Roughrider baseball team off to hot start

Baseball from PR

By Drew Aggus
Sports Editor

Crowder’s baseball team is off to a great start this year. They raced out of the gates to an 11-1
record, including wins over NEO, and Labette Community College.

The team has some high expectations to live up to this year, at least in the eyes of their coach.
“We have pretty high expectations, [a] high standard in conference. We finish one or two, pretty much each year, since we’ve been playing the conference schedule. That’s always a standard that is set for us,” says Travis Lallemand, head coach.

Despite losing some key players from last year’s team, such as Casey Vaughan and Aaron Patton who were each 3-year veterans, this year’s freshman class is one of the school’s best. The team had already played almost everyone in the
freshman class just 10 games in, according to Lallemand. “The sky’s the limit for this group,” says Lallemand.

Some of last year’s players have gone on to enjoy some NCAA divison-1 success. Casey Vaughan hit a home run last week while playing for the Arkansas State University Red Wolves. Aaron Patton has enjoyed success with the Saint Louis University Billikens, as well, and Troy Cahill has gone on to play at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

Lallemand says that recruiting players to a community college is not hard at all. Lallemand believes that a lot of it has to do with former Crowder players’ post-transfer success. “We’ve developed a lot of trust amongst other coaches…Our guys are doing well at the next level, academically and athletically, and it makes people want to come back for more,” says Lallemand.

The Roughriders are also excited about the potential for the Freeman Sports Complex. The complex is a training facility for Crowder student-athletes that is getting ever-closer to its fundraising goal of $1.3 million. The 15,600 square-foot building will house locker rooms for the Roughrider soccer and baseball teams, as well as an indoor practice field along with a training room.

The Roughrider baseball team’s next games are against North Iowa Community College on March 10, followed by a double-header against Marshalltown Community College on Saturday, March 11. Regular season games are being played
now through the beginning of May. For a full Roughrider baseball schedule visit: crowderathletics.com/sport s/bsb/2016-17/schedule.