Jonathan Rhodes/The Lion’s Roar
After winning 10 straight games to start this month the Lions baseball team have gone in the opposite direction by losing five straight games for the first time since 2014. One of the four losses was on the road against LSU and the others came in a three game series at Houston Baptist.
Head Coach Matt Riser was disappointed in the Lions’ struggles with their past five games.
“It’s a long season,” said Riser. “Whether it’s going good or going bad, it’s a long season, and it’s not going very good for us. We lost five in a row, we’ve had a couple of injuries, and morale has gone down a little bit. They got to understand that it’s a long season, we are still not even half way through the season. Just like we rolled off ten wins, we lost five in a row. All we got to do is just change it and win the next game.”
Last week was tough on the Lions as three players have been injured in the past five games. These injuries disrupted the game planning for the Lions in the series against Houston Baptist.
“It’s been a long week,” said Riser. “Schwaner pulled a hamstring against LSU. Obviously he is still swinging, but he can barely run and defend third base. Ryan Byers is out. He had a concussion on Friday night. Kade Granier got a shoulder injury, that’s why we had to start Koestler on Sunday.”
There has been a decline in the confidence of the Lions after last week and it was represented in their games. Riser hopes the team will regain that confidence that they had earlier in the season that led to a ten game win streak.
“We have to play with confidence,” said Riser. “We have to get that confidence back of knowing that we have played the best teams in the country and that we have had success against the best teams in the country. The early season schedule was not a slouch schedule, but we are realizing more and more now that it’s not the opponent that we are playing it is more ourselves. If you go out with the wrong attitude against a Houston Baptist who is below .500 you lose but if you go out with the right attitude, you will beat the West Virgina’s and the Rice’s.”
Riser played seven pitchers in the game against LSU. The Lions have been in search this season for a midweek starter at the pitching mound but have not had much luck so far.
“The biggest thing is trying to give some guys opportunities to step up,” said Riser. “We got to find a midweek starter. We’re killing our bullpen for the weekend. We’re having to roll these guys out Wednesday, Friday and Sunday three times out of the week. We’ve got to find somebody to step up. Hopefully, with Graffeo coming back in, maybe he can take that role and run with it. We will see.”
The Lions record is 14-9 overall ranking them third in the Southland Conference standings and they have 5-4 record in inner conference play. They will have to find a way to regain the momentum they had at the start of the season.
“We just got to keep working and keep grinding,” said senior infielder Carson Crites. “Every pitch and every bat matters. We can’t give anything up. We just got to stay with it, stay hard nosed and just keep getting after it.”
Riser wants to see the Lions work well batting and pitching and not become one-dimensional. Home runs without any players on base only keeps the game close but it’s not how the Lions are accustomed to playing.
“I think right now we need to be more dynamic,” said Riser. “We are relying too much on the home run and not playing enough of our style of baseball which is executing runs, bunts and our steals. Pitching-wise, if we can do a good job of limiting three passes that will help us eliminate the offense. We saw it this past weekend with this losing streak of the runs scored or 50 percent of them are on three passes whether it’s walks or hit by pitches or errors. That’s a big run production there if we force them to make contact on it and make plays behind them. Obviously you cut those runs in half and you give yourself a chance to win the ball game.”
The Lions will look to get back on track against UL Lafayette this Wednesday at 6 p.m., and this weekend against McNeese. Riser is anxious for the team to turn the season back around to where they focus on playing Lions baseball.
“We got to get back to doing some basic fundamental stuff,” said Riser. “The biggest thing is we got to get back to being us which is refusing to lose and just taking it one pitch at a time.”
Senior outfielder Jacob Seward diving for a catch against LSU.
Morgan Ledet/The Lion's Roar