Men’s baseball team wins at Oberlin, going on 10 game win streak

The men’s baseball team spent last weekend at Oberlin College, bringing a 10 game winning streak home with them.

“It was a tough weekend, but we fought for the victories,” Kelly Swiney, head coach, said.

Hayden Smith, ’16, said in every game the whole line up worked hard, the team needed all the runs and the offense worked hard all weekend.

Smith played his first season win as a pitcher after throwing two perfect innings.

“We had a bumpy start after Florida, with a losing streak going. But after sweeping Hiram, it motivated us up to a 10 win streak,” Corey Keenan, ’17, said.

Keenan pitched seven innings against Oberlin.

“Playing on the road is always a challenge, the home team gets to bat last four times and Oberlin had their field dedication and senior game,” Swiney said.

Through the weekend, the team played four games against Oberlin.

“The fourth game is always tough, whether you’ve lost or won the first three. Nine hours of baseball is mentally and physically draining, but we were focused the whole weekend,” Smith said.

Swiney said as a team they believe in themselves even when facing struggles.

“The wins boost confidence and attitude, we have that extra assurance on a winning high,” Keenan said.

Even following the productive weekend, the team is focusing on improving in the remaining weeks of the teams.

“We are never perfect, there are always things to improve on,” Smith said. “Doing a better job getting ahead early and finishing it early because we won’t always be able to come back late in the game.”

Swiney said the team is always learning from their performances.

“We may have won four games last weekend but we didn’t play our best. We can look at what to learn from and ahead to playing challenging teams,” Swiney said.

The team’s attitude is to work hard to achieve their goals.

“You can build off of what you failed at, what approaches to go with and learn when each pitch is effective,” Keenan said.

Smith said the team is a very tight knit group and even though the line up changes, everyone knows their job and does it.

“We have the home crossover coming up, and if we win that, we can go all the way to win the conference championship. Our goal is to go as far as possible,” Keenan said.

The team will face The University of Mount Union on Friday, April 24 at 3 p.m. at Robertson Athletic Complex.