Coppin State's sandlot drought

One look into the Coppin State baseball dugout is all it takes to realize something isn't right. There's one part of a college baseball team that's missing, and it's a fundamental one: the players.

Take yesterday's game against the Terrapins at Shipley Field. Even when the Eagles were in the dugout to bat, the Terps' dugout was still filled with twice as many reserves as Coppin State had total players.

The Eagles, who are now 0-20 after yesterday's loss, only have 11 players on their roster for this season, a sad fact resulting from a slight budget cut and, more importantly, the late arrival of first-year coach Harvey Lee.

Following last year's 13-41-1 finish that saw Coppin State go a respectable 9-8 in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play, then-coach Guy Robertson resigned to take a position as an instructor at The Baseball Factory, an organization that offers training and advice to potential college recruits.

By the time Lee was hired on Oct. 24, only three of the 21 roster players had decided to return, and Lee was faced with the task of building a team.

Teon Richburg, the only senior to stay, didn't know if he was going to get a final season. Richburg stayed because no one else would've given him a chance.

"That was kind of a tough situation. I had gotten hurt the last two years, so I really didn't have the option to leave," he said. "I was just going to come back and try to see what I could do."

After arriving at Coppin State in November, Lee, a former New York Yankees minor leaguer, set about filling out his roster. Lee said that he initially had a lot of interest from prospects in the Baltimore area, but many were ineligible to play because of poor grades.

"If I would've been at Coppin in August, things would've been different," Lee said. "I even wouldn't have minded having these 11 when I first got there, because I would've had time to train them."

That brings up another problem.

Once the team was formed, it didn't have anywhere to play. Lee said the team has not had any outdoor practices this year. Tuesday, the Eagles went to a local high school, but the field was already occupied by the high school team, something that has happened often. The team plays their "home" games at Joe Cannon Stadium in Hanover, but Lee hopes to have a field secured for the team's sole use by next season.

"It's tough," Richburg said. "We really don't get as many swings as we want or get out on the field as much as the rest of the teams, but we're making it happen. We're just trying to get better as much as we can."

There's a lot of room for improvement. The Eagles have been outscored 325-30 in their 20 losses. A lot of their games have been stopped before nine innings at Lee's request when the score started to get out of hand. Earlier this month, the Terps led Coppin State 27-0 when Lee asked for the game to be stopped after eight innings.

He said he was embarrassed by the losses at first, but that passed when he realized the team was giving its all. Lee understands he is not only working with only 11 players, "but eleven players who are new to the game." At times, he is just hoping that his team can record three outs to close out each inning.

"Right now, that's our main concern," Lee said. "If you look over [to the dugout] on a routine fly ball, we're all holding our breath."

Through all the troubles, Lee looks toward next season with optimism. He said he's already started the recruiting process for next year, and he's had a lot of interest from players in his home state of Florida.

Lee even sees several positives in getting pounded by quality opponents like the Terps. It not only builds character and gives his team a model to follow on the field, but it can also be a recruiting advantage, he said.

"I'll tell you what's helping me recruit now," he said. "The fact that I play the University of Maryland and University of Virginia. Those two help me out big time. Plus in a high school kid's eyes, they say, 'Man, they're losing every game. I have a chance to go up there and play.'"

Even with the interest, he will still be constrained by a smaller school budget. This season, for the first time in program history, Lee allocated some scholarship money to all 11 players. The program budget for this season is about $120,000 including scholarships. By contrast, last year this university spent $247,950 on baseball without factoring in scholarships, according to 2006 EADA reports.

"He's going to have to get guys for cheap," Coppin State Director of Athletic Communications Roger McAfee said.

Either way, the Eagles still have to finish out this season with their undermanned roster. When it comes to picking a pitcher, Lee joked that he has to "pull names out of a hat." Ten players have taken the mound for Coppin State this year.

"Every day, you never know where you're going to be in the field. It's tough, but we stick together as a team and just try to get through it," Richford said.

Lee admires his team's spirit and just hopes that it will win two games to avoid having the worst season in program history. After that, he knows things will be different.

"I think all the teams that are so happy to play me this year, they won't be so happy after next year," he said.

Or, at the very least, they will be looking across at a full dugout.

Contact reporter Eric Detweiler at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com.