Many people are tired of the snow and cold weather, but the UW-Eau Claire’s club baseball team is feeling the brunt of it.
The team was supposed to have a three game series in Marquette March 30, but that was rescheduled until early May due to Easter and the likelihood that the fields there weren’t game-ready either.
Brandon Johns, a senior catcher and one of the team captains, said the games the weekend of April 6 and 7 will either be rescheduled or they will travel to Northwestern when they were supposed to be in Eau Claire. The Northwestern series was delayed because of poor field conditions.
Rescheduling games for upcoming weekends is getting difficult due to the fact that the number of weekends left in the school year is dwindling. Having to reschedule games will not only test the team, but also test the team’s pitching because they will have to fit in the rescheduled games into a short amount of time.
Spring sports can’t always count on Wisconsin weather because it’s either cold or there’s still snow on the ground. When teams can’t get outside for practice due to inclement weather, it’s hard not knowing when they will get to.
The team was contacted by the city of Eau Claire who said that they won’t have access to Bollinger Fields until April 15th at the earliest. Until then, the team has been practicing in the McPhee gym, which limits to what they can do.
Jeremy Lochner, a junior outfielder and one of the team captains, said that the captains especially have to keep motivated because if the rest of the team sees them slacking or not giving 100 percent, they will get nothing out of practice.
The captains excel at this by mixing up what the team does and by telling everyone that they need to be ready at a moment’s notice when the season starts. Despite the slow start to the season, the team isn’t letting the weather get them down.
Last year, they were champions of the Great Lakes Conference and hope to win the title again this season.
“The conference has a few very good teams so we know we will have to be ready each and every game in order to repeat last year’s success,” Lochner said.
