Upside down, inside out and headed in the right direction
At 32- 1, Fairfield making case for national respect
Fairfield coach Bill Currier is deep into a professional life of diamonds and dugouts, and understands that baseball, no matter how easily explained with reams of data, is an upside- down and inside- out sport.
So as the Stags’ kept stringing together victories without a loss in March and April, the 61- year- old coach took a backwards — but straightforward — approach toward players glowing with optimism.
He reminded them why they stunk. He told them they were bound to lose. He camouflaged his own positivity with the constructive pessimism that is often the irascible echo of baseball satisfaction. It’s who he has to be, because growing baseball trends and vibes are always one starting pitcher or strange hop away from careening in the opposite direction.
“I told them when we were 10- 0, ‘ That’s great, but no baseball team goes undefeated,’ ” Currier said. “Then at 20- 0 they’re going, ‘ Coach, you know, we’re still undefeated.’ I said, ‘ I know it. But you’re not that bleepin’ good.’ ”
What did Currier do when Fairfield finally lost, offer congratulations? No, he just told players he expected them to do what they had done so consistently throughout the season — fight like heck not to lose the next one.
The Stags began another winning streak, adding a five- game surge to a 27- 0 start to finish the regular season 32- 1.
“It’s been magical,” said Jake Noviello, a 6- foot- 5 junior righthanded pitcher.
“This whole season has been pretty fun,” said senior catcher Mike Caruso, the team’s leading hitter.
Teams have good seasons, even great ones. Fairfield’s, so far, has been something next level, a body of work to lift the program, flip college baseball on its head and allow Currier, the coach at Vermont when the program was discontin
ued in 2009, to experience the thrill of a career reinvented.
It has also given the Stags a strange status as a favorite in some ways and underdog in others, embracing opportunity and feeling pressure, as they prepare for the postseason.
See, there’s always a twist around the corner in baseball, such as Fairfield being nationally recognized but not necessarily fully respected, headed toward the May 20 MAAC Tournament opener with all goals remaining and work to do. Because no matter the dominant way the Stags have reached this point, the narrow road of a small conference in the Northeast only goes so far in the eyes of the college baseball world.
Fairfield, despite being No. 4 in the sport’s RPI, might have to win the MAAC Tournament and its automatic bid to even make the 64- team NCAA Tournament field. Upside- down and inside- out, perhaps. Reality, for sure — even with 33 at- large bids available.
“Would we get an atlarge?” Currier said. “That’s not up to me, but that would be a first from the Northeast [ outside of] a UConn or a BC. I’d love to be in that room, listening to the committee. The ACC, SEC, they get like 9- 10 at- large bids. We’d be taking one from those teams and there would be a firestorm, of, ‘ Do we give one to Fairfield? They finished third [ in their conference] but they’re 35- 3.’ That would be interesting. We’re not going to be the guys deciding. There’s not a single guy from the Northeast on that committee.”
Whose heard of Fairfield? Noviello hadn’t until the Stags began recruiting him — and he grew up in in Franklin, Mass. Try getting people from, say, Louisiana or Florida to understand that this team might be for real.
Fairfield had enough on April 26 after improving to 25- 0, composing a social media post on Twitter that read as follows:
Dear @d1baseball and @BaseballAmerica,
We would like to apply for a position in your Top- 25 rankings. We would bring an unblemished 25- 0 record and a No. 2 RPI ranking to your group. Attached is our resume, we look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
# RanktheStags
Fairfield, which actually did post a resume, is currently ranked No. 25 by Baseball America and No. 27 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
Noviello is 7- 0 with a 1.34 ERA, which ranks ninth in the nation. Caruso, of Wallingford, is at the other end of that battery and 10th in the nation with a .413 batting average. Fairfield ranks sixth in team batting average (. 315) and second in ERA ( 2.73, trailing only Monmouth’s 2.38).
“You have to be careful not to let things get to your head,” said Noviello, who sat out last season and went from February- August without even throwing a ball while recovering from a partially torn UCL. “To win 32 games in a season is great, out of 33. But the coaches did a really good job of reminding us of not getting too high and not too low. We’ve just tried to make sure we’re still moving in the same direction.”
Fairfield can’t control what conference it is in. The Stags couldn’t control their strength of schedule, either, in a COVID- restricted season that prevented March trips to play major Southern schools in non- conference road series that come with a paycheck — and, inevitably, a few losses.
