If you ask the coaches or players on Winthrop’s 2023 baseball team, they’ll both tell you how ecstatic they are with the group they’ve put together for this season.
“I really like this team! I like the culture that we have. They work extremely hard every single day,” head baseball coach Tom Riginos said of this year’s squad.
That fellowship will be paramount for the Eagles this year. Winthrop’s leader in batting average from last season, Dillon Morton, has graduated. Additionally, their second best batter Robby Taul, and the team leader in home runs, Khyree Miller, both transferred out.
This leaves a void that coach Riginos is confident this year’s team can collectively fill.
“I think it’s gonna be a team effort. As far as replacing the offense, I think it’s gonna be the nine guys in the lineup. They all have to work together. We’re not gonna have one guy that’s asked to do everything. It’s just nine guys working together to get a win.”
The strength of this team, in Riginos’ opinion, is their versatility.
“I think we’re gonna have some power, I think we’re gonna have some speed, and I think we have different ways of beating you on any given day. There’s gonna be some days we’re gonna be able to hit the ball out of the ballpark. There’s gonna be some days we’re gonna have to use small ball and do the little things to score runs. I think we have a lot of different options in our offense, we‘re going to be able to score runs. I think we have 35 guys that are really good baseball players.”
Whatever potential this team has, coach Riginos is confident we’ll see it. In his opinion, this is a team without ego, and a very hard working team.
“It started August 19th. When they first walked into the locker room for our first meeting. Everybody was focused. Everybody worked extremely hard over the summer and just continued right through the fall. Our cohesion, our team culture was outstanding in the fall. Everybody’s pulling for one another, and I think that’s really really big about how we built our culture in the
fall. Now it’s translating into the spring. Everybody on the same page, everybody working hard, everybody loving each other, and everybody supporting each other, everything we have to do right now is about the team and not individuals.”
Coach’s message has already gotten through to his team. Senior outfielder CJ Conrad echoes everything the head coach stated caring about the chemistry of this team.
“It’s all about coming together as a group. Be a close knit group always because that’s always gonna help us in the long run. Preparing this season with TR (head coach Tom Riginos), we spoke a lot about culture. We spoke a lot about the things we need to do to translate (to playing better in) the latter half of the year. That all started at the beginning. Just kinda forming something strong from the beginning.”
One challenge this group will be trying to overcome is the overall changes in college athletics.
“The transfer portal became this huge thing where guys can just kinda jump and leave a team or program without any penalties. As a program and from a coaching standpoint, you lose 10 to 15 guys a year and then you’ve gotta bring in all this new talent. It can just kind of be a hurricane. A whirlwind of things for a program, coaches, and everything. Just for me that’s what I’d say has been our biggest obstacle in my four years.”
Another is the in game rule changes, implemented to make the game more appealing to baseball fans around the country.
Senior infielder Will Martin named the most notable changes in his opinion.
“The time clock for pitchers to get back on the mound and get back to action. As well as the batters getting out of the box and getting back in to keep the pace of play at a consistent rate.”
Conrad keeps himself grounded despite these changes by embracing the messages this team has pushed since training camp this past fall.
“The famous saying is adapt or die. You’ve gotta consistently change and adapt to new trends and new opportunities within the sport. When it comes to core values, those usually stay the same and that’s what we’ve kept with. That’s kind of what we always fall back to.”
When asked about what games would be circled on the calendar this season, both Conrad and Martin simultaneously shared the same response.
“Liberty.”
Along with that matchup, they also agreed that showing up against the power five in state rivals would be huge for this team.
“Definitely the mid week games when we face off against power five schools. We haven’t won one of those since freshman year over at Clemson. That’s always something to get under your belt moving forward into the postseason,” Martin remarked.
“I’d say South Carolina is always marked on the calendar. Love going to Clemson. Those are the big ones for us,” Conrad followed.
Coach Riginos closed by offering his perspective on his Big South conference opponents, noting how fierce the competition will be.
“There’s so much parody. There’s a lot of good coaches. A lot of people are building great programs. So every week is a battle.”
The Eagles’ first battle will come next Friday when they begin their season taking on the Long Island University Sharks at Winthrop Ballpark.
