Coyote club baseball wraps up fall season
The University of South Dakota doesn’t have a baseball team, however, this hasn’t stopped a group of students from gathering on the baseball diamond every day to play “America’s pastime.”
“I think USD should have an official team, I think it would draw a good crowd, especially in the spring,” said Zach Garrett, president of the USD club baseball team.
The number of games the club plays is dependent upon their president and how many games they would like to schedule. The baseball team plays approximately 10 games in the fall and around 15 in the spring. This year they will have roughly 25-30 games.
“My philosophy for the fall is to have even playing time. In the spring we will start our starters,” Garrett said.
This fall season the team has had an uphill battle in search of wins. The Coyotes have won two games. Their first victory came against North Dakota State University. The Coyotes won the game with a score of 9-6. For their second win the USD men took down Winona State 6-3. In their recent double-header against Minnesota West, the Coyotes fell 3-6 and 11-6. Their record for the fall season was 7-2.
The baseball team has held their very first Red and White Series, an inter-squad series that is split into two teams, the Red and White teams. So far, the White team leads the series with one win, however, there’s still two more games to be played. The winner of the series will receive a trophy in which the word “Red” or “White” will be carved into it along with the year. Even though the White team won the first game, the player of the game went to the Red team’s Cole Cheeseman.
When conference rolls around, USD will want their best out on the field. The pick-up games the team plays count toward their non-conference schedule, but if the team doesn’t win their conference, they won’t advance to regionals.
Sophomore Cole Cheeseman said that in order to reach their goal of winning conference, the men practice three times a week for a couple of hours a day.
“It’s not really hard drills, we just like to keep our skills fresh,” he said.
