Taking it a game at a time, the Augustana baseball team is hoping to continue it’s strong performance by focusing on each CCIW game individual game.
Senior pitcher Zack Morgenstern said the team is excited to start up their conferences games and they try to prepare for each single game and not on their overall schedule. This method allows for them to have the best success, as years past have shown.
“We tackle the small goals so we can tackle the big goals,” Morgenstern said. “Instead of looking at the big picture, we take it day by day.”
Morgenstern said that baseball head coach Greg Wallace doesn’t have the team discuss post-conference games until the after the CCIW conference tournament.
Wallace’s focus for the team allows the team to play their best in every individual game.
“Whether you’re putting the label of conference game in front of it or not, they’re going out there just playing the game as best they can everyday,” Wallace said.
The team started their season with a trip down to Florida. They came back from that trip 12-1 after competing with tough teams from around the country.
Wallace saw this as a good test for his team.
“Our non-conference schedule gave us everything we wanted to get us ready to jump into conference play,” Wallace said.
Augustana’s first four games were back-to-back against Brandeis University. The Vikings won all four games and Morgenstern connected this series to how their conference play normally is at home. He also said how this was a difficult task for the team to achieve but he saw a lot of improvement from his teammates throughout these games.
Since returning home, the Vikings have gone 5-2 overall and 3-1 in conference play. Their first conference game of the spring season was against Millikin University where the Vikings won 5-2 from a strong offensive performance.
They continued their conference season against Carroll University this past weekend. Before the three game series began, Wallace said the team’s main focus was on themselves since Carroll is a new challenger they team had to face.
The focus worked as the Vikings went 2-1 in the three game series. They went 1-1 on Saturday and had a dominating performance on Sunday as they won 18-5.
The team is looking forward to some great rivalries this season, including against Wheaton College and Illinois Wesleyan University. Even with these games in mind, the team still wants to focus on the next individual games so they can achieve their overall goal in the end.
The Vikings played Elmhurst College on Wednesday and will play them again at Brunner Field on Saturday at 1 and 3:30 p.m. On Sunday, they will play North Central College at 2 and 4:30 p.m. at the Brunner Field.