by Justin Ruano ’15, Staff Writer
When you think of some of the best teams in sports it’s usually the case for a team to have an x-factor player or a few players on the roster to really watch out for. But that is not the case when it comes to the Merrimack baseball team, as this team has the mentality of a team atmosphere more than anything.
“We do not necessarily have an X factor player,” said fourth-year coach Jim Martin. “We really try to have a team mentality. From coaches to players, whatever your role is for the day or game we expect us to execute it. We don’t have one or two guys to look for. We may have great individual accomplishments during a game or week, but what matters to us is winning. We talk about doing what it takes to win and if we win individual accomplishments will come.”
This philosophy so to speak has really helped this team do well this season going an impressive 12-7 on the year with 23 games left to go, all of which will be going up against division and conference opponents. Fortunately for them, the team has done really well this year in conference play by going 6-2 on the year so far. They will be looking to keep up this great play by having a “headlight” approach and keeping everything in front of them for the rest of these 23 games remaining.
“The Northeast-10 is such a difficult conference and has so much depth. We have so many great coaches who work really hard and so many great players,” Martin said. “We just need to have a headlight approach and worry about what is in front of us and worry about what we can see. Continue to learn from our mistakes, play hard with great energy all the time no matter who we our opponent is.”
Having a team mentality and keeping everything in front of them has led them well this year. But if you are wondering what makes this team special you won’t have to wait any further to find out why.
“I think our family atmosphere is really special. It is now my fourth year so most of the players either went through the recruiting process with me or have been with me for four years. Me and my wife have dinners at the beginning of each semester at our apartment complex, we do many hours of community service including 5k for Haiti on Homecoming, the Mack Gives Back program in fall, a breast cancer walk in Boston (Martin and the baseball team won the community service award last year in the athletic department), team dinners at Fuddruckers/Panera bread, we have done team movie night,” said Martin.
“We have a great relationship with Father Jim Wenzel who is our team chaplain. So I would say the overall team camaraderie and relationships on and off the field contributes to our winning program.”
