Caseres fits right in as redshirt
First baseman joins young squad after sitting out a year
Posted on April 26, 2007
Redshirt freshman Steven Caseres is making up for lost time on the diamond during his first active season for the Dukes.
Caseres, a first basemen, suffered a season-ending injury before the 2006 season started when he tore his meniscus early in the year.
“The first week back from Christmas break, I got hurt on the football field doing some sprints,” Caseres said. “My knee just kind of locked, I pushed off and it ripped.”
While redshirting his freshman year, Caseres witnessed a clinic in offensive production put on by his teammates. In the 2006 season, the JMU baseball team set school records for doubles, home runs, extra-base hits and RBIs on their way to a 22-8 conference record and the CAA regular season title.
Fittingly, the Dukes clinched first place in the CAA standings when then-redshirt freshman Lee Bujakowski hit a walk-off home run in the last regular season game of the year.
Last year, Caseres identified with power hitters Michael Cowgill and Nate Schill, who graduated following the 2006 season. Caseres learned about playing at the college level by watching them and listening to their advice.
“It was tough sitting there watching, but it definitely helped me a lot because I saw what it took to play college ball and be successful,” Caseres said. “I just watched how they approached the game and how they approached every single at bat.”
Caseres said that he focuses on being aggressive at the right times and knowing when to extend the pitch count.
“Maybe you’re leading off the inning and your team is down by a run, [in that case] you have got to see pitches and try your best to get on base, maybe with a walk,” Caseres said. “You’ve got to do whatever you can to get that pitcher out of the game.”
This year, Caseres is fourth on the team in batting average among starters at .304, and ranks second on the team with 32 runs batted in, trailing only junior All-American Kellen Kulbacki.
While Caseres has enjoyed individual success this season, the team’s struggles have been frustrating.
“It’s tough, because our record really doesn’t reflect our talent and the team that we are,” Caseres said. “We’ve lost a lot of one-run games, a lot of come-from-behind games other teams took from us. Right now, we’re winning some ball games, but there was a stretch there where it seemed like nothing could go right.”
For much of the season, Madison has struggled to combine successful offensive and defensive production. They hold a record of 15-26, 7-12 in the CAA, but thirteen of their losses have been by two runs or less. Seven of these losses have come in high-scoring games where the Dukes scored at least five runs.
“There are just certain games where we’ve pitched well, and not hit, and there are certain games where we’ve hit well and we score 10 runs but lose 11-10.”
Lately, though, JMU has exploded offensively and made pitching not much of an issue. The Dukes scored a combined 76 runs in their last six games, prior to Wednesday’s game at Virginia, an average of over 12 runs a game. They won five out of those six games.
Caseres is hopeful that these results can become more consistent.
“We’ve got a lot of good freshmen on the team, a lot of guys who play every day.” Caseres said. “Next year, who knows what we can do with the core young guys we have coming back.”
Madison has started five underclassmen in more than 20 games this year. Freshmen Mike Fabiaschi and Alex Foltz are in this group, as well as sophomores Brett Garner, Lee Bujakowski and Steven Caseres.
Caseres did not travel to Virginia Tech or Virginia this week, due to a light hamstring injury. He plans to play in Madison’s weekend series at Georgia State.
The Dukes still have 12 games left this year, and Caseres is focused on helping the Dukes continue their winning ways down the stretch.