Home runs don’t come easy for a college baseball team, but the power hitting Bombers have hit 15 so far this season.

The power numbers are way up this year, after the Blue and Gold only had 11 round trippers last season. Senior right fielder Rob Raux leads the team with four while junior catcher Drew Ash is right on his heels with three.

A total of eight team members have homered this season, four of whom have more than one. Senior Shane Wolf has hit two long balls along with junior center fielder Matt Samela, who hit two in the same game on March 26.

Raux said the team has not been doing anything too differently at the plate, besides some minor tweaking to swings.

“No one has been doing anything different aside from making small adjustments to our swings here and there,” Raux said.

No one is quite sure why the power numbers have gone up so much this season, but the players seem to all agree that the return of Assistant Coach Frank Fazio has helped the team’s overall hitting improve.

“Getting Coach Fazio back has been helping us out a lot,” Raux said. “We’ve been working on our timing and our hands and have been taking more swings in the cage.

While the players say Fazio is the catalyst for the recent surge in power, Fazio credits the players’ hard work and confidence as the reason for the influx of home runs.

“They believe in themselves,” Fazio said. “We can teach and we can coach but it always takes the kid to make the difference. They are beginning to see the success of their hard work and dedication.”

Ash, who only had 10 at bats and no home runs throughout all of last season because of an injury, has seen that hard work paying off immediately. He has hit three home runs so far, only one behind his total in 2006.

“Coach Fazio has introduced a lot of innovative ideas to help us shift our weight and drive the ball,” Ash said. “He’s individualizing our swings and working with what we have. It’s really been working out well.”

Fazio said the team does not try to hit home runs. Rather, they try to make solid contact and sometimes the ball leaves the park.

“Every time we step up to the plate we want to hit the ball hard,” Fazio said. “If you do that, you’ll start hitting home runs and doubles. Doubles are great too.”

Though they may not be trying to hit round trippers, all of these home runs have the Blue and Gold crushing their opponents on the scoreboard. In their 16 wins on the season, the South Hill squad has defeated their opponents by an average of over six and a half runs per game.

Ash said the team’s offensive power has been productive because they try to hit line drives and sometimes will see it disappear over the fence.

“We pride ourselves on hitting line drives,” Ash said. “If you get lucky, line drives will go out for home runs.”