Rams baseball can practice, play in BB&T Ballpark for 5 years

The Rams baseball team has a new five-year deal to practice and play all of its home games at BB&T Ballpark in Winston-Salem.

Home of the minor league Winston-Salem Dash, the ballpark was built in 2010 and is widely considered one of the top stadiums in minor league baseball.

The baseball team is entering its third season under Head Coach Kevin Ritsche. Ritsche brought the program back to Winston-Salem State in 2010 and has led the team to CIAA championships in each of his first two seasons. He was named CIAA Coach of the Year in 2012.

The Rams have had all of this success despite not having a home stadium of their own the last two seasons. WSSU had to practice previously and play at nearby stadiums in High Point and Thomasville.

Ritsche said he is glad his team finally has a home-field advantage.

"The first thing it helps us out with immediately is that we're practicing on the surface that we're playing our games on," Ritsche said.

"When we come out here on the weekends to play our games we've already practiced here during the week. We know how the ball bounces and how to play the depths in the outfield. Our players are used to the background and the scenery. A lot of teams that are coming to play us aren't used to that." 

Ritsche also believes his team can gain an edge just because of how nice the stadium is.

"A lot of teams at our level, Division II, don't get to play in stadiums like this, so for them it's kind of getting over the initial wow-factor and being able to make an adjustment."

Freshman pitcher and part-time designated hitter Kyle Boraski is excited about playing at BB&T Ballpark and feels that the stadium will help the team with recruiting.

"It's awesome. This is a nice stadium," Boraski said.

"It's cool to be able to practice out here and it helps recruiting too because he [Coach Ritsche] brings out all the recruits and they seem to love it."

With the stadium in place and the program growing, the Rams main focus now is on the task at hand: the 2013 campaign.

The coaches and players are looking to win the CIAA title for a third straight time, reach a new win plateau and make a run in the postseason.

"Our goals this year are to go undefeated in conference and bring back-to-back-to-back conference titles to Winston-Salem," Ritsche said.

"We also want to get to that coveted 40-win season. That's big in college baseball if you can win 40 games. Our first year we won 30, last year we won 35 and this year we're shooting for 40. We're also looking to win the regional tournament, which is something we haven't accomplished here yet in our short time."

The regional tournament is the round of the playoffs just before the championship finals.

Ritsche and his players are confident in their chances to reach their goals as long as they stay focused.

"We've got a lot of talent, the most talent we've had on this team before," Ritsche said.

"My job as coach is just to keep them focused on what they need to be doing, and the guys just have to continue to come in here and do what they do every single day, but we should be ok." 

The Rams have played just six games of a 56-game schedule [as of Feb. 14]. They lost their first three games all on the road against a storied Atlanta Atlantic State program, but won two of their first three home games at BB&T Ballpark in a series against Millersville University.