49ER BASEBALL- A WAY OF LIFE

Recruiting

They are attracting local talent now, and it will be good for the program to have some local young men to boost the fan base which will also help the program in other ways! I think they are heading in the right direction and changing conferences is going to make them more competitive.

 

i think thats the focus in softball as well.............

 

does P. Russ play softball?

 

I stand corrected. They have done a good job in recruiting 2 major local prospects, Dan Woodall and Chris Taylor. Plus, they are much more aggressive this year than ever before in showing interest in the Charlotte area (particularly North Charlotte).

However, there are some strong rumblings that Loren Hibbs job is in jeopardy (4 losing seasons in a row) and many prospects are concerned about that. The quality of play in the Atlantic 10 is poor and wait til you get a look at some of the fields they will have to play on (there are HS fields that are much better).....and team chemistry this past year was non-existent.

With the signing of the two players mentioned is a good start.... UNCC has talent, but the program needs a jolt!

 

They really missed the boat in not recruiting Zach Ward from Kannapolis a few years ago.He wanted to go to Charlotte,but the coaching staff was not interested in him.Big Mistake!!

Ward is currently tearing up the Cape Cod wooden bat league.He will begin his junior year at Gardner Webb in August,before going pro next year.He should be a high draft pick.

The 6'4" righthander has been clocked at 97-98 mph.If he stays healthy you will see him in the majors one day.

 

local kids would rather go to an ACC school and never play, which is stupid. 5-10 years ago that was not true. 2 pitchers from UNCC have made Major League starts this year- John Maine, Jason Stanford, so if you have talent you can go to the next level. There are some fractured relationships with area coaches and the program and its only hurting the local kids.

 

I see alot of BS in this whole thread on Charlotte Baseball, so let me interject some hard cold facts:

CUSA is about the 4th best conference in the country for baseball behind the ACC, SEC, and Big 12.

5 teams were in the top 25 nearly the entire past year (Tulane, USM, ECU, UH, and USF.

UNCC had the second lowest baseball budget in CUSA to St Louis....in other words, you CANNOT compete with the rest of your league (in the top 25) when your budget is in the toilet. (see one of my 50 million Judy Rose rants). You get freakin slaughtered people! Served up. Fead to the lions. Feel free to see any of thier facilities on the web.

Also, the facility at Charlotte sucks. The playing surface is state of the art/major league, but the stadium is pathetic. The administration has chosen a state of the art hoops/volleball facility and track, and the baseball stadium is dead last in line (although there are plans now to build a new stadium in the existing place). Hell, the freaking team has to take BP on rainy days at the National Guard!!!! They don't even have an indoor batting/pitching area. The new stadium will cost around 2 million dollars and I think it will happen within the next 3 years.

so everyone bitching about Loren Hibbs has no right until he is given at least "ADEQUATE" facilities from the administration.

I do suspect Charlotte will dominate the A10 with Richmond because we will be the most southern school, and most of those other teams are horrid.

 

Joe Torre couldn't win in CUSA with Charlotte's facility. No facility=no players. When Loren Hibbs is given a reasonable facility and fails to win, then his job will be in jeopardy.

 

Hey, don't go bustin on that track...

No doubt though, stadium definitely needs a big budget boost. Metro, why don't you organize a fund-raiser to get it where it needs to go? You can get your donations ear-marked, I believe. I'll let some of my track $$$ slide your way.

 

I am not bustin the track. Its beautiful and was needed for track and soccer. We also badly needed Halton. I am just saying that it's depressing for the entire baseball family to look around the entire new shiny campus with every facility getting updated EXCEPT the baseball stadium. Finally the chancellor and Judy have approved some fundraising to take place, but it will be tough at $100 a lick. Someone is going to have to drop 500k to get them serious.