Boys of spring dreaming of summer

John Stuper has seen a lot of things in baseball, to use the words of his ace starting pitcher Jon Steitz, CC '02. And while the head coach has a calm but firm response to any question about the Yale baseball team, he doesn't know the answer to one big one—who will win the Ivy League. "Every year, I've felt there was a team to beat and been right about which one it was," Stuper said. "This year, I have no clue. It may sound odd, but the team that's going to win it isn't going to be the best team, but the one that plays the best."

It may sound odd, but while stating a truism that he has evidently repeated more than once, Stuper cannot hide the fact that he hasn't been this excited about a group of Yale ballplayers for several years.

On the bus ride to South Orange, N.J. this past Tues., Apr. 3, Stuper is business as usual. In one of their tougher non-league match-ups, the Bulldogs will face off against Seton Hall. A very positive coach whose even temper keeps him from mere cheerleading, Stuper has the unequivocal respect of his players. Some veteran Elis feel their coach has been unduly harsh on himself because of the team's failures the past two years, but this season he has focused on helping the Bulldogs turn the page after a win or loss. "The goal for this year is to get better," Stuper's quote in Yale's media guide reads.

"Stuper's a good guy, the type that most parents really like," Captain R.D. DeSantis, SY '01, said. "And he's been in the big leagues and won a World Series [in 1982, with St. Louis]. Anyone who has done that commands respect."

Today, Stuper sits at the front of Yale's chartered bus poring over stat sheets related to the afternoon game with Seton Hall. After making some notes, he folds his uniform jacket into a pillow and goes to sleep.

Head Coach John Stuper (right) on Assistant Coach Bill Asermely, PC '93 (left): 'Bill has instant credibility with these players. He was the captain of the best team in league history.' DANIEL SILK/YH

An hour later, around 1:30 p.m., Stuper leans over to Assistant Coach Bill Asermely, PC '93, and tells him to rouse the players, as they'll be arriving at Seton Hall shortly. Nearly an hour later, though, the Bulldogs are not at Seton Hall but at a gas station off Interstate 78, where the driver is asking for directions. "This is embarrassing," Stuper says. The team will be late for its 3 p.m. game. "I hope their pitcher is already warmed up, so he'll be nice and stiff."

Midweek games against non-league opponents, more than anything else, keep the team fresh and, in the words of DeSantis, "get guys some quality at-bats." Yale has just come off its first weekend of Ivy League competition, splitting doubleheaders against league champion Princeton and Cornell. While a 2-2 record may not seem, at first glance, anything to get excited about, no team in the Ivy's Red Rolfe Division fared better. So while a game against Seton Hall is meaningless in the greater scheme, the fact that the alma mater of big-leaguers Mo Vaughn and Craig Biggio is a legitimate Big East team makes the contest a sort of trial for Yale, though no one acknowledges it.

"My job is to win Ivy League games, but we always play to win," Stuper said.

ALTHOUGH THE BULLDOGS MERELY SPLIT THEIR LEAGUE CONtests last weekend, the positives still outweighed the negatives. Sure, everyone on the club felt that it should have won Saturday's loss to Princeton and that the team failed to capitalize on scoring opportunities, wasting a stellar pitching effort from left-hander Matt McCarthy, TD '02. But in addition to McCarthy, righty Jon Steitz, a heavy-duty prospect, and lefty Craig Breslow, CC '02, provided further evidence that Yale possesses the best pitching rotation in the Ivy League and one to rival that of any scholarship school. Three Bulldogs are in the top 20 in all of Division I in strikeouts per nine innings: Breslow (14.5) is first, Steitz (13.6) third, and McCarthy (11.3) 18th. They are the only Ivy League pitchers in the column.

"I think Breslow, Steitz, and McCarthy are capable of beating any opponent on any given day," Princeton Head Coach Scott Bradley said. The Tigers faced Steitz at his most dominating Saturday: the hard-throwing right-hander hurled a complete game and struck out 14. "Steitz is as talented as anyone in our league and in any league," Bradley said. "He absolutely overmatched us." Breslow, who spent the team's Florida trip recovering from mono, earned Ivy Pitcher of the Week honors when he fanned 16 in eight innings against Cornell, allowing only two runs. In both the sixth and seventh innings, Stuper came out to check on his ace after a couple of walks and miscues had put men on base. Both times, Breslow sent Stupor back to the bench and then proceeded to work himself out of the jam.

"I kept him in because he wanted to stay in," Stuper said. "My number-one criterion is to have the best pitcher available in the game. Craig is a veteran who has been in tight situations."

