The world of sports can bring about some superstitions from a fan or athlete perspective. Some fans may sit at a certain spot every game or eat a certain type of food every game. Some athletes may have a ritual before every game or practice.
Sometimes those superstitions don’t pan out, but sometimes a person or player can get lucky with their superstitious ways.
“I’ll go up there and walk around and start at the front of the box and I wipe my front foot towards the empire, then I’ll go wipe back towards the pitcher,” Taylor Allum, an outfielder for Kennesaw State, said about his process at bat. “Then I’ll step out again look at the bat for a minute, kind of clear my head and then get in there and do my best.”
Allum’s superstitions at the plate are paying off this season. He leads the Atlantic Sun Conference in RBIs (27), home runs (10), slugging percentage (.756) and is tied for first in batting average (.366). He also was chosen conference player of the week March 6. He credits his success this season to sticking to the team’s plan.
“Mainly just trusting the process and getting in the cages and doing the work,” Allum said. “I think last year when I struggled so bad, I kind of got away from the tee work and the flips and stuff like that. This year I kind of got a routine that I found to like.”
Coach Mike Sansing is pleased to see how successful of a season Allum is having so far.
“It’s been very good,” Sansing said about Allum’s play this season. “Obviously the home runs have come in bunches this year and in some key moments. I think it’s all-around good. It’s averages. It’s RBIs. It’s home runs, and he’s made some good plays in the outfield. He’s having a really good year, I’m happy for him.”
Allum started to heat up at the end of last season, when he recorded a hit in six of his final nine games. He clearly didn’t lose that momentum entering this season.
“I started feeling better towards the end (of the season), and definitely during the summer,” Allum said. “I kind of figured some things out. I figured out what I liked and I kind of tried to build off that into the fall and now going into the spring.”
Despite getting hot at the end of last season, Allum had only two home runs and 11 RBIs last season. When asked about what led to such a surge this year, Allum was asking himself the same thing.
“That’s a good question, I couldn’t tell you,” Allum said. “I honestly don’t know. I guess just getting better pitches to hit and not missing them.”
However, Sansing knows why there was such a power surge this season for Allum.
“I think he’s gotten more consistent with his swing and knowing what pitches he can handle,” Sansing said. “Maturing physically and experiencing all those things, attribute to a player’s success. He’s the first one out every day. He’s that kind of player that’s just always trying to get that edge.”
Allum knows he still needs to improve, especially after his performance in the series against Canisius.
“I can always improve on something,” Allum said. “This past week, I was like 2-for-15, so I started getting cold again. So, I just gotta get back to being more consistent. The name of the game is staying consistent.”
Staying consistent in baseball isn’t an easy thing, but Allum has an idea on how to keep playing at such a high level.
“It goes back to the process and doing the same thing every day,” Allum said. “If I can go in there and repeat that, it kind of keeps everything normal.”
One interesting thing about Allum is that he doesn’t really own the leadership role for his team. Rather he has a different idea about leadership.
“I kind of like it when everyone helps each other and is accountable for each other,” Allum said. “I don’t like that one guy being the leader. It’s a team game, we all gotta hold each other accountable.”
Kennesaw State has a 11-14 record and will head into conference play this weekend against North Florida. With a rough start in non-conference games this season, Allum think’s the team just needs to get back to doing what they do best.
“We just gotta start doing the little things right, like getting timely hitting and making pitches we need to make,” Allum said. “Once we start getting things to click and start playing as a team better, we’ll get back to where we were.”
