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\u201cI think we can all agree that this season has not been what any of us expected. From a team standpoint, it\u2019s been frustrating to say the least,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you work hard all off-season for this season and it doesn\u2019t go as planned, it\u2019s a real punch in the gut. From an individual standpoint I am happy with how I\u2019ve performed, especially at the plate. With that being said I\u2019m definitely not content and am still looking to improve more and more as the season goes on.\u201d
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Schmidt is currently batting .268 with a .554 slugging percentage and leads the team in homeruns with eight. He goes on to express his encouragement for the team as well as what he thinks the team\u2019s biggest obstacle is this year.
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\u201cWe are capable of competing with any team out there. When you\u2019ve lost a lot of games it\u2019s easy to feel \u2018comfortable\u2019 when the lead slips away, which is what I would say our obstacle is. We need to get over that hump and expect to win games and find success in all facets of the game,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce we start to see what we\u2019re capable of the wheels will start turning. There is plenty of season left and I am fully confident in this team and the coaching staff to win games over the next two months.\u201d
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Along with the good news of Schmidt\u2019s optimistic outlook, Goodale has honed in on the improvements that need to be made in order to achieve the goals that have been set.
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\u201cWe need to improve on finding ways to win games instead of finding ways to lose them,\u201d Goodale said. \u201cWe need to improve our mental toughness in pressure moments during games. Being able to learn from our mistakes so we can fix them and keep improving every day. Our goal moving forward is to continue to improve on a daily basis so we can play our best ball down the stretch and win. For guys to gain confidence in their abilities and to play up to their potential.\u201d
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Additionally, Schmidt has been looking at what improvements he can make as an individual athlete and as a team player.
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\u201cFrom an individual standpoint, I would just like to keep my confidence up