If there is one attribute that describes junior infielder Pratt Maynard’s career at N.C. State, it is his patience. While Wolfpack fans know him as having a booming bat and flashy glove behind the plate or in the field, Maynard has always been calm and composed in the batter’s box.
For example, last year Maynard maintained a low batting average at .273, but played a vital role by getting on base at a stammering .452 rate. He not only led the Pack in walks in 2010, but also set a record for most walks in a season with 64.
Maynard said his approach to each at bat is different, but his mentality in the box is simple – don’t swing if you don’t like the pitch.
“I just go up there and try to look at the count that I have,” Maynard said. “Most pitchers try to get ahead early in counts, so I just try to wait for my pitch. It’s really as simple as, ‘If I see a good pitch, I swing.’ “
Junior infielder Andrew Ciencin said Maynard’s patience is not only beneficial for him, but also helps the entire team as he is able to show the rest of the team what the pitcher has by working the counts.
“Pratt’s patience at the plate really helps the team a lot,” Ciencin said. “It really helps me when he hits in front of me because I get to see a lot of pitches before my at bat. And he can always help the team when he comes back with a lot of information.”
Baseball can be a stressful sport, which is why it is essential to have team chemistry in and out of the dugout to keep team cohesion.
In Maynard’s case though, his joking nature has led him to become the brunt of some jokes amongst his teammates. Whenever Maynard is called on to do an interview in postgame or for a preview, his teammates constantly heckle him, saying things such as, “Look at Pratt, he’s the man,” or “Look’s like they needed the superstar for an interview.”
While all of these comments are made in a joking manner, Maynard says it is funny, but he’s not quite sure why they pick on him in particular.
“The guys have always joked around with me,” Maynard said. “The guys may joke around about it, but I guess it comes from me playing well over the seasons, but I’m not sure.”
Riggins, on the other hand, decided to clear up the controversy for Maynard. He said it all stemmed from Maynard’s freshman campaign and a song from Shawty Lo, titled “Easily I Approach.”
“It roots from our freshman year,” Riggins said. “His walk-up song for about 10 seconds as he got to the plate said, ‘I’m the man around here, kapeesh?’ That was probably the funniest intro song I’ve heard. If he thinks he’s the man, then we needed to call him a superstar.
“But that’s not really who he is, which is why we joke with him. If he was walking around and you didn’t know he was on the team, you would never even know he was a baseball player.”
Off the field, Maynard has also been known as a jokester. Riggins and Maynard are really close with one another on and off the field. Therefore, he said he knew a lot about Maynard that he couldn’t speak about.
But when it came to telling stories about Maynard’s apparent, “lapses in judgment,” both Riggins and Ciencin told the same story about the beginning of their freshman year.
“Not to say that he is a dumb guy, but he says some things that are completely out of the blue,” Ciencin said. “During our freshman year, we were filling out medical papers when he leans over and asks me, ‘Hey man, what does dob mean?’ Obviously that was date of birth, but it’s just stuff like that that make Pratt so funny sometimes.”
While Maynard may add a lot to the team at the plate and off the field, it is his intensity behind the plate that has led him to become one of the leaders on the team.
Ciencin said Maynard has always been a hard worker behind the plate, which translates to other players aspiring to be as intense.
“His intensity throughout the game is unbelievable,” Ciencin said. “He is the quarterback of the team when he’s behind the plate. He’s out there working his ass off and we really try to feed off of that.”
Though he may be one of the best statistical players on the team on both offense and defense, Maynard has not been tagged by the team for a specific position in the field, instead being mostly used as a utility man.
Maynard has shared time with junior Harold Riggins at first base and and at catcher with senior Chris Schaeffer thus far this season, but said he enjoys catching the most.
“I like catching a lot,” Maynard said. “Me, Schaeffer and Canela all work hard to get better together at that position. But if I had to say there is one position I would prefer over the others, it would definitely have to be catching.”
Sometimes battling for a specific position on a sports team can form rifts between players, but Riggins said that the two are actually very close with one another because they play the same position.
“I feel like us playing the same position really brings us closer together,” Riggins said. “Some of the things that he does really help me with my game. In practice we work well together and really feed off of one another during games.”