Spring Break
Baseball hits practice field full of talent
Hart Holloman
Issue date: 9/16/08 Section: Sports
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Pirates' coach Billy Godwin is back for his fourth season, and he is ready to work.
For Godwin and his staff, fall practice gives them the opportunity to work with the players and develop skills without having to worry about preparing for a game.
"Our fall is all based around development," said Godwin. "We have about 32 days of team practice and we are evaluating so we can continue to get better for the spring."
He also stressed the importance of being able to evaluate new members of the team.
"We have 14 new faces," Godwin said. "We recruited them because we like something they did, now we have to evaluate them and see how they are adjusting to the speed of the game. The big key for us in the fall is definitely evaluation and development."
According to Godwin, he is very pleased with the talent and depth of the roster this year.
"I like our team, I think we are going to be very athletic," he said. "I'm excited to get out here and start to see what they can do.
"When you recruit these guys you know they are all good players in their own respect, but you're excited about plugging them in with the team you have and see how they make the adjustments that are necessary to play at the level we want to play at. I'm going to be honest, on paper, talent-wise, this is as good a club as I've had."
While he refused to give any sort of predictions about the season, he did have the outlook you would expect from a coach in preseason.
"It's early," he said. "It takes a lot of work, and we have a lot of things ahead of us. But we have the talent and the depth. This is by far the deepest team I've had."
One of the players Godwin will be looking for to make an impact this season is senior outfielder Trent Ashcraft. Ashcraft battled through injuries last season, but had a strong summer in the prestigious Cape Cod League and was voted to start in the league's All-Star game.
"It was a great experience to go up there and play in that league and play at that high of a level with a lot of great baseball players," said Ashcraft, of his summer. "It was nice to go up there and be successful. I think I can take a lot of that momentum I gained this summer and carry it on into this season."
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