Last updated on February 15, 2023
By: Thomas Matchel
The Volunteer State Community College baseball season is now underway after their road trip to play against Central Alabama Community College.
The Pioneers started their season Saturday against Central Alabama Community College with back-to-back doubleheaders.
Due to the weather conditions, Vol State Pioneers were not able to practice for two days preparing for the event.
“We didn’t get to practice or prepare like we normally do,” said Jim McGuire.
The series finished (2-2), their last game winning with 11 runs scored; most of the series. The Pioneers also edged out a shutout in their very first game, winning barely (1-0) with a run scored in the third inning.
“Central Alabama had really good pitching, they had some high-end arms that really challenged us at the plate, and we struggled more with Saturday than Sunday…. Each week you’re looking forward to get better, we won two of the games, went two and two but getting a lot of that stuff done and seeing that progression from day one to day two is what you hope to see carry into this weekend,” said McGuire.
Coming back from weather delays the Pioneers were able to practice before their games against Southwestern Illinois College.
“The preparation part is big and does change a bit week-to-week, but once you get into routine of what you’re doing most weeks preparation wise look the same, we gotta get prepared for what their pitching is gonna do to us,” said McGuire.
Vol State only won one of the three games played against Southwestern Illinois.
Since the Fall season, the Pioneers have made no new additions to the team except for Nathan Rhodes who did not play with the team last season, said McGuire.
The current roster size of the baseball team has 50 players, 24 of whom are pitchers.
“Last weekend in four games, offensively we probably only used 12 players, we got twice that many hitters. My preaching point is the development side and how you continue to develop, how do you develop enough to where we can get you into a game, and it’s not waiting until someone plays bad,” said McGuire.
The Pioneers take on Jackson College Feb. 17 and Feb. 18 in hopes of bringing their record of (3-4) to a positive winning percentage.
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