NORFOLK, Va. — "People are thinking that you're going to be pretty good but, like my dad used to say, 'That and a quarter will get you a Sunday paper, maybe.'" That's how ODU baseball coach Chris Finwood puts it when asked about his 2022 team being ranked #24 by Baseball America.
Matt Coutney says the message about the rankings gets passed along to the players, "Coach Finwood says all the time, 'they're pretty cool but we haven't done anything yet.'"
In 2021, the Monarchs finished a season in the top 25 in the final rankings for the first time since 1985. They managed a 44-16 record, claimed a #1 seed in NCAA Region play and won their first two games in the regionals.
Pitcher Tommy Gertner thinks there is some carry over from last season to this, "After last year's season we came in a little hungrier this time." Finwood adds this, "The returning players certainly know that they're capable of playing at a high level."
Three pitchers and one position players from last year's team got selected in the MLB Draft. However, there is plenty of talent coming back. Finwood says, "It's a veteran team. It's got guys who have been through every situation you can imagine in college baseball."
So how good is this year's group going to be. We put that question to head coach Finwood who says, "People always ask you how you're going to be and I just say the same thing, 'I don't know because I don't know how good everybody else is.'"