The Richland Campus men’s baseball team is off to a fast start, winning five games out of the first seven this season. While it is true the season is just beginning, it is very important to accumulate as many wins as possible in order to qualify for the playoffs. The season consists of 56 games. First pitch was on Jan. 27. The season is scheduled to end on May 6.

The Thunderducks participate in the DAC Conference with Dallas College campuses Eastfield, Cedar Valley, Mountain View, Brookhaven and North Lake. There are two regional conferences and the top six teams qualify for the postseason, in which any team that loses two games will be eliminated.

After the postseason, the team that wins the title will participate in the national championship that will take place in Cookeville, Tennessee, with the participation of the best eight teams in the country. However, there is an at-large bid that only one team can get if they don ́t win the district tournament, such as being the team with the best record among all of them that didn’t qualify for the tournament in JCA, for example.

“The pitching on the mound has been really good so far. The starters have done the job, and we have had really good bullpen arms as well,” head coach Jimmy Brenneman said. Ryan Taylor, Jason Scrantom and Jacob Blaede have been the starters who dominated the hitters in the first five wins, while Aidan Valenzuela, Jacob Smoot, Vince Ray and Carson Caudill have shown outstanding performances from the bullpen.

“We have a lot of speed (T-Ducks has stolen 20 bases in the first seven games). Some guys showed a little bit of power, too. Eight home runs on the first seven games. We are timely hitting. Our batting average is not anything crazy, but we have guys that just come through in the clutch, getting hits when we need it,” Brenneman said.

About the aspects the team needs to improve, Brenneman said, “I would like to see our guys a little bit more aggressive in the count. We have been kind of passive at the plate. We need better approaches with two strikes on the hitter. I think if we can clean these two things up, we are going to be pretty tough to beat.”