Fourth Estate/Ali Ali
Mason Baseball embraces their style as the season rapidly approaches
BY ALI ALI
Mason Baseball hosted their annual First Pitch Dinner, with Baltimore Orioles General Manager and Fairfax native Mike Elias headlining the event.
Mason is coming off a 36-win season, which is the most wins since 2009, resulting in an Atlantic 10 Conference Championship and a national tournament berth. One of the cornerstones of this program is its tradition maintained by Head Coach Shawn Camp, a former Major Leaguer in his second year in this capacity. He took over the program from Coach Bill Brown who had 1,083 wins by the end of his coaching career.
“I believe the method that we were going to go to and the team that we put together were built on pitching, speed and defense. That was going to be something that we could kind of embark on and change the way we played baseball here at Mason… we accomplished that,” Camp said.
Camp insists that his team could repeat as conference champions. “What is going to pay off even more is the guys this year that are coming back. They’ve got hunger.” Camp said. “We hear all the time it’s going to be hard to repeat. I am standing up here today and tell you again: We’ve got the same team, [we’ve] got the same guys, [we’ve] got the same grit and same belief and it doesn’t change.”
Assistant Coaches Tyler Nelin and Evan Duhon were hired into the program replacing assistants Ryan Terrill, now the Recruiting Coordinator at Georgia Gwinnett College, and Matt Marsh, an assistant and Lead Hitting Coach at Hendrix College. Complimented as a “rockstar” by his superior, Nelin laid some sweet notes as a player for Mason. From 2015-18, he recorded 104 RBIs on 211 hits with 19 home runs.
“This summer, I was able to have a great conversation with Coach Camp. He extended the offer to come back. To work at my alma mater, it was a no-brainer for me…I’m very lucky to be back,” Nelin said.
Nelin has big plans for how he will instruct his batters, catchers and other defensive positions. “We want to maximize our abilities. We’re very fast and we want to match our aggression, both at the plate and on the base. So, I think that’s kind of my mindset and my message to them is how relentless we can be as an offense.”
In the offseason, most players kept the grind. Starting pitcher Chad Gartland said, “It all started in the fall. That kind of was my offseason when I really started hitting the weight room hard. Then when I went home for winter break, which a lot of people would consider the true offseason, that was kind of the start to my spring training and in December, I started ramping up from there. [I’m] ready to go.”
Right fielder Derek Wood chimed in on what the off-season felt like. “The big focus was just taking what we did last year and really continuing to build off of it not changing anything but just using what we had in building out and getting stronger at it,” Wood said.
The 2024 season began this past Friday, as Mason lost to No. 18 Coastal Carolina 26-0. They look to hold on in Conway against Duke and Indiana over the weekend before they face Coppin State at home on Tuesday, Feb. 20.