In each of the last three seasons, including this one, Syracuse has not had more than four seniors on the team.

This season, 13 of the Orange’s 19 players are underclassmen.

“We have a lot of young talent,” SU head coach Mike Bosch said. “We’re just trying to see how that young talent is going to develop.”

So far this season, that talent has been tested often. Three of the four players who have started every game are underclassmen. Freshman Hannah Dossett is tied for the team lead in homeruns, doubles, hits and RBI’s, while sophomore Rachel Burkhardt leads the team in runs.

Bosch stressed attention to detail in Syracuse’s fall league and believes he and his staff have helped the team break things down from a technique standpoint.

With an entirely new coaching staff taking over after the resignation of 10-year head coach Leigh Ross, Bosch and his staff have an opportunity to instill its methods into SU’s (6-7) seven new freshmen.

“Coming in as a new staff we’re obviously going to do things a bit differently,” Bosch said. “With new players, we had an opportunity to really establish that with those players. Pretty much all they know is what we do.”

Bosch commended the team’s upperclassmen for teaching Syracuse’s group of freshmen.

In 2016, “the staff” includes seniors Jocelyn Cater and Lindsey Larkin and sophomore AnnaMarie Gatti.

When Bosch, formerly the Orange’s pitching coach, is busy with other players, he leans on Cater and Larkin to mentor the young pitchers. If there’s something Bosch can’t do, he’ll have those three help out.

While Gatti is just a sophomore, her ability matches that of the other two. She leads the team with 41.1 innings pitched, 24 strikeouts and three complete games, and she’s recorded a fantastic 2.61 era through eight appearances this season.

Larkin believes that the new coaching staff’s teaching mindset has allowed younger players to grow.

“They don’t get angry with you even if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Larkin said. “We’ll use it as a learning experience and move on from here. … Watching the program grow and seeing where we are today is exciting.”

Bosch said he has preached to his players that it’s important to get better every day. By extension, if the players are improving, the program can move forward, too. Sandberg preached a similar message, saying that as a young team, it’s simply important to steadily progress even as Syracuse hovers around .500.

“We have to just have a goal of outworking our opponents,” Sandberg said. “We know that everyone else that we’re playing is trying to get better, we need to get 1 percent better everyday.”

While Bosch and Sandberg understand it’s a process, neither mentioned that they felt at a disadvantage relying on their young talent.

“All those things meshing together,” Bosch said, “has helped us to go from just a young team, to a good team.”

Published on February 29, 2016 at 8:32 pm

Contact Jack: jfupton@syr.edu