USD Magazine, Summer 2002

with the San Diego Padres, knows how egos can tear teams apart. "These guys wanted to do well for themselves, but they also didn 't want to let their teammates down. There weren 't any prima donnas out there." fl'li or surprisingly, Barrett was handed the ~ll ball for the opener of the make-or-break three-game series against Santa Clara on April 12. And after the players-only meeting, a different Toreros team took the field . Their bats came alive and they fielded like All-Scars, dumping Santa Clara 13-5 in the first game behind Barrett's strong perform– ance. After a Saturday win in extra innings, USD looked forward to a sweep and momemum for an upcoming road trip. But much like their up-and-down season, the Toreros in the end couldn't solve the Santa Clara pitching and dropped the final game, 7-2. "Two steps forward and one seep back," says Hill. "We had to remind ourselves char winn ing is a big thing made up of a lot of little things, and we were not doing the little things consistently." Whatever signs of strength the Toreros showed against Santa Clara quickly disap– peared on the ensuing road trip. The ream lost two of three ro mediocre Sc. Mary's in northern California, then stopped on the way home for a non-conference game against perennial power Long Beach State. Maybe they should have kept heading south on the 405 freeway. The Toreros lost 21-3, their worst beating of the season.

team meetings for sub-par performances. But the Long Beach fiasco did not provoke a Hill outburst. In fact, he dismissed the game as just a bump in the road . "I told the guys the sooner we forgot this game the better," he says. "We popped a movie in the VCR on the bus ride home, and that was that. We went back to prac– tice and back to work." If baseball is a business, than Hill is the ultimate CEO. He approaches the game and his players analytically, examining the pros and cons of his lineup before each game, running efficient practices that emphasize the basics. Most of all, he examines himself as a coach . "After a game, Rich will analyze and evaluate what happened, especially if he feels it was a move he made that lost the game, " says his wife, Lori . "But he is never unpleasant, and he has a great ability to channel that energy in a positive way. " As a father of two and a former col– lege player, Hill knows he is more than a baseball coach - he is a mentor to student-athletes who come to USD for an education first, the chance to play ball second. He keeps a sharp eye on his players in the classroom: anyone

In the locker room before that long bus ride home, the players prepared for a tongue-lashing from their coach . Hill has an intensity more characteristic of a foot– ball or hockey coach - or a military commander - than a baseball manager. He loathes excuses and has never been reluctant to call out individual players in

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