Union’s baseball team began its 2023 season Feb. 4-5, losing three games to Young Harris College.
Despite the three losses, the Bulldogs press forward with high spirits and a renewed team culture.
With a new season comes excitement. The team experienced a fresh start with their new head coach, Casey McGehee, a revitalized dugout and renovations made to the field and locker room. These significant innovations to the program have brought new life to the team.
“All in all, it’s, you know, creating a better culture not just for baseball, but as like for men so we can grow,” Trey Frierson, outfielder and graduate senior pursuing an MBA in business and marketing, said.
The losses against Young Harris have not beaten down the team’s morale. If anything, it pushed them to achieve a high standard they set for themselves.
“Everybody has a mindset of changing the culture and moving in the right direction to basically change Union into being a top powerhouse baseball team in the conference and basically over all of DII,” Frierson said.
Frierson is not the only one who has high expectations for the future.
“We have put in a change of energy each practice,” Ethan Orwig, pitcher and sophomore English major, said. “Every single thing that we are doing has some sort of purpose. Instead of just kinda going through the motions, we’re trying to make every single throw count and every single catch, you know, nice and snappy. Everything has to have some sort of purpose.”
Some returning players who have shown this drive and solid leadership, inside and outside of games and practices, include pitcher Sam Poindexter and outfileder Carson Chavies.
“There are a ton of guys, that honestly just impact the team in different ways,” Frierson said. “So, I think that as as a whole that makes everybody better.”
Having physical changes to the environment and teammates who lead by example have caused the team to revitalize its camaraderie as well as pursue a new level of competition.
“We are excited to bring a change not just in the culture itself but in the want and desire to compete,” Orwig said.
Next up for the Bulldogs is a four-game series against West Liberty University on Feb. 10-11 at Fesmire Field in Jackson, Tenn.
