There’s no denying it: Chris Roberts was slumping. Through the MSU baseball team’s first 10 games of the season, the sophomore left fielder was hitting .167 and he wasn’t feeling like himself.
“I’m not gonna lie, I pressed a little bit,” Roberts said of his early season struggles. “I figured this is going to be here all year for a little bit, then I took a step back and was just like, ‘You know, I’ve played baseball a long time. It’s been fun and it’s always going to be a game, and go out there and have fun and see how things go.’”
Despite his attitude, things only improved slightly for Roberts in the following weeks. After 25 games he had bumped his average up to .240 — better, but nowhere near the .331 batting average and 27 RBIs he put up during a freshman campaign in which he was named to Ping Baseball’s Freshman All-American third team.
The struggles at the plate ate away at Roberts, who admitted he felt uncomfortable in the batter’s box with his stance and swing.
“I was pretty low on myself and I wasn’t really doing much to help the team win, and that hurt because we knew that I could produce and do things to help a team win,” Roberts said. “It was just a matter of time before everything came around.”
And did it ever. Roberts has hit .474 during the past 10 games — including a 10-for-16 performance in last weekend’s series against Michigan — to improve his average to .309, good for second on the team.
“He’s swinging the bat really well,” said MSU baseball head coach David Grewe. “He’s been really working hard on his swing and it’s starting to come back and we’re all relieved to get through this tough stretch.”
Despite the gaudy statistics Roberts put up during the 2007 season, it should come as no surprise that he had his struggles this year — it is baseball, after all.
“Everybody gets in slumps,” Roberts said. “It’s a big grind, a lot of games, a lot of adversity. I mean, it’s one of the few games where you can fail so many times and still be successful.”
Although Roberts is hitting above .300 for the first time this season, he won’t panic if his batting average should drop — after all, he’s been there before.
Roberts said there are more important things to worry about than batting average — such as breaking the five-game losing streak the Spartans currently face.
“Everybody looks to hit above .300, (but) whether that happens or not I just basically want to be in the situation where you can produce — hit a winning RBI, put your team ahead, make a big play in the field,” Roberts said.
“Those are the things that really matter, obviously — to get the wins up there and help the team win.”
Roberts and his hot bat hope to get the 13-21 Spartans back to their winning ways against Toledo (11-22) at 3:05 p.m. today at Kobs Field.
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