Jaci Kohn
Staff writer
The field is swept, the dirt is watered, the fans are excited and the Thoroughbreds are ready to take the field.
“The guys are really anxious to go out and put things together this year,” Coach Rob McDonald said.
The baseball season is about to start up and the ‘Breds are looking to improve on last season.
“We just want to go out and play well,” senior infielder Travis Isaak said. “We had a tough year last year, we thought we were better than that. We just want to prove that we are a good team and win some games this year.”
McDonald said last year the ‘Breds were one of the tougher teams in the league offensively and this year they are even better.
“I think we’ve got more good hitters than we can play,” McDonald said. “I think defensively we are going to be very solid (and) better defensively (and) offensively than we were last year.”
The biggest improvement is going to come from pitching, McDonald said.
“We’ve got a lot of guys back now that have some experience that we didn’t have last year,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to our pitching staff going out and making their mark.”
Although McDonald is very confident in his team he knows there is always something to work on.
“I think every area we need to continue to improve on,” he said. “It’s important that we come ready to compete everyday. The guys have been preparing well in practice. I don’t think we have any glaring weaknesses, the biggest thing we have to do is just come and compete everyday.”
McDonald’s goals for the season are the same as the years before.
“We always go into the season wanting to win our conference and then we hope we will progress from that into the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “It certainly is within the talent of the guys we have.”
The league is even McDonald said and the top spot is up for the taking.
“Our league has gotten to the point of where every year it seems like the team who is in the bottom of the league will at one point beat the top team,” McDonald said. “Everybody in the league is good and a lot of it has to do with who plays well at the right time, who gets the big hit at the right time. We really can’t target any one team.”
Every weekend series and conference is going to be a competitive series for the ‘Breds but they have the confidence to believe they can succeed in all of their games.
“We feel like every game we play in the conference we can win,” McDonald said. “We also know enough to know that anybody can beat us too if we don’t play as well as we are capable of.”
Baseball play starts up today at home Reagan Field against Valparaiso.
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