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The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

The Official Student News Media of Southeastern Louisiana University

The Lion's Roar

    Baseball prepares for tough schedule

    Alumni Field now has turf for the upcoming Lions baseball season.
    Morgan Ledet/The Lion's Roar

    The Lions baseball team has a game plan to make it to the College World Series.

    For the 2017 baseball season, the Lions have set up a five step plan hoping it leads the team to victory.

    “We have the same goals set for every year,” said Head Coach Matt Riser. “It’s a five step process. It begins with winning the regular season championship, then the conference tournament, next the regional and super regional to our ultimate goal of winning a national championship.”

    Riser believes this year will be more challenging due to more traveling and possibly the toughest schedule the team has had in over ten years.

    “We play an extremely challenging schedule and will spend a lot of time on the road especially early,” said Riser. “I didn’t do us any favors with this year’s schedule. It is our toughest schedule in my ten years here. Good or bad, we must be able to handle the early season maturely. We must continue to remind ourselves that championships are won in May and June.”

    Returning junior pitcher Mac Sceroler has a positive outlook for the team this season. 

    “I have high expectations for this team,” said Sceroler. “We have a good group of guys along with veteran leadership. We have a good non-conference schedule that will test us early and see what we’re made of and will boost our RPI. Being that we lost three of our starting pitchers, along with a couple batters, including the nation’s leading hitter, we are looking for guys to step up and play a huge role for us. I feel as if we have the right group of guys for that.”

    The new turf has a powerful positive affect on the team’s defense.

    “The new field will help improve our defense and allow us to be more aggressive with base running,” said Riser.

    The team is grateful for all the contributions to the team including the new field.

    “The new turf is awesome,” said Sceroler. “I think it came out really great. Anytime we see improvements to our program, it makes us proud. It makes us want to work harder and keep winning.”

    The Lions plan to go into the season with a positive attitude and the will to strive towards the national championship with the intentions of topping last season. 

    “Every year we play, we’re trying to do one thing and that’s win a national championship,” said Riser. “Obviously, we didn’t do that last year, so there is a lot of room to improve. We’ve been to the regional twice in the last three years, and it would be really nice to finally win one.”

    Riser is excited about this  season, and he believes that this season’s roster is full of the most talented young men he has ever coached.

    “I’m extremely excited about this year’s group of seniors,” said Riser. “They are one of the toughest group of young men I’ve had the fortune to coach.”

     
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