Young baseball team holds promise

Last season, the majority of Indiana Wesleyan’s baseball team were freshmen; some considered it a rebuilding year as the team finished with an 18-35 overall record.

According to catcher Alex Ridlen (so), “Last year was kind of a rebuilding year for us, which is a good thing because opposing teams don’t really see us coming.”

Losing only four seniors from last year’s squad, the men’s baseball team came into this season with a little more swagger.

Although the team is young, it is capable of playing with anybody on any given day, and it shows. During a spring break trip to Lake Whales, Florida, the Wildcats earned one of the biggest wins in the program’s history as they dominated the No. 10-ranked Bellevue (Neb.) College 6-0 in the Warner Tournament.

However, it did not fare as well for Indiana Wesleyan during the rest of the tournament, as the team finished with a 4-8 record.

After returning to Indiana, the luck has not improved as the Wildcats dropped their next two games to IU-Southeast, moving to 4-10 overall.

If Indiana Wesleyan wants to accomplish some of its goals, then it must find some consistency soon.

According to shortstop Ben Zachary (sr), “Consistency is our biggest weakness because we are so young. It is hard to come out every game and play really well.”

Once the team finds that consistency it has been searching for, it could become a force with which to be reckoned.

A complete team consists of a talented rotation of starting pitchers and a bullpen, along with defensive and offensive skilled players. Unfortunately, IWU does not meet all these standards, but the team does excel in a few.

“Our biggest strength is our pitching and defense. We also have a deep bullpen,” said Ridlen.

After finishing near the bottom of the Mid-Central Conference last season, IWU will look to improve and learn from its mistakes in the past.

When the pre season polls were set and available, the Indiana Wesleyan men’s baseball team was selected to finish near the bottom of the eight-team conference once again.

“We were picked to finish in sixth place,” said Zachary.

The Wildcats were on a four-game slide before their homestand, but have started to turn it on as of late, winning three of its last four games.

Indiana Wesleyan plays host to Aquinas (Mich.) College on Mar. 20. The game is set for a 1 p.m. start.

Next week, the Wildcats travel to conference rival Taylor for a double-header. Look for this to be a showdown as Taylor is the reigning MCC champion.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 9:04 AM and is filed under Sports.
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