Twenty-five games into the 54-game season, the Elon University baseball team is in the sludge of the schedule, grinding out games against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents and playing tough extra-inning matchups against Southern Conference foes.
Approximately halfway through the season, junior outfielder Niko Fraser said his team could go either way.
“I think that we have the potential to be extremely good, but we have the potential to be extremely average,” he said. “It depends on how well we buy into executing the very small things that seem unimportant and probably aren’t as showy on the stat book, so moving people over, taking a pitch, taking a walk, seeing the ball in the dirt.”
One small ball area in which Elon has been struggling is fielding. The Phoenix is second in the SoCon in errors with 43, seven less than league leader Wofford College.
“Errors have definitely been a little bit of a tainting of our clean play,” Fraser said. “It always is. You can never be a great ball-club and have a lot of errors. So we’re definitely trying to smooth that up. No one’s ever trying to make errors. If we’re ever going to win another Southern Conference championship in this league, we’re going to have to smooth that out all the way around the diamond, every position included.”
Over spring break, the Phoenix dropped five of eight, including four straight, two each to Davidson College and Clemson University. But they rebounded with a series victory by taking two of three games from Appalachian State University, which is in second place in the SoCon.
Fraser said the key to those wins was a focus on playing a complete game.
“We focused, whereas before we may have lost focus unintentionally, but we really bared down and did the little things right,” he said. “Some of us were talking and saying that they were the most complete games that we had played as far as getting on, whether that being hit by a pitch or a walk, or reaching on an error then moving him over, getting him over, getting him in.”
As a theme for Elon baseball, playing the small ball is crucial, especially as they tackle the rest of the schedule, beginning March 30 against Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
“You can’t take any days off, regardless of who we’re playing, whether it be an eight-seed or a top team in the nation, it’s the same game,” Fraser said. “You have to play your game, you have to play a complete game. I think that our extra inning games really show the necessity of playing a complete-game mentality because if you just show up for certain innings, as coach Kennedy always says, you never know which run is going to beat you.”