Young player mirrors former Lobo turned rookie
Isaac Avilucea | February 18Behind a pitching screen, 30 feet from the plate, Lobo head coach Ray Birmingham stands protected — a Kmart basket full of baseballs, all from different walks of thread. There’s the “old and beat up” ones that “run in on your hands,” said outfielder Ryan Honeycutt, the ones that “tail away from you” and the ones that “go even faster.” And now, Honeycutt is next to step into the cage, next to be victimized. There he is — straddling the left side of the plate, knees slightly bent, hands faintly choked up on the handle of the bat, the alternating zip of the ball leaving the machine, the echoic “ping” of the baseball as Honeycutt makes contact and the ever-occasional thump of a ball hitting the backstop. The latter sound, that solid wallop, signifies it’s time to take a seat on the pine.
