By Blake Meacham–The Mustang baseball team is used to starting its Spring season in the middle of February, usually in a town at least four or five hours south of Sioux City.
However, due to some rule changes in the NAIA, Morningside had the option of playing real regular season games in the fall. Coach Brian Drent decided to take advantage of that option.
“We always schedule the maximum amount of games (55) that we can in the spring,” explained Brian Drent, “but we always end up playing only 48 to 50 because of cancellations due to crappy weather.”
The rule change is as follows: any NAIA baseball team can play 55 games that count toward their regular season record—however, only 50 of them, at most, can be played in the spring. That means teams have the option of playing at least five games in the fall that count. That’s exactly what the Mustangs are doing.
On Saturday, Sept. 17 and Sunday, Sept. 18, Morningside will play a combined 36 innings of baseball. They’ll play Presentation College for nine innings at noon the first day, followed by Mayville State College for nine innings immediately afterwards. Morningside beat Mayville State last year in the opening round of the national tournament, 6-0.
“They’ll (Mayville) be hungry to get back at us this time around,” said All-American Honorable Mention honoree Nate DeChaine. “We’re going to come out prepared for a dog fight, but they need to be ready for one too.”
On Sunday, Morningside will play another nine innings against Dickinson State, followed by nine more against the University of Winnipeg.
Jake Lamoreux admits that playing regular season games in the fall is strange for multiple reasons: “It’s just a completely different mindset from Fall to Spring. We’ve been in our Fall mindset, and now we have to switch gears and tell ourselves that these games really matter.”
Morningside has scheduled another game for later in the fall that will count as a regular season game, but has not determined.
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