From lip gloss to Wawa Sizzles, Penn baseball, and softball do anything it takes to live hot.
Athletes usually look for approaches to improving their play, whether by taking more reps or looking again at game film. However, this includes being superstitious and having fascinating recreation-day exercises for the Quakers at the Diamond.
Baseball and softball are games of streaks, so while you’re hot, you’re warm. Players must do whatever it takes to trip that tremendous momentum for as long as possible. It begins with their heat-up routines for each group, and if the crew is on a prevailing streak, the recurring is constantly identical.
For baseball, the group warms up into three specific companies, with one organization hitting, one at the bases, and one in the area. After they misplaced their first 3 video games at UNC Greensboro, the Quakers switched up their order. Since having a brand new order, the group has long past 5-1. “We’ll probably hold that batting practice agenda in place, and we’ll try to experience it out as long as we will to keep winning,” senior catcher Matt O’Neill stated.
The softball group’s hair is a key part of their pregame routine, and most of the group continues the same hairstyle all season. “The identical people do every other’s hair on every occasion and in an identical way,” senior third baseman Sarah Cwiertnia stated. “I haven’t changed my recreation day hair ever.”
Cwiertnia has been devoted to 2 French braids pulled right into a ponytail this season. She’s entrusted her hair routine to sophomore pitcher Abigail Abramson and has no plans to switch the style quickly. On the other hand, junior baseball pitcher Christian Scafidi went through a difficult stretch closing season and determined his hair was the issue that had to be exchanged. “I went to the barber and grew to become it right into a mohawk, trimmed the beard down, and went out and pitched the subsequent day brilliantly out,” Scafidi said.
Players also like to keep special gadgets close to them that cause them to feel cozy and cozy simultaneously on the field. While throwing his warmup pitches, Scafidi wears three circles of relatives-associated wristbands on his right wrist. However, due to NCAA rules, he can’t wear them throughout the game, so he improvises by transferring the bands to his lower back proper pocket, where they live during the game.
Sophomore softball pitcher Tabitha Dyer maintains a lip gloss in her lower back right pocket. Since excessive faculty, she’s always reapplied the same kind of Bath and Body Works lip gloss during the game.
Furthermore, earlier than the sector’s opposition, the softball group had a sport of its personality in the locker room.
“We typically continually play hacky sack. So if we have a terrific hacky sack recreation, then I assume that is an awesome game premonition,” Dyer stated.
Surprisingly, Wawa’s breakfast sandwiches also performed a huge function in Scafidi’s college baseball profession.
“On the days I pitch, I get breakfast from Wawa, the identical Sizzles each time,” he said.
The recurring commenced in Scafidi’s first year of living close to Wawa. He decided to head there for breakfast one morning and later pitched an outstanding sport. He remembered what he ordered the morning of his subsequent beginning and was determined to reserve it again. Since then, he’s made sausage, egg, and cheese on a waffle, sausage, egg, and cheese on a croissant for his recreation day breakfast. Even when pitching on the road, he does his best to recreate the sandwich with the breakfast items available in the resort.
Finally, there’s the most well-known baseball superstition that all players, from high school to the MLB, understand: don’t talk about the no-hitter.
“It’s fashionable baseball guidelines; nobody says a word about it,” O’Neill said. “Everybody is aware of it, but the 2d you are saying something about, you may as well be giving up a hit for the pitcher. It’s almost like clockwork.”
Unfortunately, that changed into the case for Scafidi’s closing season.
“I changed into throwing a no-hitter, and a kid within the stands stated, ‘You already know you have a no-hitter going,’ and I’m like, guy, kid, don’t say that,” Scafidi stated.
Two innings later, Scafidi gave up his first hit.
It’s hard for players to predict which recurring will work; however, once they discover what makes them successful, they stick to it. In a recreation of streaks, Penn baseball and softball are extra careful to stick to the customary that maintains them on a hot streak
