Marie Collop, Campus Carrier Assistant Sports Editor
The baseball team will travel to Birmingham-Southern College on Thursday, to compete for a chance to go to the Southern Athletic Association final series in two weeks.
The Vikings, who are the number 5 seed in the conference, will face off against Oglethorpe, who is the number 4 seed. The two teams played at Berry last weekend and split a doubleheader. Berry won the first game on Saturday with a score of 5-4 in 10 innings. The Vikings lost the second game on Saturday with a score of 9-6.
Senior Alex McGill said he believes the most important thing that will allow the team to beat Oglethorpe on Friday is the team’s aggressiveness at the plate.
“We will need to hit well and be aggressive on offense to put pressure on them to make plays and score runs,” McGill said.
In addition to this, McGill said the team needs energy and to really support one another.
Sophomore Alfred Francis said the team needs to ensure that they do all the little things right, like good pitching, defense and situational hitting, in order to beat Oglethorpe.
Francis said the relationships the players have off the field will help to excel the team above and beyond opponents.
“I feel the single most important thing to help us win the tournament is our brotherhood and bond because I feel like when we play for each other and especially our seniors, who may not ever play baseball again, it heightens our level of play,” Francis said.
If the Vikings defeat Oglethorpe on Friday, they will go on to play the winner of Birmingham-Southern and Centre College The tournament is double elimination, so the Vikings must lose twice in order to be eliminated from the tournament.
If the Vikings win out at Birmingham this weekend, they will go on to face the winner of the other half of the conference tournament, which is being held at Millsaps College.