The Manitou Springs baseball team learned a hard lesson over the weekend. Mental preparation for baseball doesn’t get to participate in senior week. The Mustangs entered the Tri-Peaks crossovers a little unfocused and it showed on the field.
They dropped their first game to Lamar 6-1 before having to battle back and beat Buena Vista 9-6 on Saturday, May 14, to officially finish third place in the Tri-Peaks League.
“I don’t know if it was that we walked in thinking we were going to win that (Lamar) game,” coach Brandon DeMatto said.
“I just don’t think we were as focused as when we played them the first time. The greater lesson learned is that when you play great teams and elite-level competition, you have to be ready to go every day.”
In the Lamar loss, the Mustangs (16-6-1 overall) had just two hits, both of which came off Raymond McCaskey’s bat. The offense was a little better against the Demons as Hayden Martinez went 4-for-4 and drove in two runs and Ethan Boren went 1-for-2 with an RBI of his own.
But the general mood of the team was just different from what it had been for the past several weeks.
“The biggest difference was our energy,” Andrew Rhodes said. “Energy was a big piece of it, as was our discipline. Lamar was throwing a big, slow, curveball pitcher and we went out wanting to swing. We probably could have walked 20 times in that game, we just weren’t disciplined.”
The Mustangs discovered their postseason fate on Wednesday, but the matchups had not been released as of the Bulletin’s press time.
DeMatto’s priority was getting the team refocused and concentrating on the task at hand for this weekend. The Mustangs will play two games at regionals and need to win both to advance to the 3A state tournament.
The time for outside distractions has come to an end and this team has to be focused on Saturday, May 21.
“That’s a conversation we had,” DeMatto said. “I think everyone needs to look at what they did the night before and the morning of (crossovers) and see what may have derailed them. Then we have to find the root of that issue and fix it.”
He’s hoping that the fix will result in the Mustangs getting to the state tournament for the first time since 2016, when they finished as the 3A runner-up.