As the school year draws to a close and thoughts of the daily grind slip away for most students, the Tartan Pride baseball program has only strengthened its resolve and continues its quest for a national championship.
Armed with a roster rich in talent and experience, the Pride have amassed a 26-9 record overall, going 10-2 in conference play. In past seasons, the baseball program has won 15 OCCAC conference championships, but ultimately that is not the end goal the team had set going into the season.
“We’ve put a lot of work in as a group and so far it’s going really well,” sophomore outfielder Quentin Urban said. “As a team we are executing on a daily basis and finding ways to win — we definitely had high expectations for this year, only losing one game all fall. We all understand that we have a lot of weapons and knew we had a chance to make a run this year.”
With 19 games remaining in the regular season and riding a two-game win streak, the Pride are close to their goal.
“We are the hardest-working JUCO in the country,” Head Coach Steve Dintaman said. “We’ve been waking up before six [in the morning] since August and we’re not stopping now.”
Sophomore third baseman Taylor Huebner leads the squad in home runs with five, while freshman Mitch Roman leads the team in hits, runs batted in (RBIs), stolen bases and at-bats: 50, 40, and 17 and 120, respectively.
Sophomore lefty Pat Boyle ranks first among the pitching core in strikeouts with 44, good for a 9.43 per game average. In the field, freshman Eric Hansman has recorded 174 put-outs, ranking first in the conference.
As the numbers and awards pile up, the home stretch for the top-10 nationally ranked Tartan Pride baseball team is one that promises to be eventful.