Suffolk University’s baseball newcomers are already beginning to impress, as two first year players, pitcher Nick Reiser and designated hitter Harry Painter, were named the Commonwealth Coast Conference’s Rookie of the Week and Player of the Week in their first full week of league play. Painter was also named the Ram of the week by Suffolk Athletics.
With Reiser’s Rookie of the Week win and Painter’s Player of the Week win, the two picked up the first weekly awards of their college baseball careers. But both players prefer to maintain a team-first attitude rather than focusing on their own personal achievements.
“My goal here is to win as much as possible in the conference, make the national tournament and go as far as we can as a team. If we do that, hopefully the personal awards will come with it,” said Painter. “You have to focus on winning as a team, and if the personal awards come then they come, but if not, it’s no big deal.”
Painter, who initially transferred to Suffolk from UMass Lowell this year as a right-handed pitcher, switched to designated hitter after a slow start to the season pitching.
He was also pitcher-only at UMass, so he said he stopped hitting for a while after high school.
“At the beginning of last summer, I put a lot of hours into hitting in the cages with my father, some high school teammates from back home, as well as my high school head coach just to get back to speed with hitting since it had been so long since I’ve done it in a game,” Painter said.
Despite the slow start to his Suffolk baseball career when it comes to pitching, Painter still wants to pitch again down the line. But that doesn’t mean he’s giving up hitting, either.
In fact, he said that he focused so much on hitting and getting his swing back that his pitching took a hit.
“I kind of put it on the backburner thinking it would always be there, but now I have to get back to work and get my pitching right,” said Painter. “I hit and pitched all throughout high school, so I know I can do it. It’s just a matter of smoothing things out mechanically and I’ll get there.”
Despite the change in positions, Painter broke out as a hitter early in the season, winning Player of the Week after garnering eight hits in three games, and batting in six runs while scoring five runs of his own in the process.
“The biggest thing is just putting the work in with both pitching and hitting, and then staying focused on what our plan is as a team and focusing on my approach at the plate,” said Painter. “Just trying to be myself on the field is the biggest thing.”
Reiser won Rookie of the Week after pitching seven innings in an 8-2 win against Curry College.
“I’m just happy that game went the way it did. I thought we hit really well and it was one of our cleaner games,” said Reiser. “I was happy to be part of it because we played a good game from the first pitch to the last.”
Reiser struck out five batters in the contest, and only one of Curry College’s two runs was held against Reiser as an earned run.
“I want to continue to be the guy that Coach Del Prete can call on in big opportunities to help the team win the most, or to be the guy who’s going to go out there and keep us in a game,” said Reiser.
Reiser credits the culture of Suffolk’s baseball team for helping him improve in his short time playing for the university.
“Everyone on the team’s so supportive and is definitely there for each other when things are going your way or when they’re not going your way,” said Reiser. “It’s a great atmosphere to be a part of.”
Reiser and Painter are the first Suffolk baseball players to win weekly awards from the CCC since Suffolk moved into the CCC ahead of the 2020-21 season.
Follow Joe on Twitter @JoeDiminoSU
