Hill said. “[He’s] a really talented ball player – went to Spartanburg Methodist College and had a great career there.”
Hill said Winthrop had talked to Tepper while he was at SMC but felt that he had found a great fit with the coaching staff at Furman. He said Winthrop didn’t have any more conversations with Tepper until after Furman lost its program.
“The Furman coaches did a great job in helping us talk to Joey, get to know him a little bit, and share some inside scoop on him from a coaching standpoint. He’s another one of those guys that’s going to come in and compete early.”
The team is also returning most of last year’s senior class since the NCAA granted all spring sport athletes whose seasons were cut short due to COVID-19 last semester an extra year of eligibility.
“Obviously with more bodies and with talented experience coming back, it is going to be more of a challenge for new guys to play…but everybody’s going to have their opportunity,” Hill said.
“Just because those guys are coming back, it doesn’t mean it’s just a cakewalk for them. They’re still going to have to earn it, but we do expect those seniors to have a big year for us.”
Hill also said it will be nice to have those returning players to provide leadership for the new guys, which they are already finding ways to do.
“I think our older guys are doing a really good job of engaging with [the new guys] – whether it’s phone calls, facetimes, whatever it may be – to try and build that chemistry, because you’re not going to have 40 guys in a room together right now.”
The baseball team will begin full team practice Oct. 11 and continue those practices until students go home for Thanksgiving.
Photo courtesy of Winthrop Athletics
