{"id":1215,"date":"2012-03-12T17:45:49","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T21:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/sites\/gsm_spr12\/?p=13"},"modified":"2016-02-02T12:19:01","modified_gmt":"2016-02-02T17:19:01","slug":"two-of-the-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2012\/03\/12\/two-of-the-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Two of the Best"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eagles make waves, battle adversity<\/h3>\n

Right now, J.I. Clements Stadium is home to two guys many would say are two of the best \"thebest\"<\/a>college baseball players in the nation.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s the offense of Victor Roache, a right-handed slugger who has battled injury throughout his career, yet hit 30 home runs in 2011 to lead all of Division I, or the pitching of Chris Beck, who tossed a complete-game, three-hit shutout against Samford in the 2011 Southern Conference Championship game and has become one of the nation\u2019s elite pitchers, the Eagles know talent when they see it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were fortunate to get them on campus, and that\u2019s the big key here,\u201d said Georgia Southern University head coach Rodney Hennon. \u201cIf you can get kids on campus, this University sells itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both players have come a long way since becoming Eagles in 2010, and they both had a similar journey on the way to a breakout sophomore campaign in 2011.<\/p>\n

DRAWN TO SOUTHERN<\/b>
\nWhen Georgia Southern assistant coach Mike Tidick and former pitching coach Jason Beverlin took a trip to Dayton, Ohio, in July 2008 to check out some high-school talent, they hit paydirt, finding Victor Roache of Ypsalanti, Mich., a heavy hitter who wasn\u2019t quite yet on the radar of the high-major, Division-I programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of schools all of a sudden came at me pretty fast,\u201d said Roache about the recruiting process in 2009. \u201cA majority of them were in Michigan. There were a couple schools in Indiana and a couple in Ohio, but not many schools down South. Georgia Southern was on me from the beginning and I thought, \u2018Hey, I want to get away. This could be my chance.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck played his prep ball 15 minutes away from the University of Georgia at Jefferson High School, and went against the tide of fellow JHS graduates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s usually big around there,\u201d said Beck, who was heavily recruited by the Georgia Bulldogs. \u201cYou just go to Athens. A lot of guys I know try to walk on over there, but not me. I wanted to come to Georgia Southern.\u201d<\/p>\n

EARLY STRUGGLES<\/b>
\nIn a 2010 lineup with senior heavy hitters Kyle Blackburn (.353, 17 home runs) and A.J. \"chris\"<\/a>Wirnsberger (.328, 10 home runs), Roache started 43 of 58 games and hit .252 while scrapping together eight homers, including two grand slams during his freshman campaign. He battled leg injuries throughout the end of the season and into the 2010 SoCon Tournament, and broke his leg during the offseason.<\/p>\n

Like Roache, Beck faced freshman struggles in 2010. Early in his career, he took his lumps in starts against then-No. 7 Clemson and then-No. 3 Georgia Tech. Beck battled injuries of his own through his first season at Georgia Southern, appearing in just 12 games as a freshman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of went through the same rocky road, struggling and having an inconsistent season as freshmen,\u201d said Beck, knowing full-well what would be expected from himself and from Roache in 2011. \u201cWe both came back to the same thing \u2013 the focus was on you to lead the team even though we were both sophomores. I really think that was when we started to mesh. We were a part of each other\u2019s season, and seeing what Victor did
\n(in 2011) was amazing to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

TURNING HEADS<\/b>
\nRoache exploded onto the stat sheet in 2011, but remained quiet in the dugout. If the Eagles \"victor\"<\/a>were going to win their second SoCon title in three years, Hennon needed Roache to do more than look the part of a leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a big, physical guy like that, Victor\u2019s soft-spoken,\u201d Hennon said of the 6-foot-1, 225-pound slugger. \u201cYou can be the nicest guy off the field, but when you get between the lines, it\u2019s time to get a little nasty and carry yourself like you\u2019re the baddest guy around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roache\u2019s 30 homers in 2011 weren\u2019t just amazing because of the newly-designed NCAA bats, implemented to better simulate wood. They weren\u2019t just amazing because only five other players out of the NCAA\u2019s 292 Division-I programs hit more than 20. And they weren\u2019t just amazing because they were the most in a single season in Georgia Southern history.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most impressive part of the stat was that Roache hit more home runs in 2011 than 164 entire Division-I teams. Virginia, the 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference champion, collectively hit only 25.<\/p>\n

Beck filled up the stat sheet, too, finishing the 2011 season ranked 28th in the nation with 109 strikeouts in 103 innings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made up his mind that whenever he was going to get that ball,\u201d Hennon said, \u201che was going to be ready to go out there and get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck tossed a complete-game shutout in the 2011 SoCon championship game against Samford. From Wednesday to Sunday at the tournament, Beck threw 234 pitches in 17 innings, struck out 22 and allowed only eight total hits and one earned run in two starts.<\/p>\n

Four days after the end of Georgia Southern\u2019s 2011 season, Beck and Roache left for Boston, Mass., to play as teammates with the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod League, a showcase for the nation\u2019s best talent. The trip served as a bonding Eagles make waves, battle adversity experience for the pair of Eagles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a 21-hour drive up to Boston together, Beck said. \u201cWe got to know each other off the baseball field even more than we already did. We played on the same team in Cape Cod, we played in the All- Star game, and we really got to share in every experience together. That\u2019s where best friends are made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roache, the recipient of the Most Outstanding Prospect Award, was second in the league in homers (6) and runs batted in (28). Beck was fifth in strikeouts (41) and sixth in earned-run average (2.12).<\/p>\n

Roache homered over the Green Monster during the All-Star Home Run Derby at Fenway Park of the Boston Red Sox, and Beck pitched a scoreless inning in the Cape Cod All-Star Game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither I wasn\u2019t nervous,\u201d Beck said about pitching in Fenway, \u201cor my heart was beating so fast I couldn\u2019t tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

A BUMP IN THE ROAD<\/b>
\nRoache ran into more adversity at the start of the 2012 season. He broke his wrist and was knocked out of action during just the sixth game of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a strong person. He\u2019s made of the right stuff. He\u2019s got a good perspective and he\u2019s got great support at home with his mom and dad who have a great outlook on things,\u201d said Hennon. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt in my mind he\u2019ll work his way through this and be a stronger person from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roache continues to influence his teammates on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s all about the team,\u201d said Beck. \u201cWith all the attention he\u2019s had, he has handled himself the right way. He\u2019s definitely a person I want to model myself after.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Matt Yogus<\/em><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eagles Make Waves, Battle Adversity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-spring-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}