The 0-2 pitch from George Thanopoulos…Strike Three!

Last weekend, the Columbia Lions baseball team won its third consecutive Ivy League championship after defeating Dartmouth in a 3-game, 2-day series. Two of the players so instrumental to the victory were pitcher George Thanopoulos and first baseman Nick Maguire. Bwog’s resident baseball fan Max Rettig sat down with George and Nick to get their thoughts on the season, the championship and the upcoming NCAAs.

Max: First off, congrats on the Ivy League championship. Three years in a row is pretty incredible. What do you think has gotten the team that far each year? What is it about the Lions that makes you guys so successful on the baseball diamond year after year?

George: I’d say it’s really just a matter of trusting in each other and trusting your teammates. It’s also buying into the process our coaches have set up for us, and taking it day by day. We say we want to get one percent better each day. It’s really just trusting our preparation, trusting our abilities, and going out there and having fun.

Nick: It definitely has a lot do with trust and preparation. You know, I’d bet you a lot of money we’re the most prepared team in the league. It comes down to our coaching staff, the players’ will to get better and work, and our preseason trips in February when it’s 30 degrees out. The more situations we get into, the more Game 4’s against Penn or Game 3’s against Dartmouth, it doesn’t get easier every year but we become more battle-tested.

M: What is the daily grind of the season like for you? The team starts out in Houston, Florida, sometimes California in February and March when it’s way too cold for baseball in New York, and then you play 20 straight games against Ivy League opponents. How much does playing ranked teams in Houston prepare you for the Ivy slate? 

G/N: It’s very good preparation, starting out in Houston. Obviously, playing ranked teams doesn’t hurt. Houston was a really positive thing for us, being able to go and beat the No. 6 team. UCF was really tough, but you have to shake the losses. Houston was great, but you can’t get too high on wins or too low on losses. When we get back here and are playing 4 games a weekend, one or two games can make a huge difference in the season. I look to that series against Princeton where we lost the first game, but won the next three. That showed our resilience.

It’s also that we don’t really see Houston as the No. 6 team in the country. We see them as our opponent for the day and we go in with the mindset that our team is equal. We’ve gotten Top 25 votes before too, so it’s really that we go into each game with the mindset that we can win. Most players on the team will cross that No. 6 out and just see Houston. That mindset has been the biggest change over the past few years. There’s no team we can’t hang with.

Getting ready to hit that ball a mile

M: Can you talk about your matchup with Penn specifically, since you’ve played them last in the regular season, and also in the one-game playoff the past two years? What is that matchup like, and how do you get over the hump so consistently? 

G/N:  We go into that series against Penn knowing that they’re a stronger team each year. We go into it knowing that it’s going to be a dogfight. Both teams are pretty evenly matched similarly, so it’s really about who’s more mentally prepared…I think we are. We stuck with it after getting down in the series early. It’s really about who can stick with it when you’re up or down five runs.

We’ve got to win 9 1-inning games, that’s how we see it. And it’s becoming sort of a rivalry with Penn, so that’s exciting too.

M: George, can you talk specifically about how you rebounded from a rough start in the first game against Penn to beat them in the one-game playoff, where you pitched marvelously? 

G: For me, the biggest thing against Penn is that we got to see them that first game. They were a team that was pretty aggressive on the fastball early, and we had to make sure we didn’t give them anything to hit with two strikes. That was the biggest thing in the first game, I think. They got a lot of big two-strike hits on mistake pitches. We made sure we worked on that and had a good feel of how to pitch them in the playoff game.

M: Can you talk about the balance between playing baseball well into the summer, which is a good thing because you’re in the NCAA Tournament, but also when other students are getting internships and doing other things for the summer, and you’re still playing collegiate baseball. How is that balance? 

G/N: Well, some of our guys are getting internships and talking to their bosses about when they’re going to report. But most of us play summer baseball, so it’s really playing through the Tournament and then hopefully getting to Omaha [the location of the College World Series], and then going right into summer baseball. You know, you never know what day is going to be your last, so not too concerned about the years after baseball. You trust that, when baseball is over, you’ll be happy and get where you’re going. But if you ask most of the guys on the team, there’s no question that they all want to be playing well into the summer. It’s one of the reasons we’re successful.

M: Lastly, is there anything else you want to tell me about playing baseball? 

G: Really, playing baseball here has been the best experience of my life. I’ve just been really blessed to play on this team. The talent, our coaches keep bringing in talented guys every year. It’s going to be a good, nice couple years.

N: A lot of people look at us and say we kind of own the league, but it’s getting harder every year. Taking Penn to 5 games, Dartmouth to 3 games two years in a row, it keeps getting tougher. But our young guys really keep us going, some of them pitching the biggest games of their life. We got the first goal out of the way, winning the Ivy League, so everybody is really looking forward to that regional. We have the team makeup to do it.

M: Lastly, George, you’re on the mound, and Nick, you’re at first base. How many pickoffs have the two of you combined for so far? 

G/N: You do it for or five times a game, times 10 starts, so probably 40 or 50. We’ve probably gotten 2 or 3 guys over there at first. Got some quick feet.

The Lions are idle until Memorial Day (May 25), when they find out which team they will face in the first round of the NCAA Baseball Tournament. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

George Thanopoulos and Nick Maguire in action via gocolumbialions.com