Is it baseballâs new beginning, or is it another spring?

By Kyle Ringo
The Metropolitan

Thirsting for the taste of that first beer as you slide into a sun-warmed seat? Canât wait to take a bite out of a ballpark hot dog? Want to hear the fans roar at the crack of the bat?

Well, you will have to wait for the Colorado Rockies.

But, to a lesser extent, some of your mid-summer dreams can be fulfilled beginning Feb. 13 at Auraria Field at 2 p.m.

It will be opening day for the Metro baseball team. This season the team feels it has something to prove.

Everyone knows that with the birth of a new baseball season comes eternal optimism, and nothing is different at Metro.

For years now, the Roadrunners have predicted solid seasons in the dead of winter. And, for at least five years, since coach Vince Porreco took over as leader of the program, the Roadrunners have floundered.

So what will make this year and this team different?

ãEven though we have a lot of different faces, we are probably a lot closer as a team than we ever were last year,ä Porreco said.

ãThese guys have one goal, and that is to go out on the field every day and practice and be a winner.ä

Porreco said he thinks the 1998 Roadrunnersâ desire is the teamâs best asset. It is a group that wants to do well for each other and the program. And that attitude by itself should make Metro a better team than it has been in recent years.

Last season, the team spent the season chasing perennial powerhouses Fort Hays State, Mesa State and Southern Colorado. This season, the team plans to be in the thick of things all year.

Itâs because of the aforementioned attitude adjustment and a host of new recruits that players who have been around for several years feel they finally have a chance to be a part of a winner. It isnât just because itâs spring, they insist.

The new blood consists of a mix of junior college transfers and a few players plucked straight out of high school.

Leo Torres, a junior left-handed pitcher who transferred from Yavapai Junior College in Ariz., will be the starting pitcher opening day, Porreco said.

Torres combined with  fellow transfers Kevin Watson (right-handed) and Ariel Garibay (right-handed) and the bulk of last seasonâs starters should make this seasonâs pitching staff the most formidable in Porrecoâs tenure as coach.

Returning starters are: right-handed senior T.J. McAvoy, left-handed senior Geoff Abbey, and right-handed junior Bill Ryan.

ãIt always comes down to (pitching),ä Porreco said. ãWe have six guys who can start a game and give us a chance to win.ä

Perhaps the best judge of any pitching improvement is senior catcher Pat Maxwell.

Maxwell is entering his fifth season as part of the Metro program. He is Roadrunner baseball.

Maxwell has been excited in past springs and is well acquainted with the disappointment associated with failed predictions, but even he says this year is different.

ãPitching wise, it looks real good,ä Maxwell said. ãI mean, Iâve been here five years, and this is the first time the pitchers have come in and known what they were doing.ä

Maxwellâs experience behind the plate calling games and his powerful bat might be enough to keep Metro in games regardless.

The catcher led the team last season with a .344 batting average, for players with more than 100 at bats. He also led the team with 11 home runs and 40 RBI.

But offense has never been Metroâs problem.

Defense has.

Last season the team committed 108 errors in 49 games, which led Metro to a 20-29 record.

Transfers Jimmy Johnson (centerfield) and Cory Linteo (shortstop) hope to change Metroâs penchant for the miscue.

Linteo has caught his teammates by surprise with some startling defensive play in fall and pre-season practices, while Johnson rarely misplays a ball, Porreco says.

ãI think we have really excited some people,ä Johnson said.

ãThe players realize the coaches are trying to get some players.ä
 

Those players and a new attitude have the Roadrunners setting lofty goals.

Winning the RMAC championship might seem unrealistic to those familiar with Metro baseball, but the players, at least, are convinced it can be done.

Metro will have to overcome ranked conference teams in Fort Hays (No. 10) and Southern Colorado (No. 14) along with Mesa State, which spent last season in the nationâs top 25.

The Roadrunners might have a better shot at turning things around and conquering the conference with injured outfielder Tim Carlson.

But Carlson ÷ called the teamâs best hitter by Porreco ÷ is still recovering from a wrist injury suffered last season on a check-swing. He is scheduled to have surgery Feb. 17 and will miss the season.