Playoff window dwindling for baseball

The Waynesburg University baseball team will look to halt a rough start to the month April when it takes on the Saint Vincent Bearcats Saturday, April 14, at home for a doubleheader. The Yellow Jackets lost both of their games to Geneva last Friday, April 6, and then took one of two from Westminster Sunday, April 8.

For junior second baseman Tyler Reis, the Jackets have a chance to leave Saturday with a sweep if they can put two good games together.

“For doubleheaders, we always struggle in the first game and we end up coming alive at the end of game one, but it is not enough to come out with a win,” said Reis. “But in the second game we always come out strong, get the lead and then the second game looks a lot better for us. I think that if we take the same approach we always take into the tail end of the series into the first game, then I think there’s a good chance we can take two this weekend.”

Currently the Yellow Jackets are 6-16 overall, with four of those wins coming from the Florida trip and 2-6 in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, putting them in eighth place.

“It’s definitely not how we planned it out to be,” said Reis. “We are hitting a little more bumps in the road than we expected. There are flashes of potential at times, but we just haven’t put everything together yet and whenever we have put everything together I think [we can win].”

St. Vincent has also struggled this season, with an overall record of 6-11 and conference mark of 2-3, which puts the Bearcats right above Waynesburg in the PAC standings.

Although St. Vincent has scuffled this season too, Reis said that every game at this stage of the season is vital, regardless of the opponent.

“We definitely cannot take [St. Vincent] lightly,” said Reis. “Especially at this point, anything can happen. If we keep the same mentality that we have had for the past couple of days like against both Geneva and Westminster, we were in those games for the most part, against Westminster we could have easily had two wins the other day.”

After a four-game winning streak at the beginning of the season, a 13-game losing streak followed. The Yellow Jackets are currently 2-3 in their last 5 games with wins over Bethany and Westminster, in the two victories, the Jackets combined to score 16 runs.

Aside from statistics, Reis feels that it will be vital for the team to enjoy itself down the stretch.

“Our biggest concern right now as a team is trying to have as much fun as possible,” said Reis. “Because I know that we started out the season strong and then we went through a long rough patch, and most of the team was struggling. So, everyone was putting pressure on themselves and we found that whenever we make it a point to have as much fun as we can and enjoy everything we are going through, then things have worked out better for us and we end up doing better overall.”

The biggest, and most obvious struggle for the Yellow Jackets, is the defense. Waynesburg has had PAC-worst 53 errors this season, which has become the Achilles heel of this team.

“Just about every game we have played this season we have been in them and had opportunities to take advantage of it and win the game,” said Reis. “But errors at wrong times caused more runs and not enough production from the offense and things just have not been going our way so far.”

In the win against Bethany late last month, Waynesburg didn’t commit an error, but against Westminster Waynesburg had four errors, but still managed to win the game.

For Reis, the errors are extra costly, because a lot of them come in crucial situations.

“Anytime that we’ve put all three aspects of the game together it has worked out well for us,” said Reis. “And I think that right now, the biggest thing we have been struggling with is defense, myself included. The errors that we make probably happen at the worst times and there are always runs that end up coming from them.”

There are five conference double headers left in the season, which means Waynesburg will have to make the most of each game in order to make the postseason. Although it’s a long shot, Reis is confident that the Jackets can make a run.

“I know that the odds are really against us right now for making the playoffs,” said Reis. “But I still have confidence in our team. I know what we are capable of and I think that we can get it done.”