By Clarissa Olson Posted April 17, 2018
On April 4, JV baseball faced off back-to-back with Elko. The first game, the team emerged victorious with a score of 8-6, before losing the second 17-5.
“Just getting one win against Elko was pretty fun,” said utility/pitcher Justin Horton. “It’s always nice when you beat a rival, but even games we lose can be fun too.”
Horton discussed the value of perseverance in light of the hitting between the two games.
“We did pretty good hitting the first game,” Horton said. ”We usually do. I think we were just a little tired in the second game, and we couldn’t find any gaps to hit to. I think if we keep working, we can start winning series.”
The team’s main focus, as coach Clay Sagers has talked about before, is the mental aspect of the game. The games on the sixth show us just how important that mental game is.
“It was almost like overconfidence held us back in the second game,” said Horton. “We’d already beat them before, so we thought we would have no problem beating them again. We just need to play every game like it’s a new game and like we haven’t beat them before.”
Sagers has highlighted the areas the team plans to focus on to prepare them for their ultimate goal of playing varsity baseball.
“We’re trying to work on the mental aspect and what to do in certain situations,” said Sagers. “We’re just tuning up everything, our hitting, our bunting, our fielding, and pitching. Really, that’s what JV is about. We’re developing our players and getting them ready for varsity, and trying to get as many guys on the mound as we can. We’ve also been putting guys in a few different positions that maybe they’re not used to.”
Despite how little opportunity the team has had to play, they’re still climbing their way to the top.
“We haven’t played a lot of games because we keep getting rained out,” said Sagers. “But they keep getting better. I think we can hang with anybody in our conference. They’re improving as we go.”
