The 2024 baseball season for the Ashland University Eagles is officially in sight.
In the 2023 campaign, Head Coach Schaly had a tough task leading one of the league’s youngest teams. However, his side comes back with a heightened level of experience and poise for the coming season.
“We return 8 position player starters and 10 of our top 13 pitchers from the 2023 season. We have good team speed and will play good defense, the potential for a very good season is possible with this roster,” said Coach Schaly.
The previous season saw the Eagles team finish with a record of 33 and 21. The team was also able to qualify for both the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) Tournament and the NCAA Division II Postseason Playoffs.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, their campaign was cut short as they were knocked out by Illinois Springfield at home in the D-II Super Regional Tournament.
Now in his 27th season, Schaly is confident this team can do great things. Schaly mentioned some key players he hopes that stand out in the coming season. Those include pitcher Justin Dyksma, first baseman Sam Witt, and catcher Ben Peltz.
“The three years I have been here we have not won the GMAC, so that is our first two goals as a team then of course to make it to the world series and what I have done to increase my velocity in my pitching is lifting heavy, mobility and being more explosive”, Dyskma said.
All three players, including Dyksma, have high expectations for the upcoming season as well and have worked hard in the offseason to set themselves up for success.
“The big picture is to make it the World Series but this year we are focusing on becoming conference champions first, and just being able to finish games, we had a tough loss last year and that has helped us in the off-season getting ready for this season and what I have worked on is to just be stronger on my throws”, said Peltz.
The Eagles team is experienced coming back this year look for them to make a lot of noise this year, their first game will come Friday, Feb. 23 through Feb. 25 on the road against Concord for a three-game series.
“The expectations are to play the right way with tons of energy and compete for a GMAC championship then to make it to the world series and what I have done to get better is get more elevation on my throw,” said Witt.
