We are past the midway point in the season for both baseball and softball in 2024. Both teams have already surpassed their win total from last year, with a half month left of conference play. Both teams feel like they know what they must do to clinch a playoff spot. 

“Our mindset to get into the tournament is to split every weekend doubleheader and win the remaining weekday games,” Halen Lowman, a freshman on the baseball team, said. “And we’ve got a good chance of being in the ODAC tournament.” 

“We need to get the bats going early in games, and defensively, we need to play a clean game,” Ally Testerman, a freshman on the softball team, said.” As long as we keep working hard and playing like we know we can, I believe we are going to win most of the series and make it to the playoffs.”

Baseball won five games last season. Fast-forward to 2024, and they sit at eight with the rest of April to play. Senior pitcher Shane Michel has had some big wins over his career, including some in the first half of this season. 

“Beating multiple ranked teams within [the] conference and the national [ranking] has been a lot of fun and is definitely something to be proud of,” Michel said. Being a part of a victory against a ranked team earlier in my career was a glimpse of what has come this year.” 

Softball has also seen an uptick in wins this season. They sit at 11 wins after winning nine last season. Senior third baseman Briana Battinelli contributes some of that to the team’s leadership. 

“I’m most proud of the way we have improved not only as athletes but in leadership roles as well; lots of the underclassmen have taken up the leadership aspect of it,” Battinelli said. “I think it’s also great that we have now started to hold each other more accountable for things, and we are able to coach one another to make each other better.”

At the time of publication, baseball is 8-20, 4-9 in conference play, just 1.5 games back of the last spot in the tournament. Softball is 11-17, 5-7 in conference play, which would place them in the seventh seed if the season ended today.