Southeast baseball trains for spring season

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team ended its fall season, with a scrimmage against Three Rivers on Oct. 20 in preparation for the season in the spring.

Newly hired coach Andy Sawyers mentioned how impressed he was by how clean the defense was.

“We scrimmaged two junior colleges and we played 24 innings total and made one error,” Sawyers said.

Senior outfielder Dan Holst, who is in his second year in the program after transferring from Southwestern Illinois, also had good things to say about the play of the defense so far.

“We’ve been playing really good defense so far this fall,” Holst said. “I think that’s crucial for us.”

Sawyers also had high praise for the performance of the pitchers.

“We really attacked the strike zone,” Sawyers said.

Holst has also taken notice of the pitching this fall.

“We’ve been throwing a ton of strikes,” Holst said.

Sawyers was initially worried with the pitching, considering the team lost pitcher Joey Lucchesi, who is now in the minor leagues with the San Diego Padres.

“With losing Joey, that was kind of the question mark, ‘We’re we gonna be able to pitch it?’,” Sawyers said. “However, I’m encouraged with where we’re at, we have a really good lineup coming back.”

Holst also has taken notice of the pitching this fall.

Sawyers is confident he will see this year’s team produce excellent results.

Sawyers said he expects this season to end with “a trip to Omaha.” Omaha is where the College Baseball World Series takes place every year.

Sawyers was hired as coach in the offseason after former coach, Steve Bieser, left to take the same position at the University of Missouri.

In following Bieser, Sawyers said, “I just gotta do my best.”

“He’s somebody different than I am,” Sawyers. “I appreciated it, leaving the program in a really good spot, but I’m not really concerned with what he did here. He left to go to Mizzou, that was his choice, and I’m happy to be here.”

Sawyers admitted it has been a challenge, coming in with an all-new coaching staff and waiting on the completion of Capaha Field.

“We’re all new, we don’t have a field to practice on,” Sawyers said. “Just the organization of the fall has been hard on me.”

Sawyers mentioned how the lack of a field to practice on has changed the schedule he had planned for the fall.

“I like to have a plan for the whole fall done before we ever practice day one,” Sawyers said. “We have shot from the hip for most of the fall. We’re doing skill instruction over at the rec field on their turf and then we’re going to hit at balls and strikes because we don’t have cages.

“In spite of that, it’s gotten better, once official practice started. For most of the fall, we’re planning it day to day, which is not how you typically like to do that.”

While it’s been tough without a field to practice on, Holst said he thinks everything’s going to much smoother once Capaha Field is completed.

“It’s taking our extra work away,” Holst said. "We’re really excited to get this field back, so we can get our extra work in, like our daily swings, getting ground balls, getting fly balls, whenever we have a chance. It’s just gonna make life a lot easier.”

Sawyers says the vision for this year’s team and for teams to come, is to make sure the program stays consistent with their success.

“We’re not gonna win the league every year, you just can’t run that off for 10 years. It’s gonna end at some point,” Sawyers said. “If we can stay relevant, like stay at the top of our league, produce good draft picks, if we can stay as talented as we are now and keep giving ourselves an opportunity, at some point we’re gonna get hot.”

“That’s all it takes. I’ve been to Omaha twice, it’s not always the best teams that get there, it’s the team that gets hot for three weeks. If you get hot for three weeks, you can do it.”

Sawyers has been to Omaha twice, going there in 2005 with Nebraska as an assistant coach and in 2011 with Texas A&M as the associate head coach.

“Likewise, if we can maintain where the program’s at, stay at the top of the OVC, give ourselves a chance to go to regionals.

Holst said this team must improve every day in order for the team to make the trip to Omaha.

“When the spring starts up, that’s when you start to face adversity and you start to face better competition and things start to go not the way that you saw it. That’s when we see what we need to get better at,” Holst said.

When the season starts and the road to get to Omaha begins, Holst said, “Finding a way to win games and competing will do us the most good when spring’s here.”

Holst, so far, likes the vision that Sawyers has brought to the program.

“He wants us to compete in everything we do,” Holst said. “Whether it’s in the weight room, Tuesday and Thursday morning running, scrimmages, batting practice, whatever we’re doing, we’re just competing against each other. They’ve been pushing us hard this fall, but I think it’s beneficial for us and I think it’s gonna pay off come spring time.”

The team begins their season on Feb.17, as they travel to Texas and take on UT Arlington and Stephen F. Austin.