After a strong start to the non-Conference schedule, the Gustavus Baseball team has limped to a 12-18 record, which includes a woeful 4-10 mark in Conference play.

After Tuesday’s sweep at the hand of Concordia, Gustavus has now lost seven of its last nine games heading into the final ten games of the regular season.

“We came into this season with high expectations because we have a good group of seniors this year and some great underclassmen,” Senior catcher Willy Hanson said. “We expected to be contending for the playoffs this year but things didn’t go our way. The team’s performance has been disappointing.”

After losing by a score of 4-11 in the first game against the Cobbers, the Gusties suffered a heart-wrenching 2-3 loss on a walk-off homer by Lucas Genereux. In their 11 games decided by one run, the Gusties are only 4-7.

“We have good hitters, but our problem has been stringing together a couple of hits to put runs on the board,” First-year standout Tim Miller said. “While our batting average has been around par for the league, we just haven’t found a way to get the guys that get on base back into the dugout.”

After stranding 21 runners over the span of their current four-game losing streak, the Gusties’ biggest trouble seems to be hitting in the clutch.

“We aren’t quite where we’d like to be in the standings, but I feel like we can play with any team in the Conference,” Miller said, who has successfully reached base in each of his last 14 games. “Our pitching and defense has done a great job keeping us in every game. We just haven’t gotten the timely hitting a team needs to be successful.”

Perhaps the most perplexing statistic of the season is the inability of the Gusties to win on the road. Gustavus is winless in each of its nine road games.

“I can’t explain it because we have struggled at home too,” Hanson said. “We have practiced everything this year, and there’s not much else we can do except trust our preparation.”

Gustavus owns a much more respectable 5-6 mark at home, with the remainder of the team’s games played at neutral sites.

“To be honest I did not even realize that we haven’t yet won a game away from Gustavus,” Miller said. “I don’t think there is any good reason for our struggles on the road; we are just a lot more comfortable at home playing in the park we practice in every day.”

For all the team’s disappointments, there was a pair of key moments in the season that proved the team’s ability to challenge any Conference foe.

“The highlight of the season this year has been beating St. Thomas.  We won in extra innings because we never gave up,” Hanson said. “Our team has not given up in any game this year, which is a good sign.”

The Gusties’ 5-4 nine-inning victory over St. Thomas two weeks ago was the program’s first win over the Tommies in over three years.

“The highlight of the season has to be beating the defending National Champions from St. Thomas,” Miller said. “Beating our biggest rival helps make an otherwise disappointing season a little bit more bearable.”

The victory over the Tommies helped boost the morale of the Gusties and showed fans flashes of what the team is capable of doing when they put all of the pieces together.

“After splitting with St. Thomas we knew we could play with any team in the MIAC, and that was one of the few games where we showed our true potential,” Hanson said. “Some games we play like we are supposed to play, while other games we have moments where it looks like we’ve never played the game before.”

The other key moment of the season came last week after the Gusties capped a three-run come-from-behind victory over Macalester with a walk-off single by Miller.

“Coming back like that really helped our confidence because it showed that we can beat anyone at any time,” Miller said. “It was also really important because we were able to salvage a split with Macalester, and a sweep at that point of the season would have been devastating for us.”

The most impressive part about the win over Macalester was that the rally came against Scots ace James Murrey, who has been scouted as a possible Major League draft pick.

“It was very exciting because we needed that win, and Macalester brought in their ace thinking he was going to shut us down. It was the fact that this team never gives up,” Hanson said. “We tend to get rallies going late in games but sometimes we fall just short; but in this game our rally came through against one of the better pitchers in the MIAC.”

The nail-biting victories over St. Thomas and Macalester provided the Gusties with some thrills on the season as well as proof that with the proper focus, the squad is capable of beating anyone.

“The motivation from playing the defending national champions in St. Thomas and a possible future pro player in James Murrey certainly helped us get more focused,” Miller said. “We just need to find a way to get that ready for every team we play.”

The team now looks ahead to its Saturday doubleheader against Carleton, in which the Gusties hope to halt their losing streak in front of the home crowd.

“The only thing we know about Carleton is they have a better record than us, and we are more hungry for wins than they are,” Hanson said. “They are a beatable team just like every other team in the MIAC.”

Carleton heads to Gustavus with a streak of seven consecutive doubleheader splits. With a pair of wins over the Knights, the Gusties could creep up from the bottom of the MIAC standings.

“Carleton is a very beatable team,” Miller said. “They have a couple of pretty good hitters but one thing that could be exploited is that they have an underperforming pitching staff.”

Mike Carroll’s squad looks to finish the season strong with an emphasis on staying relaxed and forgetting the season’s hardships.

“For the final stretch of the season, we are going to try to have fun and win,” Hanson said. “We still have 10 baseball games to play, and we are going to play them with no regrets.”

The players feel they will carry less pressure on their backs for the remainder of the season knowing that they can enjoy playing the spoiler role.

“Sitting in the lower half of the Conference, we have nothing to lose,” Miller said. “All the pressure is on the other teams, so we can just come out loose, have some fun and win some games.”

Hanson stresses that although the team has struggled, it has never given up on finishing the season strong.

“Our team’s biggest strength is never giving up, and it will be a true test the rest of the season to prove that,” Hanson said. “We are going to stick together as a team through this final stretch of the season and try and pull out a semi-successful season for Gustavus Baseball and ourselves.”