Athlete of the Week: Raul Shah - Baseball

Sophomore third baseman Raul Shah had quite the weekend at the plate, especially in the doubleheader against Swarthmore. Shah was 5-6 at the plate with two homers, leading Hopkins to wins in both games. On the week, Shah hit .611 at the plate with a 1.056 slugging percentage, and was named in D3baseball.com’s Team of the Week. After spending last season as a seldom-used backup, Shah has emerged as one of the key contributors on the team this year. He was kind enough to answer a few questions about his season, his offseason training and the team’s performance thus far.

The News-Letter: You obviously had a tremendously successful weekend at the plate, particularly in the doubleheader against Swarthmore. What preparations did you undertake to allow for your success at the plate during the game?

Raul Shah: In season, we practice every day we don't have a game — barring the day off — so we as a team get a lot of work in as far as hitting and fielding goes. Our coaches truly do a fantastic job of helping us prepare physically and mentally during practice. With that being said, each day I go back to the batting cages at night for two to three hours to hit some more and do a few defensive drills. I don't think anyone else on our team, including coaches, is aware of this, but without question this extra preparation I do at night has given me all the confidence I need to succeed at the plate and in the field. I am a firm believer that hard work always translates to success.

N-L: What sorts of things have you been working on this season? What do you think you've improved on the most in-season? What do you still feel you need to improve on?

RS: The biggest thing I've worked on this season has been my mental game. Our infield and hitting coach has stressed that all year and even suggested a book for me on the subject matter. Baseball is easily the most frustrating of all sports; the best hitters fail 70 percent of the time. That is a lot of failure to deal with. Two examples of the changes I have made mentally are:

1. Visualization. The power of visualization is absolutely incredible. Before every pitch I see myself crushing the ball at the plate or making the play in the field. I always say, "If you can't see yourself doing something, you'll never be able to actually do it." It all starts with visualizing. 

2. Before every pitch, I have a phrase I say to myself when I'm in the batter's box: "See the ball over plate. Be easy." This prepares me to react to a pitch "over the plate" and saves me from swinging at bad pitches. "Be Easy" just tells me to relax and have fun. 

In-season, I have most improved on hitting off-speed pitches. I think most batters will tell you that hitting a curveball is not their favorite thing in the world to do. However, this year, I needed to work on that if I wanted to become a successful hitter. During our practices, I have our coaches throw me extra batting practice, just throwing curveballs. I'm still looking to improve on my throwing speed. Throwing speed is one of those things you are born with, but there are some things you can do to improve it, such as band work, long toss and strength training. This offseason, I will be focusing on these three to improve my throwing speed. 

N-L: In similar fashion, what are the highs and lows of your season?

RS: Thankfully for myself and everyone on our team, my low of the season was at the very beginning. I had a problem being flat footed when I fielded ground balls which led to a few errors at the start of the season. However, since those first three or four games, everything has returned back to normal. I took some extra ground balls with our infield coach in the morning to make sure I fixed the problem. The high of my season is right now. All facets of my game came together at the same time and it's been a great last week. More importantly, we got two big wins last week.

N-L: What did you do in the offseason to transform from more of a backup to a key contributor this season?

RS: Last season was one of the most mentally testing seasons I had been through. We had a phenomenal third baseman and shortstop last year, both of which were seniors. As a result, I was the backup and didn't see much time in the field. However, I knew if I worked hard I could be our starter the next year as a sophomore. So, in the offseason I just worked as hard as I could. I put on 20 pounds before this season, which was my goal. I was putting in about six hours a day of work seven days a week. Again, nobody would know this on our team because I purposely would do the extra workouts, fielding and hitting at night when no one was around. I just knew that if I worked hard, everything would fall into place. 

N-L: This season has not been the most successful record-wise. How have you and your teammates managed to stay focused and motivated?

RS: We are a young team and we knew that going into this season. With that there comes some bumps in the road. However, that doesn't change the fact that we have some of the best players in the country. Our pitching staff is nothing short of phenomenal and our young hitters have so much potential. My point is we don't have any doubt in each other. Someone different comes up big every day and it is this belief system that has allowed us to show up to every game with the expectation of winning. Furthermore, we as a team worked extremely hard this offseason — in the weight room and on the field. We know we work harder than any team we face and as a result we feel we deserve to win every game. "All In" is our team slogan. It has kept us together and helped us stay focused to win as many games as we can from here on out.