Alexandria Carter/ Winonan
The Winona State University baseball team started the 2015 season with six losses after traveling to Houston, Texas to compete in the Houston Winter Invitation at Minute Maid Park and Bolivar, Mo. for two double headers.
After returning to Winona with four losses, pitcher Jay Voter said Houston was “ a pretty humbling experience.”
During their four-day stretch in Houston, the Warriors fell to Tarleton State (15-2), University of Central Missouri (2-1), St. Mary’s University (11-3) and Henderson State (5-0).
Despite the losses, head coach Kyle Poock said his biggest concern is that “we are playing good competition and we just need to get better every week.“
Poock said, “Some of the best teams in the country play in Texas. Central Missouri is from our region and they always rated in the top 15. I want to play those types of teams early so we know where we are at.”
After Houston the Warriors traveled to Bolivar, Mo. losing two doubleheaders to Southwest Baptist, 7-2 and 3-2. Winona State’s doubleheader against Wisconsin- Parkside was cancelled due to inclement weather.
Against Southwest Baptist, Hayden Krimmer gave up no earned runs and only four hits in his five innings of pitching, striking out four players and giving up three walks. He said the cancelled game against Parkside does not have that big of an impact on the team, and there are a lot of games left to play.
Poock also said the cancelled games will have “no impact” on their season, but it “would have been nice to get another two games in after traveling nine and a half hours of traveling.”
“I wish we would have had a chance to play them. Hopefully we make it up later on in the year,” Poock said.
From Texas to Missouri, the Warriors corrected communication.
“Guys were talking more, pitchers were better at attacking the hitters,” Poock said. “We know there are things we need to correct. Hitters need to become more aggressive.”
The baseball team will be heading to Florida in two weeks, and until then Poock said the team will focus on the mental aspect of the game since there is a difference between playing in the gym versus on a field. He said the coaching staff is also focusing on keeping the players’ arms in shape.
“We are going to increase the number of pitches that the pitchers can throw, so the hitters are going to see a lot more live action before Florida,” Poock said. “Live batting practice is going to help us the most.”
Winona State (0-6) travels to Florida on March 9 for a six-game series in the Russ Matt Invitational.
