Collegiate Times

“I like the feeling of a wood bat more when you hit it solid,” said Wates, who usually hits with wood bats in his free time.

In Sosnoskie’s case, the playing time in the league was immeasurable simply because he was able to work more with Price and Wright, catching both pitchers in most of their outings.

“It was good for me as a catcher to get to work with Price and Justin and to learn more about them as pitchers,” Sosnoskie said. “Hopefully, we can take that into this upcoming season and help us get outs.”

But the catcher was also able to learn a lot about his collegiate teammates who he faced on opposing teams, most notably Wates.

“I was definitely interested in trying to get Austin out and seeing how he adjusted to things we did,” Sosnoskie said.

During their time in New England, perhaps the freshest experience for the players was what occurred off the field rather than on it. Each player stayed with a host family, sharing the household with three to four other players on the team.

“It’s pretty new,” Price said. “It was really my first time going out there and living with a host family for a whole summer. It’s something I never experienced before and something I enjoyed. I lived with three other players in the same house so it was kind of fun. You always had someone to hang out with, and it added a sort of excitement to the day.”

Some partakers in the league return to campus and the world of college baseball as changed men. Despite the potential occurrence of being rejoined by a slew of overly confident players, Tech head coach Pete Hughes ultimately sees the summer league as a positive.

“You go to the summer league and you beat the wooden bat and this scout is saying this and this publication is saying that, you might start to think you’re better than you really are,” Hughes said. “Then, you have to go back to beating the metal bat, and it’s completely different. But, I’ve also seen the leagues take guys who are struggling with their confidence who then experience success against the best players in the country in the league, and they come back different. They still have the same stuff when they return, but they’re much more confident.”

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A version of this article appeared in the Feb 10 issue of the Collegiate Times.