The Emory baseball team starts their 2015 season this weekend with three games at the Emory Tournament hosted at home. The Eagles will face Lynchburg College (Va.), Rhodes College (Tenn.) and St. Joseph’s College of Maine on Feb. 14, 15 and 16, respectively. Coming off a well-fought and successful 2014 season, the Eagles picked up 10 new freshmen to add to the team.
The Eagles placed second in Division III, and 12th in the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships in 2014. With a 2014 record of 38-13, the team is looking to capitalize on the new talent for the road to the UAAs.
“We lost a lot of great guys, a lot of really good offensive guys,” senior outfielder Brett Lake said. “Our pitching staff is very talented and we are playing with the same starters this year as last. We still have some very good hitters, but it will be hard to continue off of where we were last year.”
Although the team lost many players, senior Wes Peacock said the team is completely different this year.
“There are definitely guys that will fill the roles that we lost from last year,” Peacock said. “It will take some time for the guys to get comfortable with the new roles.”
In 2014, Peacock started all 51 games of the season, scored 54 runs, batted a .338 average and stole 21 bases on 23 attempts.
While the team did not face Lynchburg or St. Joseph’s last year, they did face Rhodes twice in 2014, beating them 4-2 and 4-3 in the two contests.
“We don’t really think too much about the strength of the team we’re playing,” Peacock added. “We’re more focused on getting on the field this weekend, and seeing what we can do with this new team compared to last year. [Lynchburg and St. Joseph’s] are both very strong teams and we won’t take anything for granted, and neither will they. Rhodes is very solid, they will be playing with a chip on their shoulders because we knocked them out last year.”
Lake added that the team wouldn’t be going out to play any certain team, but rather to just play the game of baseball.
“We focus to play our own brand of baseball,” Lake said. “There are a lot of talented teams in the competition, but we know we are a really good team and we have a lot of good experience that will come to our advantage.”
The team isn’t quite yet focusing on the UAAs, according to Lake.
“Our outlook isn’t on a month-by-month basis, it’s on a game-to-game basis. We want win every game we can and win every pitch,” Lake said.
It won’t be on the field where the team will pull out its surprises, according to Peacock.
“Although on the field players matter, it’s our bench that keeps us in the game; just look for something on the bench this year,” he explained. “It will probably be something new there that will rally us or give us the spark we need to go forward.”
The Eagles face Lynchburg, Rhodes and Saint Joseph’s this weekend at home before jetting off to Tennessee, where they will compete in the Rhodes College Classic against Millsaps College (Miss.) on Feb. 20, Rhodes on Feb. 21 and Webster University (Mo.) on Feb. 22.
- By Stephen Jaber, Staff Writer
Eagles to Start Season With Emory Tournament
Senior outfielder Brett Lake reaches for a ground ball. In early January, Lake was selected to the D3Baseball.com Preseason All-America First Team. He is the first athlete in Emory baseball history to earn the honor. | Courtesy of Emory Athletics
