Sometimes if you are at work in a meeting, you might hear the phrase, “we are doing good, but we can do better.” That should not be something that the Tartan Pride should be hearing because they are sitting at a 27-5 record, being 7-1 in the conference. The team has an awesome .341 average, averaging almost 10 runs a game, only giving up about 3 runs a game, and many of their players are starting to find their stride.
Obviously, they have been doing a lot of things right to get to where they are at right now. Halfway through the season, Coach Dintaman shares his thoughts on how the team is doing so far.
“You don’t win 14 games in a row very often. You don’t put up those kind of numbers. For us to continue that is going to take a very strong effort,” Dintaman said. “The conference is much improved. I thought Owens, even though we swept them, were pretty good. They had some good arms. We were fortunate enough to win three of four from Cuyahoga because they also have some pretty good arms.”
He explained how Cuyahoga and Owens are both fully funded schools. This means that all the players on their teams have a full ride through school. Conference rival Lakeland also has a few more than Sinclair, which makes Sinclair the team with the least amount of scholarship players. Unfortunate for the opposing teams, that does not guarantee wins. The way Sinclair has been playing, one would think that they are the ones with the students on full rides.
Previously, Sinclair was 3-3 on the road. Even though it was a small sample size, it was something to bring up with Dintaman.
“It is always nice to play at home, but last year we posted a ridiculous record in conference road games going like 12-0 or 11-1. It isn’t necessarily a big issue right now as far as playing on the road. Maybe sometimes playing two road games,” said Dintaman.
The Pride does have a few road games coming up but a majority of their games are at home. In the month of April, the Pride play 16 conference games, four of which they already played against Cuyahoga and were victorious in three of them. They play Lakeland eight times, four at home and four away. They play Owens again up in Toledo April 17 and 18 and Lakeland comes to Dayton to finish their conference games with Sinclair. They also play Cuyahoga four times in the beginning of May.
The Pride look dominant right now, as they have most of the season. It is hard to see them falling apart with all the strong pieces they have together. Eric Hansman is starting to come around while Jimmy White, Alec Turner, and Alex Young are frequently getting on base. The pitching has also been outstanding with three shutouts in the past 11 games and has rarely given up double digit runs all year. They have not shown any signs of slowing down and continue to gain momentum in a month full of conference games. Like Dintaman said, as long as they keep putting in a strong effort, they should have a very successful April.
Matt Summers
Sports Editor