NOTEBOOK: Weekend Preview
9/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Entering his 20th season at the helm of the University of Pittsburgh baseball team, head coach Joe Jordano is the winningest coach in program history. Hear the skipper chat about what he’s expecting from the upcoming weekend of scrimmages…
On what the team has been focusing on in practice this week…
“This week we tried to expand and get a little more detailed in every aspect of the game. As I explained to my staff last week, our objective in the fall is to teach team concepts. From our defensive coverages, infield depths, tandem relays, popup responsibilities, bunt coverages, double-steal coverages, base running, things like that, each week we try and pile and teach another piece to that puzzle. So, this week was just an expansion of last week and everything that we go over, we expect to see applied in the next game. Last weakened was very basic, now we’re going to start mandating a few more things to make sure that they happen in-game, which is going to make it more complex. They have to think more. For instance, if we say to a catcher ‘we want six back picks in the course of the next six innings,’ he has to work those in. Or, if we tell a pitcher ‘we want you to really focus on controlling the running game and we want you to do some daylight picks at second base,’ he has to work those in. It’s a little more bunt-and-run, run-and-hits, again, layering each aspect of the program and adding more responsibility moving forward. We introduced a lot last week and we’ve done a lot more this week, and that will just continue throughout the course of the fall segment.”
On what he is expecting from the team in this weekend’s scrimmages…
“Everything that we’ve covered to this point, our theme is that we have to be a very efficient team. We have to make routine plays, we have to minimize opponents’ opportunities outside of what the game already gives them, we want to pound the zone and we want to play clean defensively. So, we want to see all of those core principles that we talk about every day, executed each week to a higher level. We need to continue to minimize mistakes, whether the fan can see them or if it is something that we can see, we want to continue to elevate that mental, and obviously physical execution, of what we’re doing.”
On who he is looking forward to seeing standout this weekend…
“I’m looking forward to seeing the group of freshmen this weekend, to see their step going from week one to week two. I’m really anxious to see what type of progress they are making.”
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