When the Waynesburg University baseball team plays its first Presidents’ Athletic Conference game Friday afternoon, more opportunities will be available for the team to have success. Waynesburg will play a total of 24 conference games this spring, compared to the 18 they played last season, where they accumulated a 6-12 record against the nine teams it played.

“I like it better to have three games against each team in the conference, instead of two,” head coach Mike Humiston.

Now that Thomas More has left the PAC, the Yellow Jackets will play three games over two days, against each of their eight conference foes. The day that sees two games played will have a seven inning game and a nine inning game. A third game, nine innings in length, will also be played in the location opposite of the team that hosts the doubleheader. This is a stark difference from last season, where only two nine-inning games were played against each PAC opponent, all on the same day.

“If you win two of the three games against every team in the conference, you’re virtually guaranteed a spot in the playoffs,” Humiston said. “Last year you could split with a team, and that created a lot of tiebreaker situations.”

Though he approves of being able to play extra games, Humiston is still aware of the challenges involved.

“In a doubleheader of seven innings a pitcher can usually start and finish a game, so now you have to use you your pitching staff accordingly,” he said. “It’s not ideal, but if you have pitching it doesn’t matter.”

The Jackets collected 36 points in the PAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll, and were projected to finish in sixth place. Humiston noted that this doesn’t necessarily project how the games will unfold.

“I don’t know if I could say those five teams [placed above Waynesburg in the preseason poll] are ones we have to be leery of,” Humiston said. “The teams that are below us can beat anybody at any given time.”

The favorite within the conference is Washington & Jefferson, as the defending regular season champions collected 80 points in the poll.

“They’re a good program and typically have very good pitching,” Humiston said. “We have to come out and do the things that we’re capable of doing, which is hitting the ball and scoring runs.”

Coming into the week with a 6-6 record, the Jackets will begin the season’s most important stretch of baseball over the weekend. Waynesburg will play 25 innings of baseball, and three baseball games between Friday and Saturday against Geneva. The single game will be held at home Friday, beginning at 4:00 p.m. This will come before a doubleheader on Saturday in Beaver Falls, starting at 1.

Despite the Golden Tornadoes being projected to finish eighth among nine teams, the head coach for Waynesburg is taking nothing for granted.

“I think all the games are going to be difficult for us, and there is going to be a lot of parody in our conference,” Humiston said.