By Skye Tulio
Assistant Sports Editor
In the shadow of the men’s and women’s basketball teams’ seasons to
remember, the baseball team began its 2012 season.
Such monumental Bonaventure moments are definitely memories I will
cherish for the rest of my life.
But as I stood in the Reilly Center parking lot waving to the buses
as they departed en route to the NCAA tournaments, I couldn’t help but
wish the same fate for a baseball team I grew up watching.
While the rest of Bona Nation traveled all over the U.S. to watch the
beginning of history in making, the baseball team returned home from a
week-long spring training trip to sunny Winter Haven, Fla.
The Bonnies fair-weathered their spring campaign, going 5-5, and
prepared to take on Niagara in the first home stand of the season
March 20. Attendance at Fred Handler Park was nothing like in Atlantic
City, Nashville or Raleigh, but students and faculty alike packed the
hill overlooking the field on what turned out to be a perfect day for
baseball.
It’s been eight years since the baseball team brought home its first
Atlantic 10 Championship in 2004 after a 3-2 victory against Rhode
Island. Finishing the season 29-22, one win shy of the school record
for wins in a season, the Bonnies unfortunately didn’t last long in
the NCAA Tournament.
After falling to top-seeded Miami (Fla.), 6-3, June 3, 2004, the
Bonnies ended their postseason run with a 14-2 loss to third-seeded
Florida Atlantic in the Coral Gables Regional the next day.
The Bonnies aren’t even halfway through their season, yet most of the
teams around them are either finishing up or have already ended for
the year. As coach Larry Sudbrook pointed out to me, Bona Nation
will be long gone enjoying summer break when baseball season wraps up.
It’s sad to think the same Bona support so whole-heartedly given to
the basketball teams will not be given to the baseball team as it
completes its season, playoff-bound or not.
So far, the Bonnies are 13-15 overall and 2-7 in the Atlantic 10,
but don’t write them off just yet. There’s still plenty of time in
the season to come out on top. The upcoming series against George
Washington will be key to the Bonnies’ playoff hopes, especially after
being swept by Rhode Island last weekend. The Brown and White have to
win 10 0r 11 of their next 15 games to stay in the hunt for the
postseason, which is definitely possible.
The team, picked to finish 10th in the A-10, ranks 12th in the
conference, with only Temple (1-8) trailing it. The Bonnies are
currently the second-best hitting team in the conference, with a
combined batting average of .297.
Since celebrating the team’s 2004 victory with my aunt, a Bona alum
and long-time baseball supporter, it is definitely on the top of my
Bonaventure bucket list to witness a baseball Atlantic 10 Championship
as a student.
Even though baseball doesn’t draw nearly as many fans as basketball,
that Bona pride still exists, win or lose.
I would love nothing more than to see the Bonnies earn championship
rings for the second time in school history, and I have every faith in
their ability to do so.
tuliosa10@bonaventure.edu
