Last year’s season was a big disappointment by Gustavus baseball standards, but this upcoming season the coaches and captains are excited for an awesome year. The team is already improving through both individuality and teamwork. The four captains of the baseball team all agree that it is certainly the chemistry that is starting this year’s season on a positive note. This year they are emphasizing working together and staying focused. They are doing everything to achieve their greatest peak.

“Last year was a pretty rough year. I think team chemistry had a lot to do with it, but we have been working on improving that this year. I think we had a lot of young guys and only two graduating seniors last year, therefore we were a really young group and I think we were still learning how to play together and learning how to win together…and you need to go through those ups and downs and figure out that mental aspect of the game,” Senior Chris Kelly said.

The captains shed light on what went wrong and how they have managed to understand the key to become a successful team.

“We’re trying to forget about last year’s season as much as possible. We just didn’t really have the team chemistry. I think that was a big problem. This year the captains and I are trying to include everyone in on different things. The good thing is that we have a lot of guys coming back,”Senior Captain Grant Soderberg said.

There is a big return of upperclassmen for the baseball team—the amount of returning players can only mean greater bonding with each other.

“This year we have a lot of guys returning… a lot are experience now and new guys who will compliment as well. We have some new guys who are going to bring some good things to our pitching staff and some power to our line up,”Senior Captain Max Fidler said.

Indeed, the captains are quite confident that they will have an exciting and positive upcoming season.

“I think overall our team has matured a lot from last year and understand how to work together and the improvements we are going to have to make.    I think those improvements are coming along nicely so far,” Kelly said.

Officially, their season doesn’t begin until the start of spring but they are already swinging in full gear. The men have organized practices or scrimmages on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are mandatory captains practices.

“We have some new guys who are going to bring some good things to our pitching staff.”—Max Fidler

Once the offseason hits, the Gustavus baseball team will be hitting the weight room that shows who has improved over the summer and what needs to be worked on. They have a trainer who will be setting up a lifting program for everyone on the team to get involved in.

The captains are working hard and have done an amazing job polishing the team.

“It’s my final season; I’m excited to play with all my friends. I think it’s always fun to play with guys you like and enjoy being around. Everything else will take care of itself. It’s my last organized baseball season before I have to worry about real world stuff,”Soderberg said.

-Jessica Yang