NGU baseball ranked second in the nation
Whitley Bras, Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of NGU Athletics
The baseball team at North Greenville University has had an extremely successful spring season. It is 13-2 in the conference and 29-5 overall. The team is also on a 12-win streak and has not had a loss on its home field this season. Since it has had a great success, it is ranked first in the Conference Carolinas and second in the nation for Division II collegiate baseball.
The head baseball coach, Landon Powell gives some insight on how it feels to be coaching such a high achieving team. He says, “I’m very proud of our guys. We have a good group of players and we knew that going into the season that we were talented. They worked really hard in the fall season to get ready for the spring…. It’s been fun for me and my coaches to be a part of that. We instruct them, and we give them direction but for the most part, they’re just going out and playing and having a great year.”
The baseball team is constantly training and working out throughout the year in order to prepare themselves for the season. A key component in team success is having the ability to cooperate and work together.
The baseball team has been able to mesh together well this season and that’s one of the key factors that Powell attributes to their success. Powell says, “I think first and foremost we have some really good players. We have a lot of talent. Secondly, we have really good makeup and character. We have guys that are hungry, that work hard, that have a high aspiration for themselves. We also have a very competitive atmosphere. Our culture here is that we want to win. I think all of those things combined have contributed to the success so far in the season.”
The team has eight more regular season games left before they enter into the Conference Carolinas Tournament at the end of April. The outcome of the next games will help to determine the final ranking of the team.
When discussing expectations for the end of the season, coach Powell says, “I’d love to just win every game and never lose, right, isn’t that what you want to do as a coach? We just keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to be in good shape. You play until they won’t let you play anymore and win your last game usually that means you’re the champion.”
He went on to say that he wants the team to win the last game they play and if they do that, then it’s going to be a really good year. But, he said how hard it is to look ahead and how he can’t forecast, they kind of just have to take it game by game and really shrink the season down into small segments. “We just need to worry about today and winning today and take care of tomorrow, tomorrow.”
Although NGU baseball has been doing extremely well this season, they are staying humble and want to finish strong. Baseball rankings are considered when looking at the “total quality of work” as Powell likes to say it rather than just individual games. This means that every game counts.
Overall, the team would not be ranked where there are now if it weren’t for the hard work and friendship that is put into the team. Powell describes the team by saying, “We have a very close-knit group. I think this is of the four years I’ve been here this team seems to gel and mesh about as good as any group…. they all get along really well they all have similar personalities. They’re very loose and fun-loving and happy kind of kids, group so we don’t have many selfish players. We don’t have any trouble players. It’s been a really good group.”
