July 19, 2011
James Katsiroubas is only 21 years old yet the UMass-Lowell junior's baseball career has had the sort of twists and turns usually seen by a veteran minor-leaguer.
It all started when the University of Vermont decided to drop baseball a couple of years ago.
"It was tough," said Katsiroubas, the Nashua Silver Knights third baseman/designated hitter who has been on a tear the last couple of weeks. He is hitting .318 with four homers and a Futures Collegiate Baseball League-leading 28 RBIs. "We found out a week before the season started. A week before we were going down to Vanderbilt to take on Vanderbilt. It was devastating. We didn't know what to do.''
"To have someone come into your locker room and say, `You're program's done', how do you take that?" Silver Knights manager Mike Chambers said. "That's devastating. Especially a Division I program like that, that had been pretty good in the past.
"Then transferring to another program, that's tough. You get a new coach, you've got to impress a whole new group of people. It's a difficult task, and he's kind of still in the middle of it. You see now he's starting to get comfortable."
Fast forward to a year later, after Katsiroubas had transferred to UMass-Lowell. Just before that season, which would have been his sophomore year, was to begin, he came up with a mysterious hand infection and needed surgery that sidelined him for nearly a year.
How much can a kid take?
"It made me stronger as a person." he said. "Going through adversity like that. I'm happy where I am now and I'm looking to have fun now."
He's doing just that. He won a game for Nashua with a three-run blast a week ago against Torrington. All this makes the memory of what he's been through, including his missed 2010 season, ever more distant.
"It was tough, " Katsiroubas said. "I really didn't know what to do. But I had my teammates there supporting me. They helped me through it. I came back healthy. I had an all-right season, I'm just looking to come back next year and have an even better one."
Indeed, after all that time off, Katsiroubas was a bundle of energy waiting to let loose.
"The first time I got back, my emotions went through the roof," he said. "I was just happy to be back on the field again."
And now, with the extension offered by the summer wooden bat season, Katsiroubas has found his stroke again. This past spring, he hit .281 with one homer and 22 RBIs in 51 games.
"What it was for me is getting my confidence back," he said. "It was tough coming back from an injury, because I didn't know how well I was going to do. And then once Florida (the River Hawks early season trip) came around, I knew I was who I used to be. So I'm just trying to get better and run with it."
"He's out there every day, he's been out there every day in the spring," Chambers said. "He's also closer to home. All that put together makes it a little more relaxed, gives him a little more motivation, definitely."
But oh, the power. Katsiroubas has been digging the long ball.
"I've never had (power like this)," he said. "I'm just swinging the bat well. .... This is a pretty big park here (Holman). But playing here, playing in this great facility and in front of all these fans, I couldn't ask for anything more."
The idea is that when cleanup hitter Mark Sanborn began driving in runs, pitchers would pitch around him and Katsiroubas, hitting fifth, would be the eventual beneficiary.
"It's day to day," he said. "Sometimes I see off-speed, sometimes I see fastballs. I'm just looking to see a fastball and drive it. If they want to pitch around Mark, that's fine. I just get up there and try to do my job and drive some runs in."
Katsiroubas would love to take his baseball career "as far as it will go. I don't know where it will take me, but whatever comes my way, I'm going to take that opportunity and see what I can do."
The complete article can be found on the Nashua Telegraph website.
