By Max Sass, Sports Editor

Matt Ford sits in a crouch waiting patiently. He stares into the eyes across from him. He gets his elbow back ready to launch into action. He pulls the trigger. Literally.
Now Matt Ford crouches waiting patiently again, staring into the eyes across from him. This time though, he is on the baseball diamond. Hofstra’s freshman shortstop is always hunting. Either hunting for turkeys in the woods near his upstate home or hunting for greatness on a baseball diamond.

Ford loves to hunt and fish and enjoys the wilderness in general. “I am from way upstate by Binghamton so there is not much to do,” Ford said. “I just like being outdoors and I find them both kind of relaxing.”

Luckily for Hofstra second-year head coach Patrick Anderson, Ford took enough time out of his hunting schedule to play a little baseball. Ford’s two loves are actually quite similar in his mind. He explained that hitting, like hunting and fishing requires patience. But how is a fastball like a turkey? Well, Ford understands that as a hitter, you have to pass up a curveball sometimes to wait for a fast ball and when hunting, “you pass up the Jake to get the Tom turkey, which is the mature, male turkey.”

Ford has come to Hofstra and has been forced to adjust not only his baseball game but to the city lifestyle. Ford’s adjustment is key for the Pride as he leads a large group of freshman through what has been an upstart year for Hofstra. Ford will be forced to continue to be the leader of his group when this year’s seniors graudate.

“I have been learning from Proko [senior second baseman Matt Prokopowicz], [senior utility player Ethan] Paquette and all those older guys. I am going to keep competing and I think I have become a better leader or am starting to become a better leader,” Ford said.
Ford batted .607 as a senior at Lansing High School but has taken his lumps early with the Pride. “I would say the biggest thing for me was adjusting to better quality pitching,” Ford said.

The adjustment has not just been on the field though as he now has to prepare for collge games more intensely than he did in high school. His schedule consists of a three hour practice each day plus lifting on his own or with the team. Ford also often takes extra batting practice and that is all on top of his school work.
Ford is a baseball lifer. Ford’s father Tom is the associate head baseball coach at Cornell and Ford just generally enjoys watching baseball and trying to get better. “I was at the Mets game a couple weeks ago and I was just watching Hanley Ramirez, how he does stuff,” Ford said.

Ford was proud of the progress his team has made this year but knows that next year is an important turning point for the squad and he will be a leader on that team. “I think next year hopefully is that year we can turn it around even more because all these young guys are going to have a year under their belt,” Ford said.

As for being a leader on next year’s team, Ford understands that as the team’s shortstop and a starter since day one he will be expected to take control. “I would like to say I am [ready to lead], we will know when it gets there,” Ford said. “I hope I can be that guys like Proko and Paquette are in the infield and step-up.”

Ford is taking his leadership slowly but knows the time has to come. “I was always playing on older teams,” Ford said, “so I was never [a vocal leader] so this is kind of the same thing but I think I’m learning and I can get there.”

While Ford and the team have had a couple early struggles they persevered through competitiveness and good chemistry. Ford credits his competitiveness to his family. “They have all had to work hard for everything they’ve gotten, they’ve never been really given anything,” he said.

The chemistry is a product of the team having fun together. Ford has not taken too much flack for being a freshman. There were sometimes he got embarrased but is able to laugh about it in hindsight. “On the bus ride back all the freshman had to get up to the front of the bus and use the speaker to tell a joke,” Ford said. “If they [the team] didn’t like the joke you had to sit in the bathroom on the bus.”

Ford did not have to sit in the bathroom for the bus ride and is the proverbial driver of the bus as the Pride drive the long road back to success. While Ford may be a bit too humble to admit it, the future is now for the Pride and Ford is the future.