Adrian Daniels
Junior - Baseball

Talk about the upcoming baseball trip that you are going to be taking to Moscow, Russia.
There are four players from our team that will be going – myself, catcher Brandon DiCesare, pitcher Tyler Balentine, and infielder/outfielder Joe Mihalics, along with our head coach, Bill Breene. We were fortunate enough to be selected from a group of 84 players that were nominated by coaches throughout New York State. We will be participating in the eighth Matsumae Memorial International College Baseball Tournament in Moscow. We’ll travel to SUNY Farmingdale on Long Island to work out with the rest of the team from June 20th through the 23rd before leaving for Russia. While in Russia, we will be playing teams from Japan, Korea, and European nations. All of us are extremely excited and honored to be playing because we get a chance to represent not only New York State, but the United States as well.

What are you looking forward to gaining from the trip – from both a baseball perspective and from an educational point of view?
As I said before, I am very excited to be going to Russia to play ball. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and it's something that I could not pass up. From a baseball perspective, it will be interesting to see how people from other parts of the world play the game. I am expecting to play against some great players from all parts of the world. From an educational perspective, I am really looking forward to seeing how people halfway around the world do things. Moscow is a very historic city, and there are many historic things there that I plan on seeing. It should be a great trip for everyone involved.

Heading into the off-season, what types of summer leagues will you play in? What is the individual workout routine you will have in preparation for the next season?
The off-season is always a critical part of any sport. That is the time where people usually make the most significant gains. The NCAA doesn’t have any restrictions, as far as I know, for playing in summer leagues. Since the trip to Russia falls right in the middle of the summer league schedules, a choice had to be made whether to go to Russia or to pass it up and play in a summer league. This is because we will be gone for almost two weeks, which would mean we would miss around 14 games if we were playing in a league. I know the choice wasn't a difficult one for me, because I didn't want to pass up the chance to play in Russia.

Our team is fortunate enough to have a strength coach, Ed Fitzsimmons, who works with us year round. Over the summer we have a workout routine that will get us ready to come back to school in great shape, ready for another preseason. The workouts continue until our season starts in March, and then we cut back and go into a maintenance phase where we try to maintain as much strength as we can, which can be hard with all games that we play and the traveling that we do.

What does it mean for you to see that the top pick in the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft, Ball State’s Bryan Bullington, came out of the Mid-American Conference? Did you ever have an at bat against Bullington?
The MAC is one of the most underrated conferences in college baseball. Each year, 10-15 players from the conference are drafted. The talent level in the MAC is second-to-none. I hope that with the first pick in the draft coming out the MAC, it will gain some respect and people will realize that there is some great baseball being played in our conference.

Because Ball State is in the West Division of the MAC, we never had an opportunity to face Bullington.

What have you learned from your time as a freshman through now, as you enter your senior season?
I have learned so much since I came to UB. Our freshman year was the season that the baseball program was reinstated at the Division I level, so we had the chance to set the standard for years to come. Our class was the first recruiting class that the coaches put together, and we have stayed pretty close throughout the past three years. Our class is looked upon as the leaders of this team and we enjoy that because the example that we set is one that will be around for a long time here at UB. Most of us had no idea what to expect from baseball at the collegiate level. We have come a long way since our freshman year, both on and off the field. I would say that the biggest thing I have learned is to always work hard, no matter what. If you are playing well you need to keep working hard because there is always someone out there that is working harder. If you are slumping, you need to work even harder to get back to being the player that you know you can be. Playing at the college level is extremely demanding, and everyone has to get used to playing while juggling a class schedule and traveling all of the time.

Is there a lot of information you can pass along to the younger hitters, or is a lot of what you need to know just acquired as you gain more experience?
Hitting is something that everyone thinks they know a lot about. As far as information that I could pass along, I would say just work hard at it. Everyone has a different approach to hitting (both mental and physical). Some of these things can be taught, while others just have to be instinct. Just being comfortable at the plate is the biggest thing that I can pass on to younger hitters. Having confidence in your abilities at the plate is the hardest thing to achieve, but once you have that, you are setting yourself up for great things.

Discuss the Bulls Baseball Camp, which runs from July 15th through July 19th this summer?
The baseball camps that UB puts on for kids in the Buffalo community are a lot of fun. I have worked a couple of the camps in the past and have always enjoyed myself. The kids really look up to you when you are working the camps. I can remember going to baseball camps when I was younger and it was always something that I really looked forward to. I'm hoping to work the camp again this summer, because it's nice to see the enthusiasm that the kids have for the game.

In the UB baseball media guide, you listed your reason for coming to UB as ‘having the opportunity to begin a winning tradition.’ Do you feel that the tradition is beginning to form?
There were a lot of reasons that I chose to come UB, but having the chance to start a winning tradition was probably the one had the most influence on me. There are not many times where you have the chance to step into a situation like the one that we had here our freshman year. Most of us were starting and playing every game our freshman year, gaining great experience for the future. That experience has helped all of us out a great deal because there is nothing like being thrown into the mix and expected to perform at a higher level that you are used to. That can be intimidating, but I feel that all of the guys on our team responded well. Our first couple of years were a learning experience, and we definitely had some tough times – that was to be expected. This season, we used our experience from the past two years and put together our best season since we have been at UB. We did a lot of great things this year, which will give us a lot of confidence going into the upcoming season. I definitely feel that the tradition has started, and I expect great things from this program in the years to come.

Review the 2002 season from a team perspective.
The 2002 season started off on a very high note, with our team knocking off nationally ranked Southern Mississippi. Southern Miss is our head coach Bill Breene's alma mater, and for us to walk out of the gym and go to their place and beat them was something for all of us to remember. We turned a lot of heads that weekend with that win, and I have never seen Coach Breene so happy. It was a great win for him, and we were happy to be a part of it. We continued to make news when we beat West Virginia, Bowling Green, George Mason and Coastal Carolina. All of these schools have a long tradition of baseball and no one gave us a chance at winning any of these games, except ourselves. We also had a record-setting day against Ohio University where we broke four offensive school records.

This season showed us that we have the ability to play with any team that we are matched up against. It gave us great confidence and we will carry that over to next season when we have an equally difficult schedule. We learned what we do well, and we also learned what we need to work on in order to be consistent day-in and day-out. I am very excited to see what the upcoming season will bring.

How much would it mean to you and your teammates to qualify for the 2003 MAC Tournament?
In order for us to qualify for the MAC Tournament, we need to be one of the top three teams in our division. This is always a goal for our team. I feel that this coming up season is our best chance to make the MAC Tournament. It would be a great way to end our careers here at UB for our graduating class that has laid the foundation for a winning tradition. We are always working hard and trying to achieve our goal of making the MAC Tournament. If all goes well this year, I feel we have a great shot.

06/13/2002