The Gustavus baseball team’s season came to a close on Monday, May 5 when the two teams split a non-conference doubleheader. Gustavus lost the first game 13-5 but came back to win 3-1 in the second game of the day.
The Gusties finished with an overall record of 6-23 and a MIAC record of 7-24. The team came into the season with high hope for success, but suffered a series of disappointing MIAC and non-conference losses.
“Our team goal was to make the playoffs. We sat down before we went to Arizona and before our conference season started and set individual goals for both Arizona and the conference season—these involved team batting average, and other things we wanted to accomplish,” Junior Max Fidler said.
Seniors Scott Benjamin and David Tranvik agree that the team did not end up where they imagined, even after putting in a great deal of work since last season.
“We definitely thought we were good enough to win the conference, or at least be in play-offs. We didn’t think we were the best team but we knew we could make a run. And obviously that wasn’t the case,” Benjamin said.
According to Benjamin and Tranvik, the young team fell into a slump and couldn’t seem to recover after losing their first conference game to the University of St. Thomas on April 8.
“We need to work on our mindset when we’re hitting. I feel like, again, going back to how young we are I think guys start to struggle and kind of carry that with them the whole time, they don’t really know how to dig their way out of it. The more experience the guys are getting they’re going to get so much better,” Benjamin said.
Fidler believes that changing the team’s mindset is crucial for having a more successful season next year.
“I think we need to kind of develop a killer instinct. Right now, we’re just in this slump where it’s almost like when you’re in a close game you expect to lose rather than going out there expecting to win. We need to kind of get that cockiness and killer instinct and go out and win games,” Fidler said.
As a young team, Benjamin and Tranvik are confident the team will be able to become stronger from gaining more experience and continuing to work hard during the off-season.
“The team is basically all coming back, it will be so much better next year. Hitting is contagious, and we found out the hard way this year,” Tranvik said.
The team is only graduating three seniors, Benjamin, Tranvik and Dan Venn; setting the team up to be more experienced and well-prepared for next season.