Hits keep coming

The Spiders sailed through April as one of the NCAA’s hottest-hitting teams. As of April 18, their team batting average sat at .325, sixth-best in the NCAA D-I. Their success was broad-based. Only one Spider ranked in the individual top 250 — junior DH Kurtis Brown, whose .409 average ranked 28th — but nine of his teammates were also hitting above .300.

“Our younger guys are hitting, and a lot of our older guys are, too,” said third-year head coach Tracy Woodson, a World Series winner with the Dodgers. “A lot of times it’s contagious. When one guy hits, everybody does.”

A contributing factor is the team’s weeklong December trip to Cuba, where it played four exhibition games against Cuban teams, Woodson said.

“I think the trip definitely helped by giving us a start facing live pitching,” he said. “We played games down there and fortunately had good weather here when we got back” for outdoor practices.

The team’s mid-April won-loss record, 19-15, lagged its offensive output. Woodson chalked it up to the difference between hitting and timely hitting. “We’re not scoring when we’re pitching well,” he said, pointing to a recent 1-0 loss at Fordham. They were poised for a late-season surge if the hitting and pitching started to sync.