During a mound visit against Niagara last Wednesday, a handful of Syracuse players began singing along to the “Jeopardy” theme song in the dugout. In unison, the entire SU bench joined. Head coach Shannon Doepking turned toward the dugout from her position at third base and laughed.

From the stands, Niagara parents and fans complained: “That’s a classy team,” one said sarcastically.

“Who’s their coach?” one asked. “The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.”

While it’s hard to quantify if Syracuse’s taunting affects opposing teams, Doepking encourages the talk, the players enjoy it and Syracuse (14-19, 4-5 Atlantic Coast) embraces the chants. Shouting and jeering in between at-bats and mound pitches during SU’s first home stand have played a part in a stretch of five wins in six games. As the wins continue, its decibel levels in the dugout increase.

“It’s hilarious,” Doepking said of SU’s dugout antics. “I think those kinds of things keep this game fun. If you look at the game of baseball, the game is really fun because there’s a lot of heckling, that’s part of the game. You don’t see it as much in softball.”

The Orange played their first 29 games on the road, but their voices traveled with them. No matter where SU was, they emphasized the taunting, something not previously done under former head coach Mike Bosch, sophomore Gabby Teran said.

Now playing at home, the Orange have said they are more comfortable because of travel schedules and playing on their home field. In game two of Saturday’s doubleheader against Notre Dame, UND’s Morgan Ryan struggled to find the strike zone. Down 3-0 in the count to Toni Martin, Ryan looked to her dugout for the pitch. But from the Orange dugout, the entire Syracuse bench shouted.

“Three balls!” “Three balls!” “Three balls!” they yelled while motioning one arm forward.
The fourth pitch sailed high. Martin walked to first as the Syracuse dugout erupted in more cheers. Ryan continued to misfire on the mound, and the number of consecutive balls increased by one each time. Eventually, it got to seven-straight, and the Orange let Ryan know. Chants of “ball six” immediately became “ball seven” without pause.

The trash talk doesn’t go unreciprocated, though. Once the Orange began the “three balls” chant on Wednesday, Niagara’s bench retaliated with chants of its own at SU pitcher Alexa Romero. And Notre Dame fans on Saturday, having complained prior, all moved directly behind home plate in the top of the sixth inning to go after Romero, too.

“She can’t throw two strikes in a row,” one fan said. “We can get in her head,” he shouted.

Romero said she ignores the chants when she’s on the mound. But when she’s in the dugout, she’s often the most vocals. No one player typically leads the chants, but pitchers like Romero and Sophie Dandola are often more engaged than others.

“It was all of ours collectively,” Teran said. “All of the coaches love us cheering, they want us to get in the pitchers head, they love it.”

During a full count, the Orange will often repeatedly chant, “Walk,” “Walk,” “Walk,” at a quickening pace. They cheer wildly whenever a batter earns a walk, which SU did 10 times in two games on Saturday against Notre Dame.

But when their own hitters come up, the Orange have special chants of encouragement for each of them. The negative comments toward the opposing pitcher are sprinkled in. And Doepking doesn’t care what the chants are, she said, as long as the dugout is making noise, she knows the team is active.

“When (the dugout) gets very quiet, it’s very easy to think about everything else,” Doepking said. “As long as they’re engaged.”

“It makes me laugh over at third base.”

Published on April 2, 2019 at 11:56 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo