By Louis Galdos
Elm Staff Writer
Following their alumni game on Saturday, Oct. 8, the Washington College baseball team traveled to Annapolis the next day, to take on the Naval Academy in a
two-game scrimmage, where head coach Matt Reynolds returned to his former team that he had coached for in the past. Coach Reynolds spent seven years as an assistant coach under head coach Kostacopoulos at the United States Naval Academy. As an assistant coach, he served as the hitting Coach, third base coach, and the infield/outfield defensive coach. He was also the recruiter, the travel coordinator and the director of the Navy Baseball camp. Coach Reynolds explained how it felt to return to Navy.
“It felt great to come back to Navy. I have been able to maintain a great relationship with Coach Kostacopoulos over at Navy. He has been a big part of my coaching career, and I played for him for two years when he was the Head Coach at University of Maine,” Reynolds said. “10 years ago he gave me my first big break as a coach when he asked me to coach at Navy for seven years and it was a wonderful experience. I have a tremendous amount of respect for what the Midshipmen do and what the United States Naval Academy stands for in general, and so it was a big honor for our team to scrimmage Navy.”
The scrimmage against Navy was a nice homecoming for Reynolds because coach Kostacopoulos is still the head coach, and some of the players that coach Reynolds helped recruit are still playing at Navy. For the, team the scrimmage overall was successful as it helped the coaches see where the players are when it comes to performing at game speed. The speed was faster for the team, but they adjusted very well.
For the baseball team’s fall season, it is important to understand that it is not about the results of the scrimmages they play, but instead it is used for the coaches to evaluate where the players are as the offseason progresses. The fall season for the team is not just scrimmages, but also early morning workouts, and practices.
Coach Reynolds described the caliber of play the team faced vs. Navy.
“Navy played a split squad game where they played some of their starters in a scrimmage on Friday against another D1 team, and then they played a majority of the second string players against us. It was still a very high level of competition because all of the guys they had play against us were D1 recruits. The biggest thing I wanted the guys to see was the speed of play at which the game was played. It was good for our guys to see that because it’s what we aspire to play like in the regular season,” he said.
The Shoremen baseball team’s fall season has been successful so far. Despite the weather interfering with the team’s opportunities to have practices, and the hiring of new coach’s coach Reynolds had the fall season start later than it normally starts.
Coach Reynolds did this so the team could have more practices to prepare with the new coaches recently hired. So far the fall season has gone as planned, there haven’t been any big problems for the team.
“On the field we have made some great strides and have gotten the info we needed to get in for the fall season to make the spring season easier. We have also made great strides in the weight room in just two months as a team with the help of Coach Jenkins,” said Coach Reynolds.