Baseball Scotland Player Spotlights

“EYE ON THE BALL WORLDWIDE”

Baseball Scotland had their opening day last Sunday with a matchup between the Edinburgh Giants and the Edinburgh Diamond Devils. After a back and forth game with plenty of highlights the Diamond Devils took home the win 8-7 over the Giants. Each team had spotlight performances from position players as Matt Cote and Sylvain Morisot were selected as each team’s MVP of the game. Let’s take a moment to showcase these ballplayers a bit.

Matt Cote

Matt is a former NCAA Division III catcher at Worchester Polytechnic Institute in the NEWMAC conference where his career slash was .263/5 SB/1 HR/7 RBI and a .991 fielding % behind the plate. Growing up in Rhode Island about an hour south of Boston he grew up a Red Sox fan. His grandfather and mother’s love for the sport guided him to try the sport out. As a catcher in the New England area he tried to emulate Jason Varitek’s high hands batting stance but claims it didn’t work for him. Matt does however pride himself in his defense and framing ability behind the dish which helps out with relationship building between himself and the pitching staff. Moving to Scotland for work, he’s found Baseball Scotland and has found himself as a catcher for the Edinburgh Giants and in his league debut the bat swung well for him. 2 H/2 HR/3 R/3 RBI/ 1 BB/1 SB. Numbers like that day in and day out could help the team contend for the title this year. We’ll see in the end.

Sylvain Morisot

Center Fielder Sylvain Morisot is from a small village with a population around 180 called Coussegrey near Champagne, France. His love for baseball started when he was a child growing up and saw the movie “Bull Durham”. However, without any leagues around his local area he settled for Tennis and Handball. The conditioning from both sports including stamina and helping with hand-eye coordination seems to have helped mold a baseball player anyway. His two favorite positions are catcher and center field. Sylvain enjoys framing pitches and the view of the game behind the plate but his speed in the outfield and his ability to rob batters of hits is where he’s most valuable. His favorite team is the Hanshin Tigers in Japan with his all-time favorite player from the same league but different team, Ichiro Suzuki who he bases his throwing technique off of. Looking to help expand the sport throughout Scotland and Europe in general, Sylvain is an advocate for Women’s leagues and loved how big they were in Japan and Australia when he lived in both places. His speedy legs and love for the game could get his squad wins like on opening day. 3 H/3 R/2 SB with outstanding defense in CF.

Best of luck to both these ballplayers throughout the season.