New coach helping offense flourish this year
Tuesday, May. 6, 2008 @ 12:57 am
Hitting coach is just one reason why the Nevada bats have performed so well
Photo by Rebecca Chase/Nevada Sagebrush
Nevada softball hitting coach Andy Dominique said there are hidden secrets that come with being a hitter.
“I’ve been there,” he said. “It’s hard to explain. I’m trying to bring to the girls what I know now. Stuff I wish someone had told me while I was in little league.”
Dominique’s guidance has led to Nevada being ranked 13th in the nation in hitting. The Wolf Pack is also ranked 19th as a team in the USA Today Poll.
“He really works on the mental aspect to hitting,” Sam Bias, who plays third base for Nevada, said. “He helps us on our mindset before we enter the batters box.”
Dominique keeps a notebook that records information on each Nevada hitter, including their pitch selections.
“Pitch selection is huge in baseball,” Dominique said. “If you don’t take bad pitches you aren’t going to get anything good to hit in your next at-bat.”
Dominique’s knowledge of hitting has equaled success for Nevada.
The Wolf Pack leads the Western Athletic Conference in batting average (.317), home runs (41) and runs batted in (264).
Nevada also won the most games in school history (41) this season and leadoff hitter Noelle Micka became the Nevada single-season hits leader with 72.
The Wolf Pack’s offense doesn’t always score consistently but it has the ability to explode.
Last week they showed it.
Nevada scored 10 runs in the final two innings of a game after trailing 9-0, winning 10-9 against UNLV.
Dominique played most of his baseball in Triple A, but was called up as a member of the 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series Championship team. He played nine games and got a ring.
“I have a piece of jewelry that almost everyone in all of sports can be jealous of,” said Dominique, who holds the Nevada baseball single season home run record (30), set in 1997.
Dominique’s baseball career was cut short in 2004 while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays.
He severed the arch of his left foot while rounding first base after he hit a double.
“It was a freak accident,” Dominique said. “I felt it pop while I was rounding the bases. It felt like someone shot me in the foot.”
Dominique lost all muscle in his foot because of the injury.
The former major league catcher has remained passionate about the art of hitting, though. He moved back to Reno started Andy Dominique’s Big League Skills, a hitting instruction camp.
He is Nevada’s all-time record holder in home runs (62), ranked second in runs batted in (239) and second in slugging percentage (.788).
“I can talk about hitting all day,” Dominique said. “I think that’s why the girls have given me so much respect. They know I’ve had conversations with the greats.
“I knew guys like Ted Williams and I talked about hitting with those guys.”
Dominique said teaching hitting in softball isn’t different from teaching it in baseball.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls,” he said. “When I teach the girls I don’t make them change their swings, I make them understand what they are doing wrong and then I allow them to make the changes they need to make.”
Nevada coach Michelle Gardner heard that Dominique was teaching hitting camps in town and asked him if he would like to help some of the players on her softball team.
“I knew he was in town leading hitting instruction camps,” Gardner said. “He really knows the art of hitting. He knows what it takes to be a hitter, mentally.”
Dominique said that making the transition to the Nevada hitting coach position wasn’t difficult because he already had developed relationships with Brittany Puzey and Britton Murdock through his hitting academy.
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