The odds of Fairfield’s record- setting start — 10- 0, then 20- 0, eventually 27- 0 — taking place in a season that included early “guarantee” games would have been markedly lower. Then again, no one would be arguing that they haven’t played anyone worth noting.
Fairfield played only conference games this season, and rolled. The winning streak of 28, dating to the final game of last year’s discontinued season, is a program and conference record. The Stags are the first team in MAAC history to be ranked in Baseball America’s Top 25, reaching No. 23. They were the last remaining undefeated team in NCAA Division I or II this year and currently hold the highest winning percentage in Division I history — .970, above Arizona State’s .914 in 1972.
The team has been the center of atypical attention, their success celebrated, their roll- your- eyes resume criticized by the Power 5 circles. Noise, Currier and players call it. They can choose to pay attention, or not.
“The biggest thing this team has been able to do is show up ready to play,” Caruso said. “Throughout this, we haven’t worried about the future or what’s going on with social media or this or that. We’ve only been working on, and thinking about, the present and the next game.”
Exactly as Currier wants it, needs it. There’s too much to analyze in the everyday to become consumed with making history or wondering much about what anyone around the country thinks.
You just do what you can today and tomorrow, which is the approach Currier took in 2009. Vermont cited budget concerns in eliminating the sport. It was like taking a fastball to the ribs, sure, but it did lead him to a Fairfield experience going increasingly well.
Currier, who played at UVM, was selected by the Phillies in the sixth round of the 1981 MLB draft, the highest for a Vermont player at the time. He spent three years in the minor leagues before returning to Burlington as an assistant coach in 1983. A native of nearby Essex Junction, Currier was made head coach two years later, seemingly his dream job.
He spent 22 seasons at Vermont, 20 without the program offering scholarships. The oldest of his three sons, Brad, was on the team when the program was eliminated.
“Disheartening,” Currier said. “To be 50 years old, starting new again, somewhere else, was a little odd.”
But if you can’t be sure what’s ahead when you’re up, you can’t be sure what’s ahead when you’re down, either. Currier went south, as a volunteer assistant at Tennessee under Jack Raleigh, who had been his assistant at Vermont in 1992. A year later he was named an assistant and head- coach- in- waiting at Fairfield under the outgoing John Slosar, the Stags’ coach for 27 years.
Fairfield was well positioned to become a more consistent contender in the MAAC and would continue to make strides. Alumni Field was renovated in 2016, when Currier made his NCAA Tournament debut as the Stags won the MAAC regular season and tournament championships. Other baseball amenities and facilities, like a pitching and hitting building, have been erected or refurbished in recent years.
Currier’s teams have won 30- plus games in three of the past four full seasons. In 2019, he surpassed 700 career victories and pushed his 32- year record over .500
( 742- 696- 4).
This year, the Stags’ only loss was to Siena May 2. Leaving the field that day, Currier said, “was like leaving a funeral.” Fairfield beat Siena 4- 0 the next day, starting another roll into a 10- day break for a conference tournament quarterfinal series.
Justin Guerrera, a junior infielder from Watertown, leads the team with 10 home runs, 40 RBIs and a .723 slugging percentage. Michael Sansone, a junior lefty from Cheshire, is 7- 0 with a 2.27 ERA and team- high 50 strikeouts.
“Getting a national ranking, it’s given us a little respect,” Noviello said. “But the regular season is over and everyone is back to 0- 0. We know and understand what is at stake. We’re ready to, hopefully, bring home a MAAC championship.”
All Currier asks is that they continue to give all they have. He knows he coaches in an upside- down and insideout game.
“The best basketball team usually wins and the best football team usually runs over the next team,” he said. “In baseball, you [ can face] a fabulous pitcher and the team might not be as good but, boy, that guy can shut you down. So I’m happy with the guys turning up that kind of a record with those kind of obstacles. Baseball is a cruel game. It can flip on you in a heartbeat. We’ve done a good job with that all year. They’ve got a lot of confidence, which they should, and they’re proud of what they’ve done and we are, too. But it’s a crazy game, man.”
There’s one way to simplify it.
“We’ve got to tell them they stink all week,” Currier said. “Just to keep their head in the right place.”