By Bianca Dinkha
Dominican Baseball started the season strong ranking 38th in the nation but have fallen off, currently standing at 13-17 overall with a 6-11 conference record. Despite the struggling season, the team hopes to bounce back in order to secure a spot in the playoffs.
Although the team began with three straight wins against Wheaton (9-7), Brevard (14-4), and Centre College (4-3), they slowed down with a seven-game losing streak coming out of Florida and going into their first conference games.
Senior outfielder captain Zach Helein says that consistency on both offense and pitching, and failing to execute in key situations are the team’s biggest challenges.
“It’s kind of us against us a lot of the time, and we play ourselves out of a lot of games,” he said. “We just have to take the pressure off of us. I mean obviously we know that we have to play our best baseball. We have to play perfect, but that’s only going to happen if you’re not worried about being perfect.”
“It’s pretty obvious what needs to change, and we just don’t do it.” Helein said.
Head coach Steve Hardman says he focuses on fixing specific areas of weakness, like giving up too many runs, to improve performance. He says it’s difficult to motivate players when the team is in a slump.
“We just weren’t executing, we just couldn’t put it together,” he said. “We couldn’t on all three aspects of the game: defense, pitching and hitting.”
“Where we’ve kind of failed is we’ve identified where we’re struggling, but not getting better in those areas.” Hardman added.
Sophomore pitcher Alex Voegele shared his disappointment with the current season as he reflects on the team’s performance and standing in conference.
“It’s not great knowing that we rank in the bottom out of our conference, historically, we sit in those bottom ranks.” he said. “And you know, every year we try to elevate ourselves. Right now, it just looks like it’s another year we’re going to be one of those bottom teams.”
The Stars haven’t made the NACC postseason since 2019, with the last winning season being in 2022 and prior to that 2014.
Voegele says that in addition to consistency, there have been some communication issues between coaches and players.
Most notably in their recent game against Edgewood University, Voegele and Hardman had a visible argument out on the field, resulting in Voegele being pulled from the game.
“That’s something that you’d never want to see as a player and a coach; having a very public disagreement on the field,” he said. “But I think me and him, we talked Monday morning, and I think we kind of came together as you know, adults, and we discussed what happened, and we saw each other’s sides. I think we both came to the agreement that, that’s not going to be something that happens going forward, that it was kind of unacceptable for both of us.”
“I think he’s heard us come to him and tell him that we were having this problem, and I think he understands that,” Voegele continued. “I think going forward, he’s going to try to be better. And I love to see it.”
Hardman declined to comment on the dispute, citing it as an internal issue.
Despite the difficulties, Hardman and the team continue to have hope for playoff contention. Hardman says that his confidence level is still high and that “we still have a chance to accomplish our goals and make a conference tournament.”
Voegele noted that although the season hasn’t gone as planned, they shouldn’t let it discourage the team moving forward.
“This one year doesn’t define who you are as a player or a team,” he said. “We can still work hard throughout the offseason and come back better than we were this year.”
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