Going into this past spring, after coming out of 12 years working in professional baseball, I really had no frame of reference to know exactly how good we were going to be as a team. We had talent, but so do a lot of schools across the country. We had a roster that had experience in some spots and a lack thereof in others, no different from most programs. So when Opening Day rolled around on February 16, we were anxious to see what we truly had as a club.
A three-game series sweep over NJIT got us off and running. Then a midweek, one-run loss to Central Florida proved to be only a speed bump prior to taking two out of three over Long Island the following weekend. We would drop a game the next Wednesday before what would be our toughest test to that point of the early season: three games against Florida, which was ranked fourth in the country at the time. Even though we only won one game over the Gators, we were in all three and left that series with the belief that we could play with anyone. That self-belief is a big part of actually being able to play with anyone, so while we didn’t get the series win like we wanted, this was a step in the right direction of where we wanted to go.
Conference play began the following weekend. Highlighted by one of the greatest comebacks I’ve ever been a part of—erasing a 12-3 deficit in the seventh inning—we would take two of three from top-15 ranked Virginia. Next up was North Carolina. A thrilling walk-off and a 10-run rule win highlighted another top-15 series win over the Tar Heels. While we were playing far from perfect, our confidence continued to grow.
Then came the reality of the ACC: a fight every night. After dropping a series on the road against Notre Dame, top-five Clemson came to town and took two of three. Then a sweep at the hands of Duke. We had a stretch where five of six conference losses were by one run—including four in a row. We weren’t playing poorly, we just weren’t finishing off games.
As we looked across the way against the competition whose records were better than ours, we realized that there wasn’t this huge talent gap between us, but rather the consistent ability to play clean baseball. These teams that only had a handful of losses all year long didn’t have future first rounders up and down their lineup; they simply executed the fundamentals of the game and did that day in and day out.
When there was an opportunity to move a runner, these teams moved runners. When there was a chance to score a runner from third with less than two outs, they found a way to get that run across. They made the routine plays defensively. They threw the ball to the correct base. They didn’t run into bad outs on the bases. Pitchers attacked the zone. They got strikeouts when needed and minimized damage when facing a potential crooked-number rally. In a way, they were boring, but there is beauty in playing that kind of “boring” baseball.
Turn on the TV or scroll through social media, and any baseball highlights you see are usually far from boring. It’s a remarkable diving play on defense. A 450-foot home run. A 103 MPH fastball to strike someone out. The clips are of the plays that get clicks, highlights that are unique and don’t necessarily happen every day. But if you don’t take care of the routine and mundane that does happen every day, those highlights become less significant.
The ability to consistently execute the game’s fundamentals is both an individual and a team skill. The way you practice those fundamentals is how you build the consistency to successfully execute them when the lights go on. When you master the “boring” of baseball, you will also get really good at shaking hands at the end of the game.
And therein lies the beauty of being boring.