Fresh off the field from Tucson, Arizona, the Hamline baseball team returns home from their spring break trip refreshed and ready to turn their season around.
Although the Pipers are off to a rocky start to the season with a current record of 5–13, the team is hopeful they can make a comeback for the last half of the season. With their spring break trip results not being what they were expecting, senior pitcher Dalton Maxwell explained the team’s feelings.
“The trip wasn’t what we wanted from a record point of view. However, we keep moving forward towards MIAC play, which opens up this coming week, where we have to bring our refined game together each pitch at a time, on both sides of the ball,” Maxwell said.
Despite the games not ending with the results the team was looking for, the Pipers made the most of their ten day trip by bonding together as a team.
“Best part of the trip is always the ability to be together as a team for 10 days in Arizona. Especially this year, when we have a ton of young guys contributing, this allows us to keep building that connection and gluing together as a team.” Maxwell said.
Senior pitcher Finn Melchior, who is no stranger to the yearly baseball spring break trip to Arizona, as he has been going since his first-year.
“We’ve been going there [Tucson] every year for quite a while now. It was, it was a good experience. We went to lots of different team dinners and we played nine games — seven varsity and two JV games, Melchior said.“It was a good experience for the team to be down there. Spending time together and exploring the area too was nice — we got to do some hiking which was nice.”
Due to the snow and rainy weather, what was supposed to be the first two home and MIAC games for the Pipers against the St. Olaf Oles, was rescheduled for a later date. Now on Saturday, Apr. 5, the Pipers will travel to Moorhead, Minnesota to take on Concordia in their first MIAC games in a double header. After their games against Concordia, Hamline will have their rescheduled first two home games at CHS field on Sunday, Apr. 6, against St. Olaf.
“I think we’re feeling pretty good. I think we’ve kind of ironed the bugs out to an extent. We’ve had a lot of failures early in the season,” Melchior said. “I think we know where our shortcomings are, so we know how to better prepare and how to better attack that.”
Even with the team statistics not being a direct reflection of all the hard work the team is putting in, the team is giving it their all every practice and every game.
“We have a ton of young guys coming in and making an impact right away this season. Outside of a core group of guys who have pitched a ton of innings and had a ton of at-bats, we have a large group of underclassmen who have stepped into some pretty big roles for this program.” Maxwell said, “One specifically being freshman Ryan Burley, shortstop. Came in and won the starting job after graduating four-year starter Braeden Bourńe and has been having a great start to his young career as a Piper.”
Both Melchior and Maxwell had nothing but a positive outlook for the remainder of the season.
“Playing at CHS one last time, we still get ten games there. Just winning there is kind of the best part of it all. Just winning at home and playing for Hamline. It’s nice to compete for your school and play at your home field. Hopefully we make playoffs this year,” Melchior said.
