Pilots Baseball Home Opener

pilotgang wrote:But no athlete will choose a school based on having "better" facilities.

I will partially agree that I think coaching is very important, and likely the most important factor... but what is your background/data/research to support such a definitive statement?

As DD mentioned, I am sure the Administration would love to hear your thoughts about whichever programs you feel are under-funded, and would like having interested parties involved.

In a recent MBX radio broadcast interview, Scott Leykam referred to an upcoming broad based fund raising campaign for all Pilot athletic programs... so you may want to raise your hand sooner rather than later.

Thought I'd head over to Etzel Field tomorrow after the Alumni Awards to watch the Pilots take on the Huskies with 3 of my UW graduate buddies.....

Turns out the game has been postponed because UW realized their players "have to take final exams."  

Three different reactions from my UW buddies:

1. Seriously, our athletes started taking exams?
2. You sure it's not just a pop-quiz....aren't finals usually scheduled in advance?
3. Probably just as well, now we can all just go to the T-Room for St. Patrick's Day.

I had vowed to NOT write about baseball until the Pilots won two in a row, but after a dismal start to their season, the boys made me break that vow by beating the Ducks last evening in Eugene.

In the few innings of play I've seen this year there really hasn't been anything to shout about, and the team is 1-5 in WCC play, the only win coming at SMC over a week ago.

Probably a pretty happy bunch on the bus ride home last night, but now reality will set in again as the Pilots fly to Utah today for a 3-game series with BYU starting tomorrow.....all the game will be on BYUtv.

It's baseball. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. This win is overshadowed by a 6-24 record with losing streaks of 5 and 8 games.

Watched a couple of very good ballgames over the last two evenings as BYU and UP squared off on BYUtv.   The Cougars won on Friday and the Pilots prevailed this evening.....

But the story was how hard the Pilots play.  They ran and dove and almost literally ran through a wall on both nights.  This team may only have two WCC wins so far this year, but it hasn't dampened their determination and willingness to "leave it all on the field," I believe the cliché goes.

Last night the Pilots had excellent starting pitching, but the batters were hitting line drives right at the fielders and UP lost, 3-1.  Tonight it was a different story.....still good pitching, but the line drives were going past the outfielders for doubles.  In the bottom of the 9th tonight the Cougars had the bases loaded with no outs, but the Pilots pitching held them to one run and UP won 6-3.

A fun team to watch, the guys really looked good in their black and purple jerseys with the new Pilots logo.  They made me want to come out to Joe Etzel field on Tuesday for their game against Oregon at 3pm.

Well, I think by any standard the 2015 season was VERY disappointing in terms of wins/losses.

The Pilots won back-to-back games in Stockton on Saturday and Sunday to end the season with a record of 12-42, finishing in last place in the WCC with a record of 7-20.

I honestly know so little about the program that I can't begin to answer the question, "What is wrong with Pilots baseball," but I'm hoping AD Scott Leykam has some idea what is needed to bring a first class team to what will soon be a first class field that will include lighting for night baseball.

As a high school baseball player and long time fast-pitch softball player, I always regarded baseball to be a team game, but played individually.  Unlike soccer, basketball, volleyball, or even rowing, I've always thought of baseball as strictly an individual skill game that simply required good coaching to better develop those skills and make the tactical decisions needed to win close games.....including closely managing the pitching staff.

Every UP baseball player I've spoken with this season has enjoyed the UP experience and the camaraderie and effort of their teammates.  So without knowing any of the particulars of the program, it's difficult for me to say if there's a need for a change at the top, but with the team seemingly sliding deeper into the abyss of mediocrity, it would appear something big is needed to get this program back to a level of competitiveness.

Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.  You need skilled players who can hit, throw and catch.

up7587 wrote:Recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.  You need skilled players who can hit, throw and catch.

Nice idea. Is the program fully funded yet?

Tough to recruit with no money to offer.

Good question on being fully funded. DOes anyone know? If not, I would hope that funding for scholarships and coaches is being included in the current baseball fund rasiing!

What do you mean by fully funded? If you're referring to scholarship numbers, baseball is limited, but I'm mostly sure that's due to NCAA regs. NCAA has very strict limits on the number of baseball scholarships. Baseball is more restrictive than other sports too -- to include limiting the number of people that any team can have on scholarship. As I remember, it's limited to something like 11-12 scholarships allowed per team (which are divided among the players). Minimum scholarship is 25% and only a certain number of players on the Roster can be on scholarship (I think it's something like 27 or 28). So, by rule, there is always a number of non-scholarship players on the team. There are other ways for "walk on's" to get funding, I believe including Academic money and other sources (e.g. GI Bill if their parents are military or retired military).

The NCAA sets the limit, but the school does not need to provide that many scholarships.  For example, if the limit was 12 scholarships, a school may decide to only provide 9.  This is tricky in that there needs to be balance in both men's & women's sports...  so in this example, if the U decided to add 3 schollies to get up to 12, they would probably need to add 3 to a women's sport, as well, to keep balance.

Good answers from both kopas and Nut.....

The NCAA limit is 11.7.....yes, that does seem a strange number.  If UP is not fully funded, i.e., using all 11.7 scholarships, it is very, very close.

As kopas said, there are a number of endowed scholarships that can get the team up to the full level, and academic success is a big part of that.

For the equivalency sports like baseball, soccer, and men’s tennis you can stretch the budget by bundling academic and need based money with an athletic scholarship, and if a player comes to UP with a 3.5 GPA or above his academic money does not count against the team limits.

So, for ease of calculation say the a full grant in aid is $50K.  And say a student athlete comes to UP with a 3.5 and gets a $20K athletic scholarship and a $20K academic scholarship....those two scholarships cover 80% of the grant, but because the student entered with a GPA above 3.5, only $20K or 40% counts against one of the 11.7 scholarships allowed by the NCAA.

There are of course other formulas and academic achievement levels, but the point is there are a number of ways to keep a program fully funded by using "other" money that does not count against the 11.7 scholarships.

At UP there are usually close to 35 players on the roster and there are only 11.7 scholarships.  As they say, "you do the math."  There have to be very creative ways to fund scholarships but not exceed the 11.7 NCAA mandate.   

So it’s not only important to recruit good athletes, it also important to recruit kids with strong academic credentials.