The 2025 fall season for the Knights varsity and junior varsity teams have been full of struggles, and have led to a large amount of losses compared to wins for the program. But what has caused this success after such a slow start?
The baseball team has seen many great athletes in recent years, especially on the pitching side of the field. Nathan Porath, a 2025 graduate went on to play baseball at Dillard, a division two program in Louisiana. Two years before this, the Robinson baseball program saw Nate Jennewein go to Cornell. In addition to these successes, probably the best pitcher to come of the program has been Russel Sandefer, who pitched at St. Leo and UCF before finally becoming a top 100 impact transfer at the University of Florida, one of the most prestigious collegiate programs in the country for baseball. Despite the schools history of pitching excellence, the Robinson pitching staff has suffered a collective earned run average (however many earned runs allowed per nine innings) of over six.
Many factors have attributed to this stat being so inflated, and the main problem is evident: walks. Free bases have led to high scoring games for the Knights, and although the offense has been productive, it hasn’t been enough to keep up with over six earned runs allowed per game, which does not even account for runs let in off of errors and mistakes. Some of the losses for the Knights include eight to two against Tampa Catholic, eleven to three against Wiregrass and ten to one. Although the team doesn’t consist of captains, the upperclassmen lead the charge.
“I think some injuries and communication issues within players have also contributed to losses, but our bond as a team has strengthened, and that has played a big role in winning games recently,” Senior Carsyn Clack said, one of the starting outfielders and a strong leader on the team.
How does the team plan to fix this problem? Coach Barron has implemented a policy to all pitchers on the staff during games to combat the large amount of free bases. If a pitcher allows two free bases in a row, whether it is by way of walks or hit batters, that pitcher will be pulled from the game. And if a pitcher totals more than three free bases over the course of their entire outing, they will be pulled.
“We need to throw strikes, and if we can’t do that, then we can’t expect to win games,” Coach Barron said.
This new way of playing has forced pitchers to either throw strikes- or sit the bench. This strategy has already been seen to be effective, as the Knights have won five of their last eight games, with one win against Tampa Prep even being a complete shut-out. It is evident that the baseball teams key to success is efficiency on the mound, and they hope to continue the season in the win column, with a game against Alonso on Thursday.
