Lots of great things happening with Sea Unicorns - why you should see a game

The Norwich Sea Unicorns are thriving in their third season as a summer collegiate baseball team. And the smiles you see from the fans, players and employees at Dodd Stadium are the result of long days filled with hope, vision and hard work.

The biggest smile, of course, belongs to Sea Unicorns General Manager Lee Walter Jr., who had this to say at a recent business meeting.

“I told them that the Sea Unicorns are the hottest ticket in town right now. And if you haven’t been to a game yet, you're missing out. You really want to get out here before the season is over.”

The Sea Unicorns captured their fourth straight victory with a 10-4 win over the Nashua Silver Knights on Wednesday night at Dodd Stadium. It was their ninth win in 10 games and propelled the local nine to a franchise-record seven games above .500 at 18-11.

“It’s a good start,” Sea Unicorns first-year manager Kevin Murphy said. “Wins are cool but I’m just really impressed with the group of kids that we have this summer. They’re really good caring kids with no problems. They’re gelling well together.”

Finding a home

It seemed like yesterday the Sea Unicorns were on the endangered species list, a victim of a billion dollar corporation’s restructuring. When Major League Baseball downsized its minor league operations, the Sea Unicorns, who had just changed their name from the Connecticut Tigers, were among a number of franchises in the New York-Penn League who didn’t survive the purge.

Without a professional affiliation the Sea Unicorns found a home in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, a thriving wood bat league for college players with teams scattered all over New England.

After a late and sudden coaching change, the Sea Unicorns had to scramble to assemble a roster for the inaugural 2021 season.

“The first two years were such a struggle on the field,” Walter, Jr., said.

The team had lost a number of families who hosted players during their seasons as an affiliate with the Detroit Tigers. The number of host families has increased this summer and the Sea Unicorns roster has had a demonstrable upgrade.

“To fill out an entire roster of players from Eastern Connecticut is very difficult,” Walter, Jr. said. “We love the local guys but we want to have a roster that is competitive. We have 15 guys staying with host families and that’s a huge jump from where we were the first two years in this league. It has allowed us to pick up more guys not necessarily in the area. There is more blend on the roster.”

Longtime Navigators, Defenders, and Tigers fans coming to Dodd during the summer were now watching local collegiate stars instead of professional players. It was a big change and perhaps somewhat of a novelty during the Sea Unicorns first two seasons in the Futures League. What those same fans are seeing now though is a more spirited brand of baseball.

“I challenge anyone to come out here and tell me that the games aren’t more fun to watch,” Walter, Jr., said. “While we loved the professional guys, they were out here to do a job.  These (college) kids are here to have fun and play ball and you can hear it from the dugout. They are much more into it. We’ve seen a lot of comments on social media that this is a fun team to watch right now.”

Wacky Wednesday   

Despite playing in a summer collegiate league, the Sea Unicorns are still run like a minor league operation: from playing in one of the best stadium facilities in New England to all of the bells and whistles associated with various promotional activities.

“We’re really improving things and getting back to where we were as a minor league team because we want to continue to run it like that,” Walter, Jr. said. “That’s really what the Futures League is about. Yes, we want the kids to come here and have a great time and learn and play but we also want to entertain the fans off the field too. And still running it like a minor league organization is a big factor in that.”

There are fireworks shows following five Friday night home games. There will also be fireworks on Monday, July 3 and after the last regular game on August 5.

Other promotions include Two for Tuesday, when various concession items cost just $2; Wacky Wednesday, which features a different deal each week; Thirsty Thursday beer specials; a Saturday night pre-game live music series; and Sunday Fundays where kids get to run the bases and play catch in the outfield. There is also Military Appreciation Day on July 14.

“It’s not just about baseball,” Walter, Jr. said. “It’s affordable family entertainment. We’ve got some big things going on the rest of the year. We are on a roll and we’re going to keep growing and getting this thing right.”

Rising attendance

4,300 fans flocked to the Sea Unicorns' season home opener on May 29. Last summer, the team’s attendance rose a whopping 53 percent more than the previous year.

