March 18, 2020

By J.P. Antonacci

Canadian Baseball Network

He hasn’t coached a full Division I season, but Lou Proietti has already experienced one of the toughest parts of the job.

“As a first-year head coach that has to tell (some) seniors that their careers are over, it’s not going to get any worse than that,” said Proietti (Hamilton, Ont.), who runs the baseball program at Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, N.Y.

He was one of many coaches who had to break the news to their players that the NCAA had cancelled all college sports seasons due to the global coronavirus outbreak.

“I had to deal with one of the most difficult conversations you’re going to have – that you can’t play any more,” Proietti said.

Saint Peter’s had been scheduled to play Delaware State on Friday. Both teams’ coaches spoke Thursday morning and agreed to play the game with no fans, but on a conference call that afternoon the NCAA told them their season was over.

“Everything happened pretty quickly,” said Proietti, who rushed to call a team meeting.

“We tried to do everything we could to have it come from us, which was important to me. I didn’t want them to see it online,” he said.

“It hit them hard. There’s no handbook for this. You just tell the kids you support them.”

The news was tough to take but not completely out of the blue, he added, especially after the NBA suspended its season.

“That was a turning point,” Proietti said. “Once that happened, our guys started to understand the magnitude.”

The lone Canadian on the Peacocks roster, pitcher Christian Coombes, headed home to St. Thomas, Ont., while his coach remains in self-isolation in Jersey City.

“Taking it day by day. It’s unprecedented. First you have to take care of the team, but then you have to think about yourself and your family. It’s a lot, obviously, for everyone,” said Proietti, whose relatives in Hamilton are also self-isolating.

“My main concern is my family’s safety. I don’t want to risk exposing them.”

Over the weekend, the NCAA announced that Division I baseball players would be granted an extra year of eligibility. But that doesn’t automatically mean Proietti’s seniors can afford to delay their careers in order to play ball.

“It’s a tough situation. Guys have to weigh their options,” he said.

In the short term, Proietti hopes society at large adopts the selflessness inherent to team sports in order to limit the spread of the virus.

“When you’re part of a team, you understand that there are roles that are bigger than yourself,” he said. “When you see people out, you think maybe they haven’t been on a team before.”

REASONS FOR HOPE

It had been a challenging year on the field for the Peacocks before the shutdown, but Proietti saw reasons for optimism behind his club’s 1-15 record.

“We were headed in a positive direction,” he said. “The real big thing this year was a drastic change in their level of expectations and standards. I think our guys, for the most part, were starting to thrive on that.”

The coaching staff focused on speeding up the pace during practice, leading harder drills that demanded quicker footwork and more explosive bat speed so the Peacocks could compete at the Division I level.

“It’s a big jump from high school to Division I,” Proietti said. “You’re seeing guys at such a high skill level that if you’re not preparing at game speed, you’re not going to be able to compete.”

The truncated result was a mix of blowout losses and close games that reflects the Peacocks’ biggest problem – inconsistency. When they had good at-bats, ran the bases well, picked off opposing baserunners and didn’t give away outs on defence, they had a fighting chance. When they didn’t, it made for some long afternoons.

“Those games took years off my life,” Proietti said of double-digit losses like the game that ended up being the season finale, a 21-1 loss to St. John’s on March 10.

“We’re not going to just go up there and mash and then bring in a power arm to shut them down. We had to play a clean 27 outs,” the coach added. “We weren’t necessarily equipped to handle and overcome mistakes.”

The team’s best day was a 6-4 comeback win against Rutgers on March 4.

After dropping the first 11 games of the season and going down 3-0 in the second, the Peacocks stormed back to take the lead in the top of the third, adding a pair of insurance runs in the sixth.

“It was that whole complete game,” Proietti said. “We gave them a three-run lead, and then offensively we did a good job of putting up a four-spot on five straight hits.”

Sidewinder Ian Concevitch came out of the bullpen and blanked Rutgers over seven innings to preserve the victory.

“He just shut them down,” Proietti said. “Our defence made all the plays and we didn’t give them any extra outs. And we were able to extend our lead.”

Proietti savoured the first win of his Division I coaching career, a milestone made all the more special since it was Saint Peter’s first win against a Power Five conference opponent in program history. Congratulations came in from school officials and proud Peacocks baseball alumni.

“It was great to see, and it was great for our guys to experience it so they can see firsthand what commitment and sacrifice can achieve,” Proietti said.

That victory, and the close losses, validated an approach his players sometimes found frustrating, Proietti explained. They were all-stars when hitting off the tee or against a batting practice pitcher, but it was another story after he cranked up the velocity on the pitching machine.

“I had to teach the guys to enjoy hitting off the machine,” he said.

Swings and misses eventually turned into hits as players learned to catch up to a 93 mph fastball, boosting their confidence with every swing.

With their season cut short, Proietti will have to hope that his team can build on this transitional year once baseball starts up again.

“One thing I learned this year is winning at the Division I level is very difficult,” he said. “You have to go out and earn every one.”