Braves spring into action for Spring season sports

Baseball:

In the 2013 season, OU Baseball ended with a KCAC record of 6-22 and an overall record of 12-31.

After somewhat of a rough season, Head Coach Cory Blaine has high expectations for the 2014 season.

“My expectations are for us to get better every single day, to play as a team and play unselfish baseball,” Blaine said. “We will build our brand by playing hard and smart and for each other. If we do that, the winning will take care of itself.”

The team has set specific goals they would like to meet in the 2014 season.

“Obviously we want to get into the conference tournament and once you get into the conference tournament, if you can win it you go to the national playoffs and that’s the goal every year,” Blaine said.

This has taken a lot of preparation for the team. According to Blaine, the guys have worked extremely hard from pretty much the first day they stepped on campus, through 8 weeks of fall ball, and a lot of lifting and running over the winter months.

“We are continuing with that right now and will continue to put the time in until the first game,” Blaine said. “Hopefully that results in some quality baseball.”

Blaine said he thinks the newcomers are doing very well tus far.

“I think they have really bought in to what we are trying to do,” he said. “They’ve meshed well with the returners and the older guys.”

Blaine said the returners did a great job of welcoming those guys in and getting them involved.

“The new guys took that and ran and they are really trying to make their mark on the program as well,” he said.

Their first game is on Feb. 15 against Saint Ambrose University at Alumni Park.

Track and Field:

The Track and Field teams started their spring season Jan. 25. The lady Braves finished eighth out of ten and the Braves finished sixth out of eleven.

Coach Byers said his major expectation for both men’s and women’s track and field teams for the 2014 season is to work hard and do good in the classroom and work hard on the track and field.

“Our key right now is doing well at the conference meet and hopefully have a half dozen to a dozen national qualifiers,” Byers said.

Along with all the other teams, they have been putting in hours of preparation. According to Byers, the athletes have been doing all the hard work. He just makes the workouts.

“We started about the third week of October with track and field, so they have been competing and working a long time,” he said.

“Mainly, you’ve got to be eligible to run, so that is the big thing and our main focus in the off-season: classroom work, getting in the weight room and doing the workouts in October,” Byers said. “Basically right now it is putting all this stuff together and making it work for this Seaton.”

Though the team is young, Byers is excited to see their progress.

“We have maybe four seniors on the team and the rest are freshmen, sophomores and a few juniors,” he said. “We are very young but we had our first meet and I was pleasantly surprised. They performed well and worked hard, so that is always fun to see all this hard work starting to pay off.”

The Lady Braves will be back in action on Feb. 1 when they go to Concordia University in Seward. Neb.

The Braves will do the same when they participate in the MSSU Invite on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in Joplin, Mo.