Frank Salas takes a swing during batting practice Friday.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Batting practice at Canyon View Park on Friday afternoon was about as close to a media circus as most of the Cochise College baseball team has ever experienced.
Three local TV news reporters were on the field, toting cameras and microphones and occasionally pulling players and coaches over for interviews. Players, too, carried cameras. Pitcher Kenton Schroter, nursing an arm injury, stuck a small camcorder in many of his teammates’ faces and third baseman Stephan Desgagne had a Go Pro strapped to his ball cap while he fielded balls in the infield and took a few swings at the plate.
“That’s not indicative of how we do batting practice,” said head coach Todd Inglehart. “But it’s almost June. It’s just about getting loose and getting out there. Today was run around, get your hacks in, get the blood flowing. If you’re trying to change things in practice in late May, you’ve got issues.”
The Apaches did have to make one notable adjustment, not too long ago, after winning the Region I title on May 11: a switch to metal bats. The Arizona Community College Athletic Conference is a wooden-bat league, one of only three in the NJCAA. Metal bats would be the norm for the rest of the postseason, though, so the Monday following the region title win, Inglehart had metal bats ready at practice.
The Apaches weren’t keen on them at first.
“They hated them, basically because it’s different,” Inglehart said. “The biggest difference is that you can swing a 33-inch, 30-ounce wow bat, and it’s going to be top heavy and tough to swing. A metal bat is evenly balanced, so our guys were getting it through the strike zone too fast, not squaring up. And they didn’t like the sound.”
Once they got used to it, though, it wasn’t so bad. Tagg Duce, one of the Apaches’ leading hitters, used a metal bat at Grand Canyon University his freshman year before transferring to Cochise this season. He said neither transition — from metal to wood and vice versa — was too difficult to adjust to.
“I like the metal bat, but I think wood bats help you become a better hitter,” he said. “Hitting with a metal bat is easier. It’s a little lighter. With a wood bat, you have to square it up, hit the sweet spot every time. With a metal bat, you can hit it and be jammed a little bit or hit it off the end of the bat and it’ll still have some pop.”
Cochise is not a “hitting team” in terms of power (the team has a total of 11 home runs this season), but the Apaches’ reliable pitching and defense is complemented by a patient offense. Across teams in the NJCAA, Cochise ranks third in walks and first in total number of at-bats this season.
“We’re probably going to get outhit, but we’re going to get on base,” Inglehart said. “That’s the type of team we have. We’re patient offensively. We have some freshmen who aren’t so patient, but our sophomores are patient. They get themselves on. This isn’t the best offensive team, most physical offensive team, but it’s the toughest team to get out.”