With a little under a month to go in the season, the baseball team is ready to make its final push as it heads into the postseason. With a 18-20 record on the season and the CCAA tournament coming up, the Seawolves still hold their destiny.
Senior catcher Lucas Townsend spoke about how he feels about his team heading into the final game prior to playoffs. “I think we’re in a great spot heading into the home stretch here at the end of the season. In reality, we hold our playoff hopes in our own hands and I think that’s what every team wants right now.” Townsend has a lot of experience with this being his fifth and final season of collegiate baseball and he feels that this team can really be gearing up to make a run come postseason time.
He also spoke extremely highly of the group’s chemistry and togetherness. “The chemistry on this team is unlike any I’ve played on before. We’re a really tight-knit group that pushes each other to get better every single day. I think we’ve had some leaders really show themselves as of late and that’s really going to make the difference heading into the back end of the season.” With all the experience Townsend has accumulated over his career here at Sonoma State, he knows how to ride out the highs and lows of a long season and will be a very powerful asset for the team as it nears the playoffs.
Junior utility player Cooper Callison talked about the different strengths and weaknesses that the team has and where he feels like the team needs to improve in order to make a deep playoff run. “Our hitting and run-producing has been our strongest asset. We have to work on our pitching and defense. Preventing runs is just as crucial as producing runs and it doesn’t matter if you put up 10 if you give up 11.”
Identifying and improving your areas of weakness has always been a key aspect of improving sports especially when it comes to a team game. Callison, when asked, also spoke very highly of the team’s chemistry. “Every guy will say we have the funniest team in the conference and it’s true. In the dugout, on the bus, in the hotels, and even off the field away from baseball, we’re living with each other and we’re hanging out and there’s not a lot of bad juice with us.” Having team confidence like this can play a huge role when it comes to winning in the postseason. “If we can keep the good juices flowing, score runs, and make plays, we’ll be just fine and beat anybody,” said Callison.
The team just finished a home stand against Cal State Los Angeles, where they took a 2-2 split in the four-game series. The team is ending the season with three four-game stands. First, they travel to Cal State Dominguez Hills. Following that, they have their final home stand against Cal State San Bernardino and follow that up with a bus ride up to Chico State that ends on May 4th. If all goes right, the CCAA Tournament begins May 8th in Pomona, Ca.
