The Covenant College Scots have welcomed 31 freshman baseball players this fall with a chance to compete for limited varsity positions.
It is the biggest recruiting class in four years, according to the Covenant College Archive, and has pushed the team’s total roster to 61 players. With such a large number, both the freshman and upperclassmen feel the pressure to gain a varsity spot.
“If we were to add all 30 [freshmen], it would be definitely bad,” said sophomore outfielder Kolby Kimberly. “But since we’re doing cuts, I think we’ll narrow it down to guys who can actually help the team.”
Scots head coach Doug Simons said that the team did not recruit any more players than last year, but more of them chose to commit to Covenant.
“The coaches’ goal is to out-recruit last year’s class,” said Simons, who’s entering his seventeenth year as head coach.
Simons expects to make substantial cuts throughout the fall. By spring, the baseball roster could hold around 50 players—ten less than the total roster right now.
Zeke Gilbert. 2023.
Players understand that Simons and Aaron Spragg, the assistant coach, are looking for “game-changers”: players who display the attitude and skill to lead the team to a conference title. As a result, past varsity players could lose their spots to younger, more talented freshmen. With such a large number of freshmen players, positional battles could stretch beyond the starting roles and into the backups as well.
“There’s a lot of guys competing for not only varsity spots, but backup varsity spots,” said Judah O’Neal, a senior varsity pitcher. “There is considerable pressure. I don’t have any particular spot in the pitching rotation nailed down.”
Many positional battles range from four to five guys deep. Players who don’t secure those spots could find themselves on the junior varsity team or off the roster completely.
Despite the pressure, both freshmen and upperclassmen players have held a positive attitude toward the increased competition.
“We’re excited. We wanna get out there and fight for spots,” said freshman pitcher David Lovell. “I think that having some sort of pressure is healthy.”
Because of this added competition, many upperclassmen say the team has turned over a new leaf after a disappointing season last year. The early enthusiasm and relationships demonstrate an improved team cohesiveness.
“The connection in the team is a lot stronger than last year already,” Kimberly noted.
So far, the players’ perspectives on their roles have been positive. The freshmen are excited to compete for spots, whether it is starting a varsity position or even being an important presence in the dugout. Meanwhile, the upperclassmen have accepted that the team’s success is more important than their individual playing time.
“Guys could lose playing time, but won’t necessarily lose a spot in that sense,” said O’Neal. “We are all bought in. It doesn’t matter if you play or not as long as you’re a part of this team that’s trying to win the conference.”
Simons reiterates the same sentiments about the team. He wants to put the best team out on the field to compete for a conference title, and each player’s role is vital to the team’s success.
“We all want that dogpile at the end of the season,” said Simons.
The Scots’ fall season begins this week and lasts until the middle of October, according to the regulations of the Collegiate Conference of the South (CCS). These weeks will be a pivotal time for players to show the coaches that they deserve a spot on the Spring roster.