With the baseball season beginning today, NYU’s young roster looks to both improve its 20-22 record from last year and reach the postseason for the first time in team history.

According to freshman pitcher Ryan Allen, the team — comprised mostly of freshmen and sophomores — has been emphasizing training and team-building in the offseason to achieve the team’s goals, which include securing a strong season record this year.

“Our goal as a team is to win the UAA and make the NCAA Tournament,” Allen said.

Head Coach Doug Kimbler echoed Allen’s statements, highlighting the importance of building a strong defense.

“Our goals are to play a little bit better defense,” Kimbler said. “We want to get ahead of a lot more hitters, get a couple of two-out hits and hopefully that will equal some wins. “

While the team had a winning surge at the end of last season, the Violets have failed to reach the NCAA Tournament since restarting the baseball program in 2015.

These unique circumstances skewed the age ratio of the team, resulting in an incoming class of fifteen new freshman. Allen believes this has been beneficial for team bonding.  

“Being on such a young team is great,” Allen said. “I think it has brought us very close as a unit. There is no real seniority gap because of it. Obviously there is respect from the new guys to the older guys who have been here, but for the most part I’ve felt that it’s been less about whether you are a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior and more about just being a team.”

In addition to the influx of new players, the team has also hired former youth baseball coach and New York Baseball Academy trainer Tommy Cardona as an assistant coach.

According to Kimbler, the team hopes to maintain constant improvement and hard work.

“I think the biggest thing for our guys is to keep learning and understanding our philosophy,” Kimbler said. “The guys are becoming much better at understanding and are working hard toward team goals rather than individual goals. Our strength will be our desire to out hustle other teams and our willingness to believe that we are a good baseball team.”

The Violets will return to the pitch for their first game of the season today against John Jay College. The game will be a noon start at the Violets’ home field of MCU Park in Brooklyn.

Email Nika Woodfill at [email protected].