Texans looks ahead to promising baseball season
By Todd Coley –
April is rapidly approaching and that means one thing if you are a baseball fan, opening day.
However, what some do not realize is that Tarleton’s opening day was Feb.1 when the team started a tournament in Houston at Minute Made Park. Coach Bryan Conger said that a highlight of the season was opening up with that tournament and having his players treated as if they were in the big leagues. They came out of that opening tournament with a 2-1 record and have continued the momentum into the season.
(File Photo: Caleb McCaig, Texan News Service)
The season is now 27 games deep and the Texans are No. 1 in the Lone Star Conference. With a promising-looking season, it is important to see what players and coaches thought of the first half and what lies ahead for them.
Senior outfielder Fola Lajide said he would grade the season as an A- at this point. The season has been filled with more ups than downs for them with a big highlight of sweeping Eastern New Mexico in a four-game series, Lajide said. He said he actually enjoys traveling and the long road trips and finds most pleasure in playing away games. In order to finish the season strong it is important to show up to play every game, Lajide said.
Junior catcher Jared Musgrove is currently tearing the cover off the ball and hitting a .480 average. He said the season started slow but that these last three weeks the team has really been clicking. The highlight for him so far has been the nine-game winning streak they strung together and his low of the season was losing to Texas Wesleyan 3-0 in a game he felt they gave away.
Musgrove said to end the season strong it is important to just focus on themselves and not the other teams while staying healthy.
Conger was a little more critical of the start of the season than his players in saying that it was a rough start where they couldn’t get their hitting on par with the pitching. Conger said he was satisfied with the defense the entire year though and sweeping Eastern New Mexico was a great way to start conference play.
Conger said that it would not help to complain about the schedule even though the distance and time away can be taxing. The early road trips of the season have helped prepare the players for the three-week road trip they started March 22, Conger said. The team doesn’t play another game in Stephenville until April 5.
For the rest of the season, Conger said the team just needs to stay healthy and focused and they will be returning a couple starters from injury to help boost performance.
Todd Coley is a junior journalism and broadcasting major from Granbury, Texas.
