By JACOB COMP, Student Reporter
The Northwestern Oklahoma State University Ranger baseball team has been on the path of making history.
Each game puts them one step closer to becoming the first Ranger baseball team to make the Great American Conference postseason tournament since their first season in the NCAA’s Division II.
The Ranger baseball team ended a five-game winning streak after losing to Arkansas Tech University in the final game of a three-game series that finished on Monday. The team sits in fourth place in the Great American Conference baseball standings after their performance against Arkansas Tech last week.
Daschal Johnson, a senior on the baseball team, said the team is giving its best effort in an important time of the year.
“We are playing our best baseball at the most crucial part of the season, which we need to make the playoff push,” Johnson said.
Northwestern has six players with a batting average over .300. Blake Hoffman, Daschal Johnson, Marques Paige, Preston Lonadier, Yugo Hamakawa and Grant French make the list of Northwestern’s statistically better batters.
French was named the co-offensive player of the week in the Great American Conference on April 20. He was joined by an Arkansas-Monticello player as the co-offensive player of the week.
French got on base 11 out of 12 at-bats in games against Harding University and East Central University. Over the span of a week, he had three homeruns. He is close to having a .400 batting average, with 19 hits on 48 at-bats.
In the team’s homerun statistic, Paige leads the team with 14 homeruns with Daschal Johnson following Paige with eight.
Kaleb Honea leads the pitchers with the lowest earned runs average on the team with a 1.65 ERA. Scott Creedon follows Honea with a 3.06 ERA. Creedon has pitched the most innings on the team at 61.2 innings pitched.
Northwestern players have been fueled by doubt from other programs and want to prove them wrong, Johnson said.
“Northwestern baseball has been doubted for so long by other programs, and we are using that as fuel to prove that we can play with the best of them,” Johnson said. “This team never lays down, and we fight to the last out. I love my team, and this will be the year.”