Senior Sean Aspinall is ready to use his experience to lead the Cougars to new heights
Although he is not the most vocal person on the team, there is no question that senior outfielder Sean Aspinall has become a steady leader for Azusa Pacific baseball. His overall skill set and leadership has been a key piece for the Cougars this season, who are currently the No. 1-ranked team in the nation of the NCAA Division II.
His stats speak for themselves, as he is currently batting .337, is tied for second on the team with seven home runs and is third on the team in RBI’s (23), but Aspinall’s impact on this team stretches past gameday.
Fellow senior Pablo O’Connor couldn’t resist giving his teammate a hard time, noting some of Aspinall’s antics in the clubhouse and during practices.
“Sean is a fun guy. No matter what he’s doing, he finds a way to make things awkward, but funny. Everyone on the team enjoys him, enjoys his personality. It’s definitely unique but in a good way. He’s just overall a great guy,” O’Connor said.
Paul Svagdis, the Cougars’ head coach, was more keen to speak on Aspinall’s leadership qualities and how much he means to this team.
“He’s a lead-by-example guy. We’ve had some vocal leaders here, we’ve had some guys like Stephen Vogt, who is the pinnacle of leadership for us. I think where Sean has stepped in is, he leads by example, and he’s not afraid to take guys under his wing,” Svagdis said. “I see him working with younger guys out in the outfield, he’s only got six or eight more weeks with us, but I see him taking the younger kids out there and talking them through things. When we’re working on hitting, I can see him with some of the younger kids that are struggling through it and encouraging them, so it might not be this overly energetic vocal guy, I see it behind the scenes.”
Svagdis noted that Aspinall was a guy that they were excited to recruit, and coming into his freshman year, Aspinall was ready for the challenge. Aspinall appeared in 27 games in his first year and started 19. He posted a .240 batting average and was extremely reliable in the outfield for the Cougars.
“Freshman year was just a pretty above-average year. I got started in half of the games and got a lot of playing time,” Aspinall said. “I came back sophomore year expecting to be a starter, and I think just before the season, coming back from summer ball, my leg just didn’t feel right and I was feeling a lot of pain in my groin and it was affecting my play. I didn’t have a great year and I still have a chip on my shoulder because of that year. It was the worst year of my baseball career.”
That nagging leg injury turned out to be a hip injury which would need surgery.
“I went back to summer ball, came back junior year and I went to physicals and I was like ‘I want to get my groin checked out, it’s been giving me so much pain.’ I think the doctor there actually said ‘it’s not your groin, it’s your hip,’ so I went and had hip surgery and took a year off. I was so done with baseball that I needed a year off anyway,” Aspinall said.
Although it sounds contradictory, this injury was exactly what Aspinall needed. It forced him to take a year off, and that allowed him to “reset.” Baseball is a game of failure, and it takes a strong-minded person to be able to persevere through all the low points and reach the highs.
Courtesy of APU Sports Information
“I took the injury as an opportunity to reinvent myself as a player. You’ve got to remember that it’s a game. I think sophomore year, and even in my freshman year, all of my identity was in baseball, so I was up and down with baseball,” Aspinall said. “Taking my junior year off, I allowed myself, when I stepped off the field, to become an accounting student, and I put my identity back into that, where I can be more stable with my emotions. Then I come back the next day and step on the field and not allow all this failure to bring me down. I think a lot was just dealing with failure and taking that year off to not only reinvent myself as a player, but as a person too, and realize where I want to put all my identity so that I can come back every day feeling the same and ready to get after it.”
The reinvented Aspinall rejoined the team with two more years of eligibility remaining, and posted a solid season, batting .248 with three home runs and 36 RBIs. During his junior season, Svagdis noticed that he wasn’t necessarily dealing with the same player as before.
“I’ve always thought that he was a pretty determined, hard-working athlete. I don’t think, necessarily, that I saw a switch on that, I don’t think he flipped a switch, where he wasn’t a hard worker before he came back… there was just a heightened level of focus in how he was training to be the best baseball player he could be,” Svagdis said.
Aspinall’s heightened focus in his training has absolutely translated into his play this year. The lead-by-example senior has started in all of the Cougars’ 26 games so far this season and currently boasts career-highs in both batting average and home runs. His confidence is not limited to his play, however, and his teammates notice it too. O’Connor noticed a change in Aspinall’s leadership qualities.
“Sean has developed as a person over the years. I’ve noticed him come out of his shell and become more vocal as a leader, and that’s exactly what this team needed. He has definitely stepped into that role, especially as an outfielder, he plays center, he leads the outfield and the way he plays shows his leadership skills as well,” O’Connor said.
The big season comes as no surprise to anyone who is involved with the APU baseball program. With all the work Aspinall has put in over the years, coaches and teammates have seen this one coming for a while.
“He’s a very process-oriented kid. Last year, his numbers might not have been these all-star numbers, but in my mind, he was an all-star player because his process was good. He just wasn’t getting the outcome, and we play a sport where that can happen,” Svagdis said. “For me, because I see the inner-workings of what these young men do, he is having just as good a year as last year. You guys just see the numbers, but from my standpoint, I see the same kid last year as I see this year, except he is just a little older and I think he took some things from the guys who were here the year before and is trying to add them to our team this year.”
O’Connor added to his coach’s sentiment.
“Aspinall is a great player. Every year, in the fall, he would always be hitting well, hitting home runs and being one of the best hitters. Last year, during the season, he produced a lot of runs for us, it might not have reflected in his average or his stats, but this year, it doesn’t surprise me at all that he is hitting the way he is hitting and doing as well as he is doing because he is consistent, he is a hard worker and he doesn’t let anything bother him, whether it’s an injury or whatever. He puts all that aside and he just works hard and he does well. His successes here haven’t surprised me at all.”
Aspinall continues to try and be as productive as possible, working his way from being a designated hitter last season, to being a full-time center fielder this season, and that transition has helped the Cougars to be as successful as they are. With a record of 24-2, and ranked as the top Division II team in the nation, APU baseball is looking to continue their success, and Aspinall couldn’t be any happier.