USF baseball building new culture. Will consistency follow?

Yahoo

07-05-2025

TAMPA — Cincinnati Reds games served as the soundtrack of his childhood in the mid-1970s.
Reared in a coal-mining region of southeast Ohio, Mitch Hannahs often segued into slumber by listening to the feats of the Big Red Machine — a world title ensemble led by Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan — as chronicled by radio play-by-play voice Marty Brennaman. For a kid cutting his athletic teeth, the Reds embodied every championship prerequisite: talent and tenacity, determination and devotion to craft.
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The exact same traits he's trying to pour into the once-middling baseball outfit in Tampa that he inherited 11 months ago.
'I think when you have your culture and really good players, you never have to remind guys about the target,' Hannahs said from the third-base dugout of USF Baseball Stadium on a warm early May afternoon.
'You never have to remind guys the work that needs to be done, you never have to push guys. I think it becomes a very self-motivated player trying to maximize his abilities to help the team at the highest level.'
Such is the multihued culture — green and gold, with some blue collar and Big Red sensibilities blended in — Hannahs is trying to instill in a USF program that was skidding prior to his arrival. Though located in one of the nation's recruiting epicenters, the Bulls had suffered three consecutive losing seasons, and four in the previous five (excluding the abbreviated 2020 COVID season) prior to his arrival.
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And while Hannahs encountered some nasty roots and rock-strewn patches while digging his own foundation, the Bulls mostly have responded to this 57-year-old baseball lifer who reached five NCAA tournaments and won a pair of conference titles in 11 years at Indiana State, his alma mater.
'It's definitely a blue-collar culture, you know,' said Bulls first baseman Sebastian Greico, a Gaither High alumnus whose 14 home runs lead the American Athletic Conference. 'We get out here and practice hard every day. I've been at several schools, and this is by far the hardest I've ever gotten to practice.'
Even after dropping three games to AAC front-runner UTSA this past weekend, USF (12-9, 24-21) remains in a three-way tie for second in the league. Two of its losses to the Roadrunners (18-3, 37-10) were by three total runs, and during one stretch of the weekend, it held UTSA scoreless for 10 consecutive innings.
And while the Bulls don't dominate any one statistical category, they don't lurk in the basement either. USF ranks fifth in conference games in team batting average (.273), is second in stolen bases (66) and is tied for sixth in team ERA (5.65).
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Which is to say, Hannahs has seen snippets of the culture he's trying to establish in his first 45 games.
'I see guys battling in the fire a little longer,' said Hannahs, whose club was set to face Florida in Gainesville on Tuesday night. 'I see pieces, but I also see pieces that you don't want to watch either, you don't want to see. So it's still a battle, and it's always a battle. Every program throughout the country probably has the same battles now that we're in the portal era.'
The initial skirmish Hannahs encountered upon his hiring was cerebral: The Bulls' collective mentality had to be transformed. To that end, he and his staff initially sacrificed nuance during early practices (holding runners, bunt defense, etc.) for a series of fast-tempo workouts designed to put the Bulls through a grind.
'There are a lot of good programs throughout the country,' Hannahs said.
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'You see them, but also when you get to the end of the season and you start looking at teams on video ... the maturity and mentality jump off the page. And it's the willingness to do whatever it takes to win as a group. And I think when you've lost and you've been in those cycles, you're a long way from that mentality.'
While restoring that collective mindset, Hannahs also had to replenish the roster. To this point, his initial portal acquisitions mostly have sparkled.
Veteran left-hander Corey Braun, an Osceola High alumnus who spent last season at Ole Miss, has flourished as the Friday night starter (6-2, 3.15 ERA, 80 IP, 82 strikeouts). FSU transfer Lance Trippel (.255, six home runs, 26 RBIs) has evolved into an anchor at catcher. Jesuit alumnus Bradke Lohry, a Tennessee transfer, has committed only one error at shortstop in the last two months.
Holdovers from the prior regime include Dunedin alumnus Marcus Brodil (team-best .335 batting average) and senior leftfielder Jackson Mayo (seven home runs). Bryce Archie, the Bulls' quarterback once pegged for midweek work in a best-case scenario, has so surprised Hannahs (3-1, 4.00 ERA, 36 innings) that he has been summoned in five conference games.
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'It's amazing what he's been able to do,' Hannahs said. 'And I guess the other thing, with the weather warming up, we really have to monitor him as well. But man, in this day and age, you just don't see many guys that can throw and run through all the football stuff and then come over here and throw strikes.'
Sounds like a grinder trying to maximize his gifts.
A snug fit for the new culture of Bulls baseball.
'I think the key for us is just continuing to put in our work; it really meshes a team,' Greico said.
'I think, as you can see, as the season has gone on we really found the guys that fit in the lineup. We'll still be tweaking our lineup a little bit here and there, tweaking a little bit defensively, but I think we've found that core group of guys that has really meshed well together. And I think you've seen in conference play, it's really paid off for us.'
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Contact Joey Knight at [e-mail]. Follow @TBTimes_Bulls
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