There’s something different about the Hamline baseball team this year. It’s not the coach. It’s not the players. It’s not the opposition. It’s the conference record they hold, which currently stands at eight wins and four losses. While the team has had winning overall records all but two years since 2006, having a winning conference record is not something the team has attained since the 2011 season.

Head coach Jim Weyandt believes the team’s success so far this year has been a product of good leadership, goal setting and persistence.

“The guys set the goals every year never to be swept in conference play,” Weyandt said. “Our preparation and hard work on the front end has been the same for years.”

However, Weyandt pointed out that there is one thing that is different this season.

“There’s something special about this group and kind of their resiliency to be able to bounce back after a loss,” said Weyandt.

The team operates based on a “pyramid of success” goal setting strategy, which includes goals such as winning every pitch, winning every inning and not being swept. With the MIAC being a conference where seven teams are separated by two games, using games like the two against Bethel a few weekends ago affirms the Pipers’ success towards their goal of never being swept. Hamline lost the first game 3-10, while coming back the same day to beat the Royals in the second game 13-9.

“They don’t let a bad inning or a bad game affect the next inning or the next game,”Weyandt said. “They’ve really done a good job, the leaders in particular, with keeping the guys focused on that… never being swept.”

Senior pitcher Nick Beckman also weighed in on the importance of goal setting, and how it has made all the difference in maintaining a winning conference record.

“I think this year we’ve tried to keep things really small scale… definitely minimizing and not putting as much pressure on ourselves to get everything all done at once.” Beckman said. “[The players]are all working towards the same goal. We understand what everybody puts into the program, and we are able to feed off each other’s energy.”

There is still a lot of baseball to be played; The Pipers have 12 games left in regular season, eight of which are conference games. For Beckman, he wants to see his team become conference champions this year as they had been in 2011 and to see the continued growth of the program.

“As an alumni, after I leave here, just to be able to come back to games and see that same fire in everybody’s eyes and the wanting of more” Beckman said when asked what he would like to see in the baseball program when he returns to Hamline as an alumn.

As Weyandt said, “In baseball, there’s a lot of weird things that can happen, sometimes out of your control… And there’s a lot of failure in our game, but there’s also a lot of opportunity.”