Baseball Head Coach Marek Drabinski knows exactly why his team did not win the Ivy League title last season.
"Without question, it was our pitching," Drabinski said. The loss of Mark Gormley '11 to ulner collateral ligament reconstruction, or Tommy John surgery, before the conference season started and subsequent injuries to Connor Burke '11 and Josh Feit '11 forced the Bears to "put a lot of young guys in there, and they basically had to learn on the job," Drabinski said.
"I don't know if we did it on smoke and mirrors in the first half of the conference," he said of the team's 8-2 stretch against Ivy League teams to start the 2010 season.
But the Bears' first-half success was mirrored by second-half failures, and the team finished 10-10 in conference play after going 2-8 in its last 10 Ivy games.
Drabinski acknowledged that small ballparks give hitters an advantage and make the Ivy League tough for pitchers, but he did not blame park size for his team's struggles. "Good pitching is always going to beat good hitting," he said.
The Bears' pitching staff looks stronger this year, with a healthy closer in Feit and fully recovered starters Gormley and Burke joining Matthew Kimball '11, Kevin Carlow '13 and Lucas Whitehill '14 in the rotation.
"I think we're going to be much better on the mound," Drabinski said.
Even if injuries strike again, Drabinski thinks this year's team will be better equipped to handle them than last year's. With 15 pitchers on the roster — including "six or seven guys that are legitimate starters" — the team has more depth than last year, he said.
Drabinski said he is optimistic about the Bears' offense because of their core of strong veteran hitters.
Co-captain and catcher Matt Colantonio '11 will be "a huge offensive spark for us," Drabinski said.
He said he also hopes first baseman Peter Greskoff '11 — who set a school record and led the Ivy League with 17 home runs last year — will provide power on offense for the team again.
The team is also expecting big contributions from its first-years. Whitehill is on track to begin the season as a conference starter and could be "a huge impact guy," Drabinski said. "He's got the makings of a good one."
Of this year's rookies, Whitehill and catcher and outfielder Wes Van Boom '14 "probably have the biggest upside for us" this season, Drabinski said, with outfielders Daniel Massey '14 and Matt DeRenzi '14 behind them.
Though Drabinski said he is not concerned about replacing the players who graduated in 2010, he added that the team would miss Will Weidig '10, who went 3-5 with a 7.76 ERA last year.
With a healthy pitching staff and a strong first-year class, co-captain and shortstop Graham Tyler '12 said he has "high expectations" for the Bears in 2011. "We look good on paper," he said, but cautioned that the team's success will depend on "how well we can come together and play as a team."
"I've got high hopes just as they do," Drabinski said.
But it will not be easy — in his years at Brown, Drabinski said he has never seen the Ivy League as evenly matched as it looks to be this season. "Anybody can win it this year," he said. "There isn't a team that you …look and say, ‘Wow, that's an easy weekend.'"
Still, "We have a shot to win our league," Drabinski said. "I would be extremely disappointed if we're not contending for the Ivy title all season long."
