Winston-Salem State University Dropping Baseball

Always sad to see schools abandon baseball. 

Hate to see that.   Not good

Interestingly enough WSSU finished the season 35-16.   Coach put together a tournament with other independent schools which WSSU won.  NCAA did extend an offer to play in the regionals, but it came too late - most of the players had already left campus.  At least they went out on a high note.  

Maybe one day they'll bring baseball back.

last summer we went to a minor league game at Winston Salem.... two of the groundskeepers for the milb team were past players for WSU.

We struck up a conversation with them while waiting for my son to finish showering, after my son joined the conversation he recognized the one kid because he had hit a homerun against my sons former college roommate probably at least 4 years ago.  The ball was crushed over the CF wall. Immediately the phone comes out and its rag city on the former roommate.

Its a shame the program had to fold, hard to believe in a hotbed of baseball with a beautiful facility to play in that somehow they cant figure out a way.

A kid from our area was a Freshman there this year. It does not look like he got any playing time. I hope he finds a place to land. 

mmm1531 posted:

last summer we went to a minor league game at Winston Salem.... two of the groundskeepers for the milb team were past players for WSU.

We struck up a conversation with them while waiting for my son to finish showering, after my son joined the conversation he recognized the one kid because he had hit a homerun against my sons former college roommate probably at least 4 years ago.  The ball was crushed over the CF wall. Immediately the phone comes out and its rag city on the former roommate.

Its a shame the program had to fold, hard to believe in a hotbed of baseball with a beautiful facility to play in that somehow they cant figure out a way.

Yes, BB&T Ballpark is a beautiful stadium and well maintained.   WSSU played most of their home games there.  There was another field they would use as MiLB season ramped up.

It's a shame the program was disbanded.   In 2015 when my son was there they were still fully funded.   Two years later the funding had dropped by 2/3's.   Never did find out why.   I think by 2017 the baseball program was no longer in the CIAA.   Not enough schools with active baseball programs were in the CIAA - only 4 or 5 at one point.  NCAA requires at least 6 for an automatic bid.

The baseball program was consistently the most successful sports program at WSSU as I recall.   The football, basketball and softball programs were good though not quite as successful as the baseball program.  Of course football and basketball were the money makers (well attended) while baseball was lucky if it could draw 100 fans to a game.

Coach Ritchie had a successful program.   Under his guidance WSSU won 5 straight CIAA championships through 2015 and never had a losing record.  Couldn't quite make it through the regionals - finished 2nd or 3rd at best.

When Coach Ritchie was interviewing my son he did mention the university had plans to build a baseball stadium.   Even pointed out the spot they were considering building it.   Guess that won't happen now.