Office of Sports Information note: This is first installment of a series of NJCU baseball blogs by freshman first baseman/outfielder
JOE STEINBERGER (San Diego, CA/San Diego). The West Coast-native is also a sports writer for
“The Gothic Times” student newspaper.
“Allow me to introduce myself, my name is JOE STEINBERGER and I am a freshman baseball player from San Diego, California. Yes I did come to NJCU from San Diego, yes the weather is perfect, and no I have rarely seen snow. So for the rest of the year I'll have a blog up every week talking about moving cross country and the general state of the baseball team. In addition to this blog, I am a writer for the NJCU Gothic Times, so if you want to check out some of my other writing you can read the articles I write for each issue.
It's been about a month since I returned to New Jersey and things are starting to get exciting. First semester was a little rougher than expected, with the move from one coast to another. Not to mention that baseball season starts in spring, so I had a whole semester to get used to college life, while also checking out Jersey City. It's been an interesting experience so far. I'm not used to wearing big winter coats, walking through snow and practicing baseball in a gym. The latter part was what really messed me up. Practicing baseball—baseball—in a basketball gym! What is going on? Eventually though, I did get used to catching groundballs on the sideline and fielding bunts at the free throw line, but that doesn't mean that practicing outside isn't one thousand times better.
As for the team, we are looking pretty good. We might not have the most depth at every position but the people we have in there are all solid. The key to our success this year, and pretty much every other team, will be the pitching staff. We have a fairly young pitching staff, which includes several freshmen, so there will be a bit of a learning curve in the beginning. As for our hitting, everyone, 1-9 in the line up can hit. The question is going to be whether or not we can do the little things that teams need to do to win ball games; things such as bunting, moving the runner over, taking the extra bag when it's available, and of course not making mental mistakes.
This is going to be a really fun season. Coach Alvarez has the team heading in the right direction. Look for the baseball team to make some noise this year, and for years to come."
