By Ethan Moore, Sports Editor.
The Pioneers traveled to Florida in hopes of testing their offseason preparation against some of the best competition in the country. They intentionally scheduled tough teams like Lincoln Land Community College and Frederick Community to see where they were and what they had to improve.
“We intentionally stack our schedule to play the best teams possible to get a true taste of what competition is like at the national level compared to the regional level,” explains Head Coach Danny Smith.
The team went 8-6 on the trip and they stayed competitive in every single game except a 4-14 shellacking at the hands of Frederick.
“While the games count against our record, we have always treated this as a spring training type trip where the ultimate goal isn’t to win every game as much as it is to improve, every game and every day,” says Smith. “I feel that we did that.”
Delta had plenty of stellar performances on the trip including Tyler Robbins, who hit .444 and led the team in hits, RBIs, and stolen bases; also, Dean Marais hit .368 to go with two home runs in what was a good spring training for the offense. The pitching struggled to find a rhythm on the trip, but they still got a good performance out of Colin Meacham who was 1-0 with 18 Ks and a 2.45 ERA. Smith was critical of his team’s play at times, but maybe most of all that his team wasn’t buying in yet.
“We discovered that not everyone has bought into our 9 Guys Named Joe philosophy as we still have some ‘me’ players instead of ‘we’ players,” explains Smith. “But, as we progress and they start to trust the system that’ll change.”
While there is room to improve, Smith believes the trip was a success and is confident they’re heading in the right direction.
“With the exception of the one game against Frederick, we either competed well or won all of the games against our opponents,” says Smith. “We’re right on target, for the most part, with where I thought we’d be at this point in the season.”
