On the Up and Up for Elon Baseball

First, thanks for reading! And thanks to everyone’s favorite Elon fan, Max Gongaware, for inviting me to be part of this “substack” thing. Send all complaints to Max.

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Through about one month of play, Elon Baseball has been impressive overall this season, after having been picked to finish 7th in the new-look, 11-team CAA.

This year, Elon has had to fill the holes left by the offseason exits of Alex Iadisernia, Brian Edgington and Kyle Greenler, among others. However, new players have stepped up in a big way over the first few weeks.

So far, Elon has:

• Opened the season with a 4-hit shutout against Kentucky at home

• Swept Quinnipiac

• Kept it close with #12 ECU

• Took 2 out of 3 from CAA foe Northeastern to open the CAA schedule

That series W versus Northeastern marked the first time Elon has won its opening CAA series since 2019.

And with one of those wins, Elon Associate Head Coach Robbie Huffstetler reached a huge milestone:

Elon’s got a respectable 9-7 record- pretty good considering they’ve had the #21 toughest schedule in college baseball so far, according to WarrenNolan.com (as of the publication of this article).

As was the case last season, the team’s pitching staff has been the biggest highlight on a consistent basis. Through 16 games, Elon has moved into a tie for the lowest team ERA in the CAA (as of Sunday morning), with a 3.17- allowing 51 earned runs so far on the year. That’s the fewest ER allowed by an Elon pitching staff through 16 games since the 2014 squad allowed just 46 (cue the flame emoji I’d normally use on Twitter).

If you’re wondering about the Kirby/Brnovich era, here’s what those years looked like in terms of ER through 16 games: 2017 - 66, 2018 - 57, 2019 - 59.

Elon also currently leads the CAA in Ks (as of Sunday morning), with 145. William & Mary and NC A&T are not far behind on the Ks list, and they’ve each played one less game than Elon.

Coaches have to be excited that the weekend rotation consists of two freshmen (Ryan Sprock & Justin Mitrovich) and a sophomore (Shea Sprague). And they’re all killing it, too, with ERAs under 3.00. And when he’s not collecting RBIs, Cole Reynolds settles in nicely as the mid-week starter. Mix in relievers like Spencer Bauer, Liam Dabagian, Joe Savino and others and this is a nasty pitching staff. I’d put this staff up against any other in the conference.

At the plate, Elon’s offense has out-hit its opponents overall this season, but must do this more consistently to keep pace with the rest of the CAA. Currently, Elon is 11th out of 11 in AVG (.253) and 11th out of 11 in OBP (.337).

But, the potential is certainly there and a number of guys are getting on base at a much higher rate than last year. As of this post, Elon’s top 7 hitters have all raised their AVG from their 2022 number; the biggest increases coming from Connor Offshack (+.145), Justin Cassella (+.108), Parker Haskin (+.099), Connor Coolahan (+.048) and Reynolds (+.041). Plus, add in the team’s current hits leader, Charlie Granatell, who is hitting nearly .300 again.

Also, Elon is again looking to cut down on fielding errors a bit, as the team is tied for the conference lead. If Elon can keep the hits coming at a consistent pace and they can clean things up a little in the field, this could be a scary team come conference tournament time.

Thanks for reading. Next time, I’ll take a look at how some former Elon players are doing at other schools these days, and those getting ready for their 2023 pro seasons.

#BrebbiaForElonHOF2023