On March 24, the Winthrop baseball team successfully claimed a victory against Longwood, beating the Lancers 10-3 and extended their winning streak to eight games, making them 6-0 in the Big South play-to-stay atop the league standings. Ryan Watson, sophomore sports management major, is the catcher for the team and was excited about the streak. “The team feels really good about where we’re at,” Watson said. “We hope to continue to play the way that we’ve been playing. Conference is starting up, and I feel we have a very good chance of winning it all this year.”
Cody Whitten, a sophomore finance major, plays as a left hand pitcher. “It’s great to finally start putting things together and playing like we should,” Whitten said. Tyler Baker, a junior psychology major, is a shortstop for the team and was also excited for the winning streak. “It feels good,” Baker said. “Especially after all the days and hours put into it finally paying off.”
Throughout these wins, the team is doing its best to continue to stay focused. “We build on wins and focus on what we did right and how to continue doing so,” Baker said. “A win is always great and winning streaks are better, but no matter what our record is or who we’re playing, we play like we have to win and nothing is given and we work hard every day to play the best that we can,” Watson said. “We’re just enjoying that feeling and want to keep winning,” Whitten added.
Unfortunately, after last Tuesday’s game, the streak has come to an end as the Eagles were defeated by the Paladins of Furman University. Despite the loss, the team manages to keep a positive spirit and is even motivated for the next game. “After our last loss, our team has a 12 o’clock rule where on the day of the game, once it’s midnight it’s a new day,” Watson said. “That day is over; that loss is in the past and I think everyone on our team really has the mentality and our coach really believes in us as well and that helps.” Similarly, Baker said, “The first thing we do is forget about it and move onto the next objective.
“We realize that some days we’re gonna get beat but use that as motivation to win the next one,” Whitten said.
The Eagles are still focusing on sharpening their strengths and working on game plans to make a comeback. “Some of our strengths, I believe, would definitely include our weakened rotation,” Watson said. “It’s been electric so far in conference and especially our Friday and Saturday guys, Zach Peek and Nathan Pawelczyk, they’ve been out there dealing which gives a real good feeling to the team. That way we can be really successful and the hitters go up and do their job. We practice every day, whether it’s on our own or as a team, and everyone wants to get better. We have a great culture as the team and everyone wants the best for the person next to them. It keeps them accountable and make sure that they’re doing the work and doing everything the right way. We’re looking forward to continuing conference play.”
“Our starting pitchers are very good and as of lately our bats have been swinging it very well,” Whitten said. “We plan to just go out and work hard everyday to make the team better.”
“We are very talented hitting team this year,” Baker said. “Also, we are very good at coming together and working for each other, understanding roles and finding ways to help one another. We prepare by preparing. Each day we are working on things to help us improve our game. We work on mistakes made during games. We also work on putting ourselves in situations before the situation happens so that we are already prepared.”
After games all weekend against Radford and a rematch against Furman on Tuesday, the Eagles are preparing for their next game on Friday, April 5, against High Point University.
