Over the weekend of April 12-14, UW-Eau Claire’s men’s baseball team held a doubleheader at Carson Park against UW-Whitewater Warhawks. UW-Eau Claire lost all four games but kept spirits high throughout.
In the first game on Saturday, April 13, the Blugolds lost 17-0, while in the second they picked up some points but ultimately lost 16-5. In Sunday’s games, the team came up short at 15-1, and 14-7 in the second.
Kyle Babin, second-year outfielder, said they had made a lot of mistakes on the field and the team could have done better.
“I think just in general, we played a lot of mistakes, we had a lot of mistakes going on,” Babin said. “The team isn’t unbeatable, we could have done better.”
Justin Coronado, the third-year pitcher, shared the same sentiment and said they have improvements they can make but made an improvement from the games on Saturday to Sunday.
“I think that we have a lot of improvements that we can make,” Coronado said. “But I think that there was progress. I think that moving forward we just need to build on that progress.”
Head Coach Patrick Riley said while the scores may not have reflected it, the team was up early in the morning preparing for the games.
“Obviously score-wise, it might not indicate that they were locked in,” Riley said. “But they were over at Bollinger bright and early, taking batting practice for the long day.”
Going forward with the season, Coronado said the team can work on continuing to build their routines and throwing strikes.
Riley said the team needs to work on continuing to stay together.
“The biggest thing right now for me is we’ve got to stay together,” Riley said. “Obviously record alone, an outsider could see that we’re struggling. But from the day-to-day, they’re really, really fun to be around. So we’ve just got to get them to stay together. “
Babin said he is looking forward to growing with the team.
“Something I’m looking forward to this season is just growing with this group of guys,” Babin said. “Obviously, you don’t get to keep everybody every year, so you get to cherish the memories along the way.”
At the first game on Sunday, the UW-Eau Claire Athletic Department hosted a youth day that was sponsored by Valley Sports Academy (VSA). Riley said he enjoyed getting the children excited about the prospect of playing college baseball.
“It was very well attended. I was super impressed with the sponsorship by VSA. We had a good crowd of young baseball players in the community,” Riley said. “Although the scores weren’t great, I felt like we grew the game in our play and got kids excited about the prospect of playing college baseball. And that’s exciting for me to see for the future generations.”
The baseball team’s next game will be at noon on April 20, at UW-Stout.
Boggess can be reached at [email protected].
