W
ith spring quickly approaching, it’s time for baseball season. The Gustavus men’s baseball team began the 2013 season a few weeks ago. On March 3, the Gusties opened their regular season with losses in both games against Elmhurst College. The final scores of those games were 5-2 and 8-4. The Gusties played at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and will be playing there for the first couple weeks of the season. While the Gustavus men did not start off their season the way they wanted in terms of wins and losses, they did take some positives away from their opening weekend doubleheader.

“We’ve started out okay this year, not quite where we want to be with wins and losses in our first two games, but we saw a lot of positive things and are getting the ball rolling so we can be ready for the conference season,” Senior Captain Outfielder and Pitcher Tim Miller said.

Prior to the start of the season, the Gustavus men have spent a lot of time during the offseason preparing the 2013 campaign. In the fall, the Gustavus men had fall practices followed by spending time in the Lund Center doing team work outs that consisted of weight lifting and agility drills until January term. Once January term began, captain’s practices were held every day, where the Gustavus men took time for batting practice and throwing.

“We had a really good fall and had a lot of competition between positions. We showed we have a lot of pitching depth, which is really good, “Head Coach Mike Carroll said.

Pitching will be an essential part of this year’s team play and could ultimately determine how well the team finishes at the end of the season.

“We have a lot of pitching depth coming back from last year so that will be a key factor in our success this year,” Senior Captain Infielder Drew Block said.

There are other components that the Gustavus men feel will be key to this year’s team’s success, including good attitude, working hard, and playing as a team.

“We’ve got to develop a good mental attitude and gain some good momentum,” Coach Carroll said when asked what will be the key to this team’s success.

“We have worked really hard so far leading up to our first couple of games so we just need to keep working hard and the wins will follow,” Block said.

“We really need to just keep doing what we’re doing, regardless of the situation. We have a lot of talent on this team; we just all need to play well at the same time,” Miller said.

The Gustavus men are optimistic about the 2013 season and have their focus set on making it to the MIAC Conference tournament and winning it, punching a ticket to the regional tournament.

“Despite being picked to finish in the bottom half of the conference, we think we have a chance to compete to win the conference and make the conference tournament in May,” Block said.

The Gustavus men played against UW-Steven’s Point in a doubleheader last Sunday, March 10, and lost both games.

The team returns to the dome on Sat. March 17 where they will take on Viterbo University.