The IUS baseball team is set to start the spring season. After working hard during the off-season, the team is looking to make this season one of their best.

The team began in late August when players and coaches worked together during tryouts to gather a team of their best talent. Since then, they worked to prepare themselves for the upcoming season.

In the fall, they met three times a day for practice, something that Adam Lipke, general studies senior and pitcher, said kept them on schedule and helped them to make sure they were prepared for the season.

In the spring, the team began practicing six days a week. When practice is in session, head coach Ben Reel splits the players up based on their positions. The positions are pitchers, infielders and outfielders.

“We’re all here at the same time, but we work on different drills,” Lipke said.

Reel said the drills include batting practice, live pitching, ground balls and
weight training.

With all the hard work that the team has put into their practices, they are hoping for a great season.

“We’ve worked hard,” Reel said. “These guys are hungry and they want to make something happen.”

Although the team was plagued by injuries last season, they fought their way through it.

“We had a lot of big injuries to starters and pitchers last year,” Lipke said. Despite their problems, the team went on to win the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season championship.

“We also had a school record of an 11-game winning streak,” Derek Decker, general studies senior and pitcher, said.

Those two accomplishments are held by the team to be their highest achievements of last season.

The team has bigger dreams for themselves with the upcoming season.
“Our main goal is to go to the World Series in Idaho,” Lipke said. “We’d also like to break the school record for most wins in a season.”

The current record for wins by the IUS baseball team in a season is 35.
The team has put in the time and effort into making this season count, now they must put it all to work and see if they can come out with a season to be proud of.

Reel said his biggest goals for this season are for the seniors to go out on top, for the guys to go out and have fun and to let all the hard work pay off.
“That’s the biggest thing — for our seniors to go out and remember this year forever,” Reel said.

Reel said he is happy with how this team has meshed.

“I’ve been really impressed to see our guys come from all walks of life come in here with on common goal and really work together,” Reel said. “They balance a lot and now is the fun part.”

The Grenadiers will spend the entire month of February playing road games. They will play their home opener on March 5 against Indiana Tech. Their first conference game is March 19 against Berea.

By ASHLEY AGNEW
Staff Writer
aeagnew@indiana.edu