The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Hatfield making presence felt for RedHawks

Greg Lynch Miami designated hitter Zak Hatfield, who is leading the team in home runs and RBIs.

Meininger shoots Elks past Alter in overtime
11:37 p.m.
Wright State still has hopes of hosting
10:48 p.m.
Area athletes going on to play in college
10:46 p.m.
Trotwood state football team being honored
10:43 p.m.
Vandalia QB signs with Butler
10:41 p.m.
> More sports headlines

By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 7:06 AM Tuesday, April 21, 2009

OXFORD — Zak Hatfield is the first to admit that his last several games with the Miami University baseball team are nothing to brag about.

“I’m in a little bit of a slump right now,” said Hatfield, Miami’s new designated hitter this year, who in the RedHawks’ last five games, has gone 1-for-12 with six strikeouts.

“Yes, he is struggling a little bit,” Miami coach Dan Simonds said, “but he’ll get out of it.”

Simonds can afford to be patient with Hatfield, a 6-foot-2, 255-pound transfer from Lakeland Community College.

Hatfield possesses what Simonds calls “plus-plus power,” the ability to “mis-hit a ball out of a park.”

Hatfield leads Miami with 10 home runs and 37 RBIs and ranks second in the MAC in both categories. The 10 homers are more than any RedHawks player hit all of last season.

“He’s been a great addition,” Simonds said, “not only with his baseball ability, but he has emerged as a leader, too.”

Hatfield had been a sensation on and off the field at Concordia Lutheran High School in Fort Wayne, Ind., where he set the career records for home runs, RBIs and batting average and also received multiple awards for community service.

“I got a lot of Division I looks out of high school,” Hatfield said. “I had previously committed to somewhere else but then decided otherwise based on some things that were going on there.”

Hatfield spent two seasons at Lakeland, located on the east side of Cleveland, near Mentor. Last season he scorched opposing pitchers with 11 homers, 46 RBIs and a .423 average. Then he decided to give NCAA Division I another shot.

“There were a lot of good references about coach Simonds, and it has a great college atmosphere, a picture-perfect place to go to college,” Hatfield said.

“I think I’ve surprised a lot of people,” he added. “I’m trying to live up to the expectations coach Simonds had for me. One of the big things I’d had to adapt to is patience. I got off to such a good start, it got to the point where I wasn’t seeing any good pitches and I was trying to do too much with the little they were showing me.”

Opposing pitchers are giving Hatfield a diet of “a lot of off-speed stuff. Not a lot of fastballs.”

Hatfield’s one hit last week was a single that helped spark Miami’s six-run rally in the seventh inning of the RedHawks’ 15-9 victory over Buffalo in the first game of what became a three-game series sweep.

“That was a big hit, a line drive to the opposite field,” Simonds noted. “That’s the sign of a quality hitter.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.

Share this article