WSSU plays in CIAA baseball tournament today

Winston-Salem State's first baseball season since 1973 has been successful, and coach Kevin Ritsche is hoping the success continues during the CIAA Baseball Tournament in Petersburg, Va.

WSSU, seeded No. 3, will take on No. 2 St. Augustine's at 10 a.m. today to open the four-team double-elimination tournament. No. 1 Chowan will play No. 4 Virginia State at 1 p.m., and the first-game losers will meet in an elimination game at 4 p.m. The title game is scheduled for Saturday.

"A true measure of how we've done this season will be if we can win the CIAA," said Ritsche, who has one of the best pitching teams in the league. "That was our goal at the start of the season, to win the conference, and we have a chance to do that."

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Fitzgerald hopes to fit baseball into his schedule

Winston-Salem State University Interim Head Baseball Coach Kevin Ritsche.

Dominique Fitzgerald chuckled when asked if he might be the best baseball player at Winston-Salem State. Fitzgerald is a rising junior wide receiver on the WSSU football team. But he's also very interested in playing baseball next spring, when the Rams will field a team for the first time since 1973. "I've already talked to Coach (Kevin) Ritsche, so we'll just have to see what happens," Fitzgerald said in a telephone interview.

Ritsche, named the interim coach of the fledging baseball program last week, is trying to find players for a team that will play in the CIAA next spring. He'll have to do that without the benefit of a large recruiting budget, so any talent he can find that's already on campus can only help.

Fitzgerald, who played football and baseball at George Washington High School in Danville, Va., is playing summer baseball with the Virginia Marlins, a traveling team of college players based in Danville. He's plays the outfield, and he also pitched some in high school.

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WSSU Rams name interim coach

Winston-Salem State wasted little time finding a coach for its new baseball program, naming Kevin Ritsche yesterday (June 30) on an interim basis. "Wow," Ritsche, 28, said as he was introduced by Chancellor Donald Reaves at the Bowman Gray Stadium Fieldhouse. WSSU, as required by the CIAA for reentrance, must field a baseball team by the spring of 2011, and Ritsche said he's ready to start putting the pieces together. WSSU last offered baseball in 1973.

"After a 38-year hiatus, baseball is back at Winston-Salem State University," said Reaves, an avid baseball fan. "We have a short time frame to get a team on the field, but now is the best time to once again have baseball back at this university." Athletics Director Bill Hayes stayed in-house to find his coach. Ritsche has been a faculty member in WSSU's exercise-science department since 2005 and is working on his doctorate.

"After I talked to Kevin, I didn't have to talk to anybody else," Hayes said. "This guy wants to start practice now, so he's ready to hit the ground running. That's what we need." Ritsche was a catcher and team captain at The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn., and later a graduate assistant there. He was an honorable-mention NAIA All-America in 2004.

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