Monday, Apr 20, 2015
The Rider club baseball team played at Arm & Hammer park in Trenton, home of the Trenton Thunder
by Christopher Brooks
Rider’s club baseball team got a taste of the big leagues on April 11 when it suited up against conference rival La Salle at Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton, N.J., the home of the New York Yankees’ AA affiliate, the Trenton Thunder.
The park, which was built in 1994, seats over 6,000 and has hosted several prominent Yankee players including Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.
The Broncs swept the two-game series from La Salle, winning 5-3 at Arm & Hammer Park on April 11 and 18-8 at Rider on April 12. Rider club baseball vice president and second baseman Mike Vassos was excited for the team’s chance to play at a professional venue.
“We had the opportunity to play there which is really great for us,” he says. “ It was a really great chance to play on a field of that quality.”
The club baseball team plays a winter and spring season of around 25 games each in the National Club Baseball Association’s Division II level. Team president and third baseman/designated hitter Joe Marchiafava felt the club should have an opportunity to play on a big league field.
“The team this year really deserves this moment," he said. "Recently, we haven’t made the playoffs, but I think we have a really good shot to make it this year.”
While Marchiafava and Vassos are both seniors, they hope that playing games at Arm & Hammer Park can become an annual event for the club baseball team. Each have been on the team for four years and have worked towards making the team larger and more well-known across the Rider campus.
The team currently has a roster of 24 players of varying skill levels and while the main goal of the team is to win, Vassos encourages baseball lovers of the Rider community to come and join the club.
“All the kids we are playing with are really competitive,” he explains. “We have some players that haven’t started too many games, but they come out every year and practice hard and we give them as many chances as we can. We really want to get everyone to play and have those opportunities.”
Marchiafava feels similarly and embraces the family-like atmosphere of the team.
“We are all best friends on the team, we hang out 24/7,” he says. “We know each other like the back of our hands and it gives us momentum as a team because we are constantly pushing each other to do better.”