“We are on track to beat last year's number,” Walter, Jr. said.

Moving from the New York-Penn League’s short-season schedule that began in mid-June has hurt the Sea Unicorns attendance figures early in the season. Schools are still in session when the season kicks off before Memorial Day.

Still, the Futures League has one of the highest fan bases among teams throughout the country. There are 169 collegiate summer league teams in the United States and the Sea Unicorns were ranked around 30th in total attendance. They were fifth in the Futures League.

“Our league gets it,” Water, Jr. said. “It’s working. Things are improving quite a bit.”

Walter, Jr. also noted the addition of two new full-time staff members. Besides Walter, Jr. and Heather Bartlett, who is the assistant GM, and Mike Neville, who is the media relations manager, the Sea Unicorns have welcomed Reade Kirby (community relations) and Kevin Smith (group sales/ticket manager) this summer.

“We were short-staffed and having Reade and Kevin has been really helpful,” Walter, Jr. said.

New coach

After spending time as a Sea Unicorns assistant coach and finishing his first season as a volunteer coach at Quinnipiac University, Kevin Murphy was hired to replace Devin Belenski as the Sea Unicorns head coach.

“Devin was a young guy who did a solid job and he decided to move on,” Walter, Jr. said. “As an assistant with us fresh out of college, Kevin gets it. He eats, drinks,and sleeps baseball and he wants this to be his career. He’s done a really good job with this roster. The kids are having a lot of fun and playing some really good ball.”

Murphy, 24, is a native of Springfield (Mass.). He played collegiately at Eastern Connecticut State University.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Murphy said. “This is what I wanted to do all my life. I’ve been building up to this type of role.”

Murphy has adjusted well to the Futures League schedule, which is a daily 64-game grind.

“Half the battle is keeping guys fresh and entertained,” Murphy said. “At the end of the day they come here and play with us but we’re not really changing their swings or changing their arm slots. They are building off what they learned at their school and we’re just applying it here and hoping they can just share the wealth of their knowledge with the team.”

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Hot start

During their first two seasons, the Sea Unicorns never reached more than one game above .500.

“When we got to two over .500 this year it was a big deal,” Walter, Jr. said. “Every time we win I pop my head in the clubhouse and say, ‘Breaking records every day!’”

As of Friday morning, the Sea Unicorns (18-12) are sitting in third place behind Vermont (23-8) and Worcester (21-9).

The team’s improved pitching staff has fueled the Sea Unicorns’ hot start.

“Last year we were the worst pitching staff in the league and now we’re leading most of the statistics in pitching,” Murphy said. “I’m really happy how we’ve been managing the staff. We’re trying to keep everyone fresh and not throw guys six innings in a game.”

Leading the way are Eastern Connecticut State’s Matt Wooten (3-0, 0.87 ERA, 23 Ks) and Dartmouth’s Clark Gilmore (2-0, 0.85 ERA, 24Ks).

Powering the offense are New Haven’s Andrew Bianco (four home runs, 18 RBIs), Fairfield’s Dean Ferrara (.400), Nichols’ Brennan Hyde (.344) and Northern Alabama’s Jackson Ferrigno (.344).

Aiming for post-season berth

The Sea Unicorns went 30-33 a year ago and missed the fourth and final playoff spot to Westfield via the tiebreaker. Murphy is aiming for that first postseason berth.

“Taking the team somewhere it’s never been is goal number one but honestly the main goal is sending guys back to their programs better than we found them,” Murphy said. “Guys are coming here to get better and you want them to get their reps and at bats. It’s not the same lineup every day.”

After playing for the Sea Unicorns last summer, Cam Maldonado went to Northeastern and set school freshman hitting records while earning Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American honors.

“The goal for the players and coaching staff is to build a successful collegiate summer league baseball team where even if those kids don't come back in future years because they’ve got other opportunities, they go back to their schools and they talk about what a great time they had in Norwich,” Walter, Jr. said. “And that gets people wanting to come here and play.”

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Norwich Sea Unicorns baseball team on hot streak, attendance rising