The Knights softball team is ready for SUNYACs and they’re going in red-hot. Geneseo has won 21 of its last 22 games. With its doubleheader sweep of SUNY Oneonta on Saturday April 25, the Knights clinched the second seed in the upcoming SUNYAC Tournament.
With a record of 25-10, the Knights have the most wins in a season since 2010 when they finished with the same number. In his third year coaching the Knights, David Sylvester is encouraged by how well his team is playing and looks forward to competing in the conference tournament.
“We came back from Florida 3-6 and then lost [a conference doubleheader] to [SUNY] Fredonia," he said. “Then something happened after the Fredonia game and it effected them in some way and I can’t tell you how. All of a sudden we just went on a tear and split [the doubleheader] against Cortland, then went on a [long] winning streak. Where that came from, I don’t know.”
Sylvester said that his team simply has a love for the game that has translated into victories for the majority of the season. He hopes that this passion will continue into the postseason as well.
“They just know how to win,” Sylvester said. “They believe they can win and are prepared to play anybody. I imagine [in the SUNYAC Tournament] that every game will be a battle because everyone is bringing their A-game, and everyone is bringing a team that wants to win. Realistically, anyone can win the tournament this year. It is wide open for the first time in about five years.”
To help fine-tune their skills before the tournament, the Knights are incorporating some new practice activities that they hope will make their bats even more productive.
“We changed a little bit of our batting [practice],” Sylvester said. “We noticed we were not getting the bat head to the ball quick enough, so we started a routine of snapping the bat head to the ball.”
Sylvester thinks that the new batting practices could be the key to their recent successes. “I think the difference in this team from everybody else is … their batting averages,” he said. “We do not have anybody [hitting] over .400, but we have players mostly in the upper .300’s … we have nine players on the field that can score.”
Sylvester also noted that it’s been a team effort to advance to where they are now and that includes help from the bench.
“We have had a few people come off the bench in key situations and get key hits,” he said. “The bench really has helped us incredibly this year.”
The Knights will look to extend their winning streak in the SUNYAC Tournament on Thursday April 30 against SUNY Brockport.