For senior Eric Acevedo, baseball season will be a special one. The infielder for the NSU Men’s Baseball team is one of 11 seniors on the 2013 roster. The team is predicted to finish second in the preseason Sunshine State Conference coaches’ poll.
Acevedo, a sport and recreation management major, is a Miami-Dade native and has spent almost his entire life playing baseball. The 21-year-old started playing the game at age 4, when his father Jesus Acevedo placed him in a children’s league.
Prior to NSU, Acevedo played baseball at Gulliver Preparatory School in Coral Gables, Fla. and at American Heritage High School in Plantation, Fla. He earned the Golden Glove Award during his senior year, under Head Coach Todd Fitzgerald, and batted .388 with ten home runs and 42 run batted in. In 2008, at American Heritage, the baseball team won the Class 3A title and the high school national title.
After high school, Acevedo attended Florida Gulf Coast University and Miami-Dade College before transferring to NSU.
I sat down with Acevedo and asked him a few questions:
How did you get involved with baseball?
My dad decided to start me in youth sports when I was little. He wanted me to stay active and associate myself with other athletes and keep away from the streets.
What do most enjoy about baseball?
The love for the game — it’s a passion that I grew into. It’s a desire that I have to go to the field all the time. It’s my getaway from life whenever I have stress or anything.
What do you find most challenging in playing?
Baseball, I believe, is one of the hardest sports to play. Hitting a round bat, round ball is one of the most difficult things to do. It’s a game of failure. You fail seven times out of ten, you’re still considered an all-star.
What makes you nervous in a game?
I can’t say that I get nervous; maybe a little pressure, but nervousness? No. I think the only time I felt nervous was when I played in the national championship.
How do you prepare for the season?
It’s a long process. It starts with the summer and how you pretty much exercise and condition and eat the right way, preparing yourself just for the fall season, which is another stage of preparation. And that consists of weightlifting and practicing long hours, mentally preparing yourself for a long season. It’s 52 games in a season and that takes a toll on your body.
How do you balance your schoolwork, social life and baseball practice?
It’s difficult, but having that task and that challenge, I believe pretty much shows how hard you’re willing to work. And it’s difficult having classes and tests and exams and studying for it, when you also have five hours a day that you’re giving up to baseball. So to balance yourself and use time management, it’s pretty difficult. But it’s achallenge, and if you can get through it, you can pretty much get through anything.
What professional player do you try to imitate?
It sounds wrong, but I love Pete Rose just for his hustle, on the field activities — not off the field. He’s a role model I like to follow.
What are your hopes for the season?
Two things winning: a conference championship and winning the national championship. And, personally, I want to continue the friendships that I have made when I am done playing college baseball.
