SFCC seeks major breakthrough

The SFCC baseball team has been a model of consistency the past six years - and it may be time to shatter the status quo.

Five winning seasons, three of which resulted in playoff berths. An average of 32 wins per season, an impressive feat considering the constant turnover. And a great track record of sending its players onto four-year schools.

Still, the Panthers aspire to accomplish more.

"We've had real good success," coach Rick Hitt said, "but we're trying to have great success. That's the everyday conversation around here - how we can become great, and we think we're on the right track."

Hitt spoke earlier this week during the SFCC media day, the unofficial start to the spring season. Looking to rebound from a disappointing end to the 2009 season, this year's Panthers team appears poised to again make a run at a postseason berth.

"Once we got the program off the ground," Hitt said, "we've been on a nice little run here."

The short-term goal remains the same, though: He wants to win a Suncoast Conference title, which looked like a realistic possibility last year when the Panthers were ranked No. 3 in the state for much of the season. Then, three starting pitchers were slowed by separate arm injuries with 17 games to go, and the season promptly deteriorated.

The Panthers finished last in the conference - a first-to-worst turnaround.

"It was a little bit of a disappointment," Hitt said.

But the Panthers have forged ahead, and with a relatively new roster, they had no choice. They return cornerstone players Adam Simmons, Tom Sicking, and outfielders Greg Smith and Ethan Lovell - but little else.

Sicking, a shortstop who batted .408 last year and was the seventh-ranked hitter in the state, is the only returning starter in the infield. Simmons, who committed to play for Florida State next season, is the ace of a pitching staff that still needs seasoning.

"We've got a good group of sophomores who we expect a great deal out of," Hitt said.

The biggest transition for the freshmen, Hitt said, is the "acclimation to the college schedule against college competition." They play 50 games (excluding postseason play), usually four games a week, and that can be taxing for young arms that aren't used to logging 150-plus innings.

"They may have been the big fish in high school and some of them haven't," Hitt said, "but that's the biggest jump."

The season begins Jan. 29 at Lake Sumter Community College. The regular-season home opener is Wednesday, Feb. 3 against Seminole State College at Panther Field, where a jersey dedication ceremony will commence at 5 p.m.

The former SFCC players who will be honored: Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jesse Litsch; Detroit Tigers outfielder Ryan Raburn; Colorado Rockies pitcher Darren Clarke; and Baltimore Orioles pitcher Chris Waters.