Since their opener on Jan. 30, GCSU’s baseball team has struggled, beginning their season with a 1-10 record and 0-3 in conference play.
Multiple injuries across the team have led to shifted positions and disarray on the field, namely the starting Friday night pitcher, Christian Donaldson, being out of commission after an injury that occurred in the second inning of the season opener.
The current roster consists of many younger players who are newly starting out, which creates some difficulty when adjusting for these absences. In addition, the coaching staff has seen multiple recent replacements and additions, including head coach Jeff Pelkey, assistant coach Jaiden Warde and graduate assistant Jackson Hoshour.
As the Bobcats adjust to abrupt changes in their lineups, players are working hard and feeling hopeful about the season’s future. Jake Beaver, a senior exercise science major and left-handed pitcher, attributes the team’s early struggles to the current instability of positions but shares an optimistic outlook on the efforts made to combat these obstacles.
“We’ve got a good core group of guys, but we can only pitch so much,” Beaver said. “Gavyn Seitz had a really good start last Sunday, so he, I think, is going to be our Sunday guy going forward, which then gives the pitching staff more stability.”
Beaver named several other pitchers included in the new routine, including Keaton Prior, Owen Thomas, Griffin Davis, Caden Tillman and himself. He hopes the establishment of this new schedule, as well as continuing to work hard in practice, will provide the consistency the team needs in order to get back on its feet.
“We’ve worked a lot in practice on fixing the little things and handling stuff we can control, and then just trying to show improvement every day and every week,” Beaver said. “Getting the guys rolling and getting a kind of routine on when we’re going to throw and just stability, I think is the biggest thing, so we’re getting there.”
Keaton Prior, a junior business management major and right-handed pitcher, believes the claims regarding the team’s pitching so far to be an oversimplification of its broader adversities.
“I think we have the talent, we just need to figure out how to play together as a team,” Prior said. “We can be better at pitching, but I think if we play together as a team there’ll be more competitive games, and overall everything will kind of work itself out when we’re just playing better baseball.”
Despite their rocky start to the season, the baseball Bobcats are increasing their effort in preparation for the rest of their season. Harding Dennis, a freshman exercise science major and left-handed pitcher, hints at behind-the-scenes adjustments to the team and to practices.
“We practice every day that we don’t have a game, and play four games a week,” Dennis said. “With almost a full week off from games, our coaching staff has been given time to evaluate and pinpoint the main weaknesses and focus on those for this week’s practices.”
Between daily training and working to find their rhythm as a team, the players believe GCSU students have a lot to look forward to for baseball this year.
“We’ve got a great group of guys that love each other, and we work hard,” Beaver said. “Obviously we’re not happy with the start of the season, but we’re gonna do a whole lot better and hope we can catch more people at some games, so it’ll be fun.”
Students who want to witness the Bobcats’ comeback firsthand can both view their schedule and purchase game tickets at gcsubobcats.com.