Still, some coaches might have been more careful than to let such a valuable hurler throw 140 pitches. But like that of most Ivy teams, the inexperienced Eli bullpen has been erratic, giving Stuper few compelling options. Mike Marone, ES '03, and Doug Shimokawa, SM '04, both have

ERAs over 9.00. Mike Boardman, MC '04, has shown promise but thrown fewer than three innings. And Doug Feller, PC '02, a big right-hander and the strongest of the four, is expected to make a serious bid for the fourth spot in the starting rotation but is still recovering from off-season rotator-cuff surgery. Feller came in Sunday, but blew a one-run lead in the ninth before managing to preserve Yale's 6-4 advantage in the 10th.

"I think there's a lot more confidence on the mound this year among the guys," catcher Darren Beasley, BR '03, said. "They know their abilities and what they need to do to get hitters out and keep us in the game." Asermely, who captained the outstanding 1993 squad that set an Ivy league record with 33 wins, is more direct. "Not to insult my old teammates, but [this staff] is better," he said.

THAT '93 CLUB WAS STUPER'S FIRST AT YALE. IT MUST have seemed easy that season, as the Bulldogs returned most of a '92 roster that won the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League title with a 26-10 mark. Eight of the nine regulars from the '93 team went on to sign with major league organizations. In 1994, Yale went 24-19, winning the Ivy League for the second straight year. But that remains the Bulldogs' most recent title; the team fared well from 1995 to '97, but finished below .500 each of the last two seasons. Several players acknowledged that the 2000 squad didn't feel much like a team. "I don't think that everyone on the team last year was on the same page," infielder Luis Costa, CC '01, said. "We just never clicked, and so we lost." For Costa and fellow senior DeSantis, past disappointments loom unpleasantly in the rearview mirror.

"Two years ago, we had a good team, but Tony Coyne [BK '00] and Ben Johnstone [BR'00], who were probably the two best players in the league, were injured for most of the season," DeSantis said. "Last year, though, it just wasn't fun. It was a poor effort, from many of the seniors on down." DeSantis calls the 2001 Ivy League a "last man standing" affair, a statement which seems an incontrovertible fact thus far. And the sense in the Bulldog clubhouse is that Yale can be that last man.

"There is definitely a lot of hunger on this team," Costa said. "This program hasn't won in a long time, and we want to make sure we make steps in the right direction."

Stuper feels that thanks to DeSantis' leadership—lauded all around by the team—and to the full-time presence of Assistant Coaches Asermely and Glen Lungarini, the team's work ethic is greater even than that of the '93 championship club. "This is the hardest-working team I've ever had," he said, "These guys want to get better."

JULIA TIERNAN/YH

As evidence, Stuper points to the improvement of Yale's defense, which has been a serious weakness the past couple of years and more than once hamstrung the Bulldogs in the season's early going. "There's nothing more deflating for your pitchers than getting routine ground balls and not having the guys behind you make the plays," Bradley said. Yale pitchers are no strangers to this feeling. Seven games into the season, Yale had made a whopping 23 errors to its opponents' 13 and had been significantly outscored, despite having a team batting average more than 50 points higher than that of the opposition. Nine games later, they have committed only 11 more miscues—their 34 on the season is now only one more than their rivals have committed. Nevertheless, errors have cost the Bulldogs dearly, to the tune of 31 unearned runs.

Hard work has been contagious on this club and is embodied first and foremost by Stuper, who studied determination under Pete Rose when pitching for the Reds. "There's just a whole attitude change with the Yale team," Bradley said, "which is a huge credit to Coach Stuper and the life Asermely has injected into the program. You can see it in how hard these kids play." Watching the gutsy play of rookie Randy Leonard, PC '04, one sees not just the fruits of labor but the labor itself. For Leonard, every pitch is a battle and every at-bat a war. The Florida native made an immediate impact when he opened his intercollegiate career with an eight-game hitting streak. Although he has thus far shown almost no power (only one extra-base hit in 61 at-bats), his quick bat, good speed, and ability to lay down a bunt have earned him a .328 average, .423 on-base percentage, and a team-leading eight multiple-hit games. At the very least he has been a tough out, and his toil in the box and hustle on the bases are felt up and down the lineup.

"He wears out pitchers," DeSantis said. "If I hit behind him, I'm in better shape after he has an eight-pitch at-bat. He'll score from second on a single or from first on a double. It's one less hit we have to get."

