Flames baseball look to reclaim victory in spring season
After falling short in the 2018 Gulf South Conference championship game, the Lee Flames baseball team is looking to reclaim victory in this year's season.
Photo by John David Clark
The 2018 Lee Flames baseball season ended in heartbreak as the team lost by only one run in the Gulf South Conference (GSC) championship game.
According to Fernando Ortiz (SS), despite the loss, the team now has even more of a hunger for victory in the upcoming season.
“We stepped up and made it to the championship tournament; we were destroying everyone, but in the championship game we lost,” Ortiz said. “I learned a lot and got that taste of the championship. This year will be different.”
Ortiz is a senior exercise science major and is entering his second year on the team, and as a senior he knows how important his role to the team is.
“I think the toughest challenge that I will face is keeping the energy up,” Ortiz said. “I’ll be responsible [for] keeping the energy up of my teammates every single game.”
While the team did lose some offensive starters, they retained many talented players that will be crucial for the upcoming season.
One of these players is Logan Workman (RP), a sophomore secondary education major and a right-handed pitcher that received all GSC honors last season.
“Our big focus is coming back stronger than last year,” Workman said. “We finished better than anyone thought we would, and for us we want to finish better than that.”
Ask almost any player what matchup they are looking forward to the most, and they will respond with the Mississippi College series, according to sophomore finance major Justen Freeman (3B).
Mississippi College is the team which is responsible for denying the Flames of the GSC championship, and every game played against them this season will be played with that in mind.
“They left us with the taste of defeat in our mouths,” Freeman said.
As the team trains in early practice, their goals are to focus on pitching and defense. The team feels that if they can improve just that much more, it will make the difference in winning a championship.
You can keep up with the Lee Flames baseball team on their webpage.
