When Sinclair Community College baseball coach Steve Dintaman talked about the Tartan Pride\u2019s 2-4 start to the 2010 season, his words centered on a lack of warm weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still feel like we were prepared,\u201d Dintaman said. \u201cNo one ever swings well in the cold. The nicer it gets, the more your guys start swinging the bats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinclair (21-5) responded to an improved temperature with a 13-game winning streak last month. As of April 2, the Tartan Pride had won 19 of their last 20 games. Sinclair\u2019s winning ways have not gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n
For the first time in school history, the Tartan Pride earned a spot on the NJCAA Division II top-ten poll with a No. 9 ranking.<\/p>\n
Through 26 games, Byron Johann (.432 batting average), Justin Marrero (.407) and Zach Stewart (.356) have led an offense that is averaging 8.5 runs per game. Together, the Tartan Pride has a team batting average of .362.<\/p>\n
\u201cOffensively, we\u2019ve been great all year. Our numbers are huge and we\u2019ll probably break every record that\u2019s been held before,\u201d Dintaman said. \u201cThis team will kick you in the teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinclair\u2019s pitching staff has a collective 3.53 earned run average, as of March 31. Dintaman said his pitchers, especially the bullpen, have been outstanding all year long. From March 14 through March 18, the Tartan Pride pitching staff tossed 31 consecutive shutout innings over a five-game span.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just challenging guys,\u201d he said. \u201cGuys just stepped up. We\u2019ve been throwing it real well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The top of the Sinclair bullpen has been nearly untouchable, as Matt Addis and Chuck Calhoun have combined for 30.1 innings, allowing 13 hits, two earned runs, 43 strikeouts and three saves.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalhoun and Addis have stepped up to be our best guys out of the bullpen,\u201d Dintaman said. \u201cAll year long, they\u2019ve been put in situations where they have been successful and have done a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Sinclair enters conference play, the Tartan Pride will be dealing with a few subtractions. Pitcher Justin Schultheiss continues to deal with a rolled ankle that he sustained in early March and pitcher Zach Botjer came down with a shoulder injury. Dintaman said Schultheiss is expected back sometime this week and the length of Botjer\u2019s absence is undetermined.<\/p>\n
Dintaman also addressed the suspension of three undisclosed starters. Dintaman said three of his everyday players recorded less than a 2.25 grade-point average over the winter, which earns a two-week suspension.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some setbacks with depth, but I think everybody is on the same page,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re still in line to compete for the conference championship. There\u2019s no doubt about it. Different guys have to step up and they\u2019re capable of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dintaman said the icing on this year\u2019s cake is the conference tournament, which Sinclair is hosting at Grady\u2019s Field in Xenia. The tournament is scheduled for the weekend of April 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still want to win the regular season championship, but we want to get all of our guys ready for that conference tournament,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to score runs regardless, so pitching is what it comes down to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Sinclair Community College baseball coach Steve Dintaman talked about the Tartan Pride\u2019s 2-4 start to the 2010 season, his words centered on a lack of warm weather. \u201cI still feel like we were prepared,\u201d Dintaman said. \u201cNo one ever swings well in the cold. The nicer it gets, the more your guys start swinging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[55,1272,150,14,978],"class_list":["post-4553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-baseball","tag-joseph-stueve","tag-pride","tag-sinclair","tag-tartan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-1br","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4553"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4626,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4553\/revisions\/4626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}