McCarthy coached the Faulkner Eagles for the first time this past weekend, losing three of four games. (Photo courtesy Ryan Bartels/Faulkner Unv. Athletic Dept.)

By Sarah Hughes
RRS Correspondent
(Feb. 2, 2010)

New Faulkner head baseball coach Patrick McCarthy opened the season as well as his career this past weekend with a 1-3 start.

McCarthy took over from Brent Barker, who left to resume his athletic director position full time at Faulkner. While able to adequately serve as both head baseball coach and athletic director at Freed-Hardeman for many years, McCarthy is now able to give his full attention to his team.

“Barker was always being pulled in eight different ways, and had to wear many hats such as athletic director and coach,” pitcher Justin Hay said. “This sometimes took him away from practice, where as McCarthy is here all the time.”

The great facilities at Faulkner and his love for the South that helped McCarthy and his family decide to make Montgomery their home. He came with prior coaching experience but to a new team that has struggled with coaching changes the last couple of years.

However McCarthy believes this team could be competitive in his first year, thanks in part to team speed.

“One of the fastest I have ever coached,” McCarthy said . “We have four or five guys that are able to steal 30 or more bases. This team also works together and is very team oriented.”

Pitcher Andrew Hockenbury echoed his coach.

“We have become a team about defense that uses our speed. He took us from a home-run hitting team to a fielding team,” he said.

Faulkner players were not sure what to expect with the coming of McCarthy. His reputation however, did precede him.

 “We expected more organization than we had had before,” senior Ryan Reece said.

New coaching styles and techniques were included with McCarthy’s arrival. When asked how McCarthy’s coaching style had affected them, Reece made the point that the mental approach had changed,

“We learn more about the game itself from McCarthy and he has improved out mental approach to the game,” he said.

 “Coach McCarthy is an old school coach; he likes to talk about the small stuff in baseball,” Hay added.

Faulkner lost twice to Lindenwood University and split a doubleheader with Martin Methodist over the weekend. Even though it may not have been the start that McCarthy was looking for, he still saw some good things to build momentum.

“We saw a lot of pitches and got deep in the counts,” he said. “We also did a good job not getting out on the bases. However, we need to improve on our strike count and stealing even more bases.”