'Last year, it was just a poor effort from many of the seniors on down,' Captain R.D. DeSantis, SY '01, said. 'This year,' he added, 'there are more guys who put baseball first.' DeSantis leads the team in batting average (.441) and on-base percentage (.492). 'R.D. has made a concerted effort to make sure that everyone...is on the same page,' infielder Luis Costa, CC '01, said. 'He has been very vocal about what needs to be done.' DANIEL SILK/YH

WHEN THE BUS FINALLY PULLED INTO SETON HALL'S Owen T. Carroll Field, it was half past three. The sun that shone earlier was now veiled by dull gray clouds. After hastily setting up in the visitors' dugout, the Bulldogs did an abbreviated warm-up. DeSantis, whose strained hamstring kept him and his .441 average out of the lineup, ran a few light sprints in the outfield and chatted with Stuper and Asermely. Power-hitting first baseman Justin Walters, MC '03 was also out of commission with an elbow injury.

Though Owen T. Carroll seats maybe 200 Pirate fans, the ones that attended Tuesday made themselves hea-rd. From the roof of a nearby parking garage, students cheerfully heckled the Elis and their late arrival. "Yale's so smart, they don't know how to tell time!"

When the game finally got under way, Feller showed why he is the top candidate for the fourth spot in the Eli rotation. In his strongest performance of the season, Feller blanked the Pirates for four innings on three hits, walking none while fanning seven. "Feller's arm angle was right where it needed to be," Beasley said. "He was spotting his pitches and his slider was working."

Feller himself felt his flawless outing greatly reduced any lingering concerns about his shoulder. "I was pretty zoned in," he said. "I feel good health-wise, and today I felt good about my control, which I was struggling with earlier this season."

When Feller exited, the Eli bats came to life. Through four, Yale had managed no hits and just two baserunners off Pirate hurler Shawn Tarkington '01. But second baseman Steven Duke, TD '03, led off the fifth with a hard single to right. On a third strike to Keith Reams, MC '02, Duke stole second, putting himself in position to score when Blake Golom, DC '04, looped a two-out single into right field.

After McCarthy shut down Seton Hall one-two-three in the fifth, Leonard doubled the Eli lead almost single-handedly. Leonard walked for the second time, stole second on the first pitch to Beasley. Dancing off of second, Leonard induced Tarkington to toss a wild pitch on the next one. Two batters later, fill-in first baseman Kyle Misenti, BK '04, drove Leonard in with a rip to left-center. Yale 2, Seton Hall 0.

In the bottom of the seventh, though, the crisp baseball Yale had played for six innings took a soggy turn. McCarthy allowed a leadoff walk, only his sixth in 26 innings, and from there, the Pirates and Yale's infield defense made him pay. First, third baseman Golom threw away a sacrifice bunt. Sensing vulnerability, the fans on the roof stepped up their taunting and reached fever pitch when Mike Bascom '02 singled up the middle, plating the lead runner. But a fly-out to center brought the Bulldogs within an out of escaping the inning with a one-run lead.

When McCarthy induced pinch-hitter Kyle Williams '03 to bounce a routine grounder to short, the Eli dugout remained on its feet watching hopefully. But then Mike Hirschfield's, MC '03, throw fell short of first base, and Misenti couldn't handle it. Two all, and a frenzy atop the garage.

The game was only tied, but the tide had turned. Anyone who believes that momentum doesn't exist in baseball has never seen a college team blow a lead on the road. In the bottom of the eighth, a single, hit batsman, and Adam Arslanian's '01 long home run off a 2-2 fastball that McCarthy left out over the plate buried the Bulldogs, 5-2. They managed only a walk over the final two innings.

THE MOOD ON THE BUS RIDE HOME IS SUBDUED. Players chat quietly, listen to Discmans, or go to sleep. Stuper and Asermely call a couple players up front to discuss particulars of that afternoon's defeat. Leonard, who jammed his shoulder sliding into third base, is wearing protective tape around it—he may miss the doubleheader against Columbia on Sat., Apr. 7, but should be in the lineup against Penn on Sun., Apr. 8. There is palpable frustration and disappointment, but one thing clearly absent is despair. Feller, whose brilliant performance was wasted, is evidently pleased enough with the feeling in his arm that the defeat affects him much less. "Games with two or three mental errors have been the story for us so far," he says. Duke echoes the sentiment. "We as fielders have to learn to stay in the game all nine innings. We cannot afford such mental lapses."

But what, then, constitutes a "mental" lapse? No one threw to the wrong base or forgot how many outs there were. Instead, the defense simply failed to execute, and the only advice Stuper can give is to do a better job next time, like the coach who tells his wild pitcher to throw strikes. "It's hard to get inside the mind of each guy," Stuper says. "We just didn't make the plays."

Once Stuper and Asermely have left the bus, DeSantis draws the team around him and reminds them not to forget the first six innings and to turn the page. "We have four pitchers going this weekend that will be better than anyone else's four pitchers," he says. What remains to be seen is whether Yale can keep the wheels on long enough to keep its pitchers going. Photo of Craig Breslow, CC '02, by Julia Tiernan.

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