CHARLESTON – The Charleston Southern baseball team just completed their first full year with new catching coach Josh Merrigan. The team saw considerable growth from their catchers this past spring, helping the team's overall defensive and pitching improvements.
 
Before arriving at CSU in September, Merrigan was an assistant coach at Radford under then Highlander head coach – and now Buc assistant coach – Karl Kuhn, where he had a close look at the development of the Buccaneers since fourth- year Head Coach Marc MacMillan's arrival in 2020.
 
"Josh provided an opportunity to fill a role that I feel is very important," shared MacMillan. "As a successful Division 1 pitcher who was drafted multiple times, Merrigan provided a catching coach who also understands pitching. With Coach Kuhn being a former catcher, this gave us the uniqueness of always having a coach present – if one should have to miss a workout due to recruiting, etc. - to develop our pitchers and catchers."
 
Seeing the program's growth under MacMillan, Merrigan knew that he wanted to be a part of what was taking place, leading him to accept the job presented at CSU.
 
"You could see how the baseball program under Mac has been on the upswing," said Merrigan. "While I was at another school in the conference, Charleston Southern stood out to me. The University's foundation, my personal feel for the program's growth, its location, and the weather, all were really appealing to me."
 
When the position first became available, Merrigan commented on how helpful and supportive the staff was to him during the interview process saying, "I felt like I was being recruited here, like as if I were a student-athlete."
 
Once Merrigan arrived on campus, he set his personal goals for the catchers - centered around each student-athlete taking complete ownership of their craft. In doing so, accountability and responsibility were heightened, and this in turn would elevate the catchers to another level in their receiving, blocking, and throwing. And as the catchers worked on this, they would improve strike percentages, block more balls, be in a better position for recovery, and assist in controlling the opponent's running game.
 
In the fall, Merrigan emphasized treating every rep as a game rep. It soon became a common occurrence to see the catchers in the bullpen taking ownership of their own development. During each bullpen or flat ground, their development increased the pitchers' confidence. As confidence was earned, the pitcher-catcher relationships continued to grow and a better understanding of how both groups' pitch-to-pitch execution impacted one another.
 
After having two and a half months of team skills/practices from the start of classes until the beginning of November, Merrigan could see the improvement in the catchers already. Next, he was excited to see how their ownership and work would pay off in the spring. Merrigan knew they were better, and he was certain it would not take long for others to see it.
 
By the time the season began in the spring, however, the Bucs were down to just two healthy catchers on the roster – seniors Nicholas Fazzari and Jared Payne – after starting with five in August. Merrigan was aware of the serious position both the team and catchers were facing, saying, "I always knew our position was just one injury away from being down to having a single guy capable of playing behind the plate."
 
A great deal of credit can be given to Payne and Fazzari as well as they split time behind the plate with them starting in 25 and 24 of the 50 games on the season, respectively. "They did a phenomenal job all season," emphasized Merrigan. Over nonconference play, Fazzari got the nod regularly for two of the three games with Payne having the other.
 
Once the Big South slate began, it flipped with Payne typically taking the field first for multiple matchups.
 
Each game experience saw the catchers continue to improve, and by the start of conference play, the catchers were beginning to truly excel. When the regular season was over, Charleston Southern ranked 2^nd in the league in opponent stealing percentage at 74.4%, tying for the league-high by throwing out 22 total runners on the year and having 14 of them come during Big South play. That was 10 higher than the 2022 season. Payne excelled in this area, throwing 13 runners out with only 62.5% of runners able to successfully steal a bag on the year.
 
Additionally, the number of wild pitches and passed balls saw a significant improvement. In 2022, there were 81 wild pitches and seven passed balls. With Merrigan's leadership and training, the numbers dwindled to 45 and five in 2023, a whopping 43% combined decrease.
 
"We worked hard to negate free bases, keeping would-have-been wild pitches in front of us," Merrigan emphasized. "This helped lower our team ERA, play the pace of game we wanted, and, most importantly, put our team in a better position to be successful."
 
Looking back on the year, Merrigan enjoyed seeing Payne and Fazzari truly take ownership of their game and watching their relentless work ethic every day. "The way they accepted the responsibility their position required, helped our pitchers, and selflessly aided each other's game prep, they displayed what it means to be BUCS," beamed Merrigan. "You have to credit these two. They are the ones that make the systems in place flourish."
 
As the staff begins to prepare for the new year with team activities beginning later this month, Merrigan acknowledged there will be new challenges.
 
"The 2023-2024 season will be different, but we will find ways to get better and continue to raise the bar for every year after."
 
The Bucs will have six players competing for a spot behind the plate this upcoming spring with a pair of freshmen, three junior college transfers, and a rising senior who missed most of 2023 due to injury in Sam Manwarren.
 
In the meantime, Merrigan and the staff will continue the growth displayed by this position group and elevate #BUCSBall.
 
The Buccaneers will open their fall season on Friday, September 22 with three games scheduled in October. For more information, follow the Bucs online and/or our social media outlets.