JULIA TIERNAN/YH Sudha Reddy, BK '00, and the men's baseball team are hoping for a less injury-filled season.

New season, new hopes, no old injuries for Elis

"It can't be worse than last year" is this year's Bulldog baseball motto. After a 1999 season in which the injury-plagued team went 16-29 (7-13 Ivy), there seems nowhere to go but up.

"Last season was a nightmare in many ways," Coach John Stuper said. It began with a tragic trip to Texas in which Yale lost two key players, 11 of 13 games, and a whole lot of confidence. First, woulda-been third baseman Shea Treadway, PC '01, broke his leg in the same place he'd broken it a year earlier. The next day, shortstop and current captain Tony Coyne, BK '00, got his spike caught in the dirt and tore his ACL. He sat out 15 games before returning as the designated hitter—in a knee brace—batting .417 despite the injury.

"Do we have to talk about last year?" said Coyne, the 1998 Ivy League Player of the Year and a 1999 first team All-Ivy pick. Looking on the bright side, Coyne believes it was a learning experience—that is, a lot of inexperienced freshman pitchers learned what it feels like to have their ERAs skyrocket when half the infield behind them was playing out of position.

The Bulldogs' lowest individual ERA last year (5.40) was higher than their opponents' cumulative ERA against them (5.03). The team's ERA was 7.50. "If you look at the pitchers' stats, sure, they're horrible," Stuper said. "But when the defense is so poor behind you, you have to throw more pitches and get out of more jams, and then you're less effective later in the game." This year, 80 percent of the faces in the infield are different (only first baseman Mike Kahney, JE '00, who spent most of 1999 at third, remains), and they're 100 percent healthy. Coyne returns to short, Steven Duke, TD '03, will start at third, and Bo Ivy, SY '01, makes his Yale comeback at second.

Ivy was an Eli shortstop as a freshman in 1997, but he left his namesake league as a sophomore to play for the University of Texas in his hometown of Austin. Although he hit over .300 while playing third and first for the nationally-ranked Longhorns, he returned to Yale last year "for the education." After sitting out last season due to the NCAA's double-transfer rule, he's finally back on the field, playing second base for the first time since high school. "It'll take a game or two to get used to it, but I like second," Ivy said.

Baseball

Record: 0-0 Coming Up: Sat., Mar. 4 at Georgetown; Mon., Mar. 6 at Middle Tenn. St.; Tues., Mar. 7 at Western Kentucky; Wed., Mar. 8 at Kentucky

Behind the plate, catcher Darren Beasley, BR '03, will probably replace Todd Kasper, PC '99, who was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks after last season. "Darren's way better than I ever hoped," Stuper said. "He's got great hands." The departure of Ben Johnstone, BR '01, who signed with the Chicago Cubs, leaves another vacancy in left field, which will likely be filled by Chris Elkins, SM '03. Steven Dankof, CC '02, who saw action at second base last spring, will take over in left, while Keith Reams, MC '02, also a member of the football team, will probably start at right.

All the pieces may be in place for a solid infield and outfield, but Yale's pitchers still have to improve from last year if they want to give the defense a chance to show their stuff. "We walked too many guys last year," Stuper said. "If you look at Harvard's pitchers, stuff-wise, they're not nearly as good as our guys, but their strikeouts-to-walks ratio was nearly three to one." Yale's strikeouts-to-walks-ratio was 1.58 in 1999.

Pitching is literally the team's sore spot right now. Lefty Craig Breslow, CC '02, and reliever Matt Lindsay, TD '02, both had minor elbow surgery over the winter, and neither has recovered as quickly as expected. Breslow had the Elis' third-lowest ERA and started seven games last season. He should be available to pitch in the team's opener against Georgetown on Sat., Mar. 4, although unforeseen soreness kept him from throwing until recently. Lindsay is the team's best hope for saves now that Mike Finnegan, SY '99, has a diploma and a contract with the Montreal Expos. He's also the Bulldogs' primary designated hitter. "The elbow's coming along, but I tried to come back too early and hurt my shoulder," Lindsay said. "I have to rest it for a while. It'll probably be at least another two weeks before I can throw."

Nonetheless, the four pitchers that make up the Bulldogs' starting rotation—Jon Levy, BR '00, Matt McCarthy, TD '02, Sudha Reddy, BK '00, and Jon Steitz, CC '02—have been throwing healthy-looking strikes in practice, and Stuper sees reason for optimism. He's even looking to last season for inspiration. On Mar. 7, 1999, the Bulldogs beat nationally-ranked Notre Dame, 4-3. "[Reddy] pitched an amazing game, we got key hits, and we had the whole team together—that's the kind of team we could have been," Stuper said wistfully. That's the kind of team they hope they can be this year—if all the knees and legs and elbows remain intact.

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