Midway through the season, the Demons baseball team stands at an overall 21-16 and 13-8 Southland Conference record while rising to the field with determination after a series of losses in the earlier weeks. The team has since adopted new techniques at the base and new strategies to improve their game.
Chris Bertrand, head baseball coach, has been with the Demons for nine years. He was an assistant coach for seven years and is in his second year of being the head coach. With 19 years of coaching experience, Bertrand discussed how this team has developed the most compared to any other team that he has worked with.
“This has been a year of all growth. The way the team handled the fall, especially whenever we were building the stadium. They handled adversities like multiple practice sites and juggling the schedule, yet the team still broke the program’s historical GPA in the fall,” Bertrand said.
Though the team faced early setbacks during the second and third weeks of the season, Bertrand explained that the team responded to failure with determination to learn from their struggles.
The team played in several non-conference competitions in the second week like University of Central Arkansas, Troy University, Southern University A&M College and Alcorn State University. The Demons lost to their first conference competitor, Southeastern Louisiana University, 2-6, 3-7 and 5-6, in a series matchup following into March.
Since the start of week four, Bertrand added that the team’s performance has improved.
“The team used their year of experience last year — along with their struggles and adversity — to put what they learned into action and work harder,” Bertrand said.
In the fourth week, the team beat their second conference competitor, University of Incarnate Word, 5-4, 12-4 and 5-4 in their first home series stretch.
Betrand and his coaching staff have focused on building a more well-rounded team this season. They have added more base stealers to the lineup, increased the number of left-handed pitchers from one to four and improved the team’s batting average to 60 points higher than it was at this point last season.
Hudson Brignac, freshman health and exercise science major and second baseman, shared his perspective on how the team has progressed this season.
“I would not change anything with how the season is going,” Brignac said. “You learn from failures, and I feel like that has made the team stronger this season.”
Brignac described the team as “resilient” this season because they have not given up and continue to work harder.
“The team has put in a lot of hard work this season and I think it will all pay off in the end,” he said.
Rocco Gump, senior business administration major and third baseman, has learned how to deal with failure and use it as motivation. “The biggest thing is dealing with failure. Baseball is an insane game of ups and downs and it is important to know how to navigate that,” he said.
Betrand, Brignac and Gump acknowledged the team’s chemistry is a key strength. They all expressed that the players are supporting one another and pushing each other to be better players and individuals.
