A Conversation with Purchase Baseball Coach Adam Taraska

By Lena Flamm

Being a Panthers baseball fan has had its ups and downs. After joining the Skyline Conference in 2007, the team has ranged from greatness to mediocrity over the past 19 seasons. Witness to many of these seasons was Head Coach Adam Taraska. Hired as assistant coach in the fall of 2011, Taraska served under Bill Guerrero for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the latter of which saw Guerrero named Skyline Coach of the Year. In 2014, Taraska’s first year at the helm, the Panthers advanced to the Conference Semifinals for the first time after tying for the first-place regular season record. The title awarded to Guerrero after his last season as Panthers head coach was then awarded to Taraska after his first. What might have seemed like the start of a winning tradition didn’t last long.

The Panthers’ record declined again, with the team repeatedly placing not quite at the bottom of the food chain, but always just shy of a playoff berth for the next nine years. It was the 2023 roster that broke free of adequacy, with the team winning 22 games (one short of the program record) and advancing once more to the semifinals. Infielder and pitcher Liam Daly was voted Skyline Rookie of the Year. The next year, they returned to the playoffs, and infielder and pitcher Brandon Gonzalez succeeded Daly in winning the award.

2025 saw an unfortunate turn of events. After a year of high-profile injuries, the team’s playoff chances came down to the last game of the regular season, which saw the Panthers pitted against seven-time Conference champions St. Joseph’s University, Brooklyn, who were coming hot off a championship three-peat. After a 12-7 loss, the Purchase players and fans had their playoff dreams cut short.

Purchase Panthers baseball coach Adam Taraska at his office. (Photo by Lena Flamm)

So, what does this mean for the future? Will the Panthers be destined to spend the next eight years struggling to keep up in the regular season? Or can Taraska steer the team back towards success?

What inspired you to be a baseball coach?

I started playing baseball when I was 3 years old, and it was something that was important in my family, and I was encouraged to do that my entire life through T-ball and Little League, up through middle school and high school baseball and college baseball, and now I’m doing this for a living, so it’s been in my blood since I was basically born.

A highlight of last year was the star rising of Liam Daly. He was named Skyline Baseball Player of the Year, and he was a star player for you guys. What has your relationship with him meant to you, both as a person and a player on your roster?

I can’t say enough good things about Liam Daly. He’s a tremendous young man; his work ethic is exceeded by none. He’s been recognized throughout his career here. He was also the Skyline Conference Rookie of the Year after his freshman year. He’s a tremendous ball player, and we were lucky that he chose to come here, and we were lucky that he chose to stay here. He deserves every accolade that he gets.

The Purchase Athletics Facility, decorated with the banners of every school in the Skyline Conference. (Photo by Lena Flamm)

A lot of great players graduated last year, and you had to fill in a lot of spots, specifically in the outfield. What has it been like reshaping the outfield with freshmen?

We do have a lot of incoming freshmen, and there are gonna be some holes and opportunities created by graduation and by players moving on, but that’s nothing new. Players graduate every year, and you look around and see players who have elevated themselves into starting roles move on and graduate. And you look at your team, and you’re like, ‘How are we ever going to replace this person?’ But the answer is usually right there on your roster, the next person who’s been working hard since they walked in the door is usually ready to take that next step in their development and grab ahold of a starting position.

As for the playoffs, you didn’t make them last year. Is there any specific conference team that you’d say you’re the most intimidated by, or have noticed a specific weakness or strength that will influence your coaching this year?

Intimidated, no. I don’t think that anybody, coach or player on this team, will tell you that they’re intimidated by any team in the conference. I think that everybody believes that no matter who we’re playing in the other dugout, we can beat the other team. You mentioned that we missed the playoffs last year, very disappointing for everybody involved with the team. The two years prior to that, we were playoff teams. So it was a very big disappointment for us to miss out by only a game. We were playing for our playoff lives on the last day of the season, and we were just not able to win the last game of the year, which would have gotten us into the playoffs. So, yes, disappointing last year, but it burns the fire a little hotter for our aspirations this year. Are we intimidated by our opponents? No. Do we respect our opponents? Absolutely, and there are a number of high-quality teams in the Skyline Conference, and it’s our duty to prepare as best we can so that we can beat these teams. It’s a strong conference with a lot of great talent on most, if not all, of the teams.

What do you think are the pillars of a playoff team?

It starts from day one. You can’t build a playoff team without first getting your house in order, and that comes right from the first practice. It comes down to something as innocuous as having everybody look the same at practice. Making sure people are on time, and that nobody’s getting special treatment, and they’re all pushing each other. A house is built from the foundation, brick by brick, from the bottom up. That’s the only way a winning team is ever created.

How do you think coaching DIII baseball might differ from coaching DI or DII?

It’s an ever-changing landscape right now, especially in DI and DII. Which makes it great at our level because the Division III level- the players that are playing their sport are truly playing their sport for the love of the game. There are no athletic scholarships in Division III. It becomes less about the money or about who’s getting the best deal to go play where and becomes more about loving the sport and trying to find a place that you could call home for four years, where you can have a great experience, get a great education, and graduate after having made friends for life.

With regards to the upcoming season, if you could just say three assets that you’re the most focused on improving, what would they be?

We have good continuity in our program. The players that return every year kinda know the way that we do things, they know what the expectations are, so we have to worry about that a little bit less. I have tremendous leaders on this team, so they’re able to pull along their teammates, especially the new players to the roster and the freshmen, so that’s one less thing that we have to worry about. My main concern, and it’s great that I’m able to do this, is to focus on the X’s and O’s. I’d love to play a little bit more small ball. Bunting, hitting-and-running, stolen bases and advancing first to third on base hits. Dirt ball reads, things that are just gonna give us that little edge, that extra 90 feet, that extra base that we’re able to take, are really gonna be a point of emphasis this year. I think I’d like to cut down on free bases that we allow. Walks on the pitching staff. Hit batters on the pitching staff. I think we need to improve on that. We were faced with some injuries last year, and players worked really hard to rehab themselves and get back. I feel like going into the season, we’re at pretty much full strength.

The third thing is maintaining that level of work ethic through a tough month of February. Now this is shaping up to be one of the worst winters in recent memory. It’s not easy for baseball teams in the Northeast to do their month of February completely indoors, which is what we’re pretty much faced with. It’s seven degrees outside right now. The good thing about that is that everybody’s basically up here on the same playing field. We’re lucky that we have great facilities here; we can practice indoors, and we can go off-campus and use the training facility that we use off-campus. A lot of other schools don’t even have that. So just maintaining the level of focus through a tough month of February is gonna be a point of emphasis too.