Southeastern Lions looking to finish season strong
The 2019 Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team began their 2019 campaign on a slow start on the diamond as they finished their first two weeks of regular season play, 3–8. The Lions’ early troubles this season were due to an inconsistency in offense and defense and a sturdy string of opponents.
The Lions were swept by in-state opponent La. Tech opening weekend, and halted by #1 LSU 5–6 the following Tuesday. The critical thought, though, is neither SLU head coach Matt Riser nor his players have thrown in the towel.
“If you would have told me we scored 27 runs in opening weekend I would’ve said ‘Yea we’d probably get a sweep, if not, two out of three’ but unfortunately we gave up 40,” said Riser. “It was just one of those weekends, an anomaly. This game ceases to amaze me.”
From the start, new associate head coach Andrew Gipson made an interesting change by swapping the positions of shortstop Brennan Breaud and second baseman Cody Grosse. With a mixture of returning players and new faces with potential, Southeastern has recently shown what it takes to turn a season around to fight their way into the conference tournament.
The Lions began to show signs of heading in the right direction as they won their 3-game series at home against a potent Stony Brook ball club. They went on to come away with two mid-week victories against UL-Monroe. With wins beginning to slowly stack up, it created momentum as they approached the door of Southland Conference competition.
Heading into conference play, in what seemed to be a series they would take control of in game one of their series against Central Arkansas, a pitch by Corey Gaconi cost them the game despite a stunning performance on the mound. SLU fell in extra innings to the Bears, 1–3.
“This was a game we really felt like we could have walked off. It was nothing short of a pitcher’s duel facing Cody Davenport,” said Gaconi, adding, “Reaching for the bullpen that late in the game would have been too risky of a move by us.”
In an attempt to “write the ship” it was time for the Lions to put all of their abilities together and face one of the best teams in the country, Oklahoma State. This trip to Stillwater, Ok. put the message across to the team that they had to give the Cowboys the absolute best they possessed.
After being shutout 9–0 in game one and defeated 5–1 in game two, the Lions were able to bring home one victory in game three over the Cowboys, 5–3.
As the season progressed, SLU captured series victories over conference opponents Abilene Christian, Stephen F. Austin, New Orleans, Northwestern State, McNeese State, Nicholls State, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and Lamar. With these victories adding up, they pose a threat to their conference opponents to take first place of conference standings.
“I think they can at least make it to the semi-finals of the Southland tournament. After that, it is all in the hands of their team,” said Dylan Ferreira. “They’ll have to win the remainder of their regular season games if they want to secure a higher seed than Sam Houston.”
The Southeastern Lions are currently tied for 2nd place in the Southland Conference with Central Arkansas and Incarnate Word (17–10). They’ll look to break the tie and roll the dice for a higher seed this weekend in their final regular season series as they take on Incarnate Word on the road in San Antonio, Texas.
