Club Sport Spotlight: Club Baseball

By SHAWNYA PETERSON

UMW’s club baseball team scored some important wins at a tournament held at the University of Richmond this past weekend of March 25. Club Baseball competed in four games, going up against teams from Longwood University, University of Richmond and Stevenson University, coming out of the weekend with a 3-1 winning record. In the first game of the tournament, the Eagles came out swinging, defeating the Longwood team by a score of 8-1.

Stevenson University’s club baseball team, which is ranked No.17 in the nation, was also no match for the UMW team, which grabbed the victory by a score of 7-3. The third game of the tournament went similarly well, with the UMW team going on to beat the Longwood club baseball team, which is also nationally-ranked at No.18, twice over the course of the weekend, earning a score of 6-3 in the second game.

While UMW Club Baseball lost 7-8 in the championship game to the University of Richmond’s team, the team’s president Connor Hudson was enthusiastic about the team’s successes. “If you win three of four games, you’re doing something right,” said Hudson, who is a senior accounting major. “We beat two nationally ranked teams in Longwood and Stevenson, that’s huge for us…we are in a really good place right now at 9-1 [for the season].”

Hudson expressed enthusiasm for the team’s prospects for the remainder of the baseball season. “I feel really good about our season right now. We have started out 6-0 in conference and 9-1 overall. I believe we will win our conference and make it to the District playoffs.”

Club Vice President Andy Zimmerman, sophomore business major, echoed Hudson’s sentiments, praising the team’s accomplishments. “This is the strongest the club baseball program has ever been at UMW. We are winning games against good teams, playing confidently, playing hard, all while doing it with class. We are skilled at all aspects of the game and have set the bar high for the rest of the season.”

Enthusiastic about the team’s recent successes, Hudson also spoke of his hopes at advancing the team to the very top. “We are very hopeful that we will make it to the NCBA [National Club Baseball Association] World Series in Pittsburg, Kansas. That’s our goal, to get to Kansas.”

Zimmerman agreed, saying, “We want to have a winning ball program here at UMW and there’s no better team to do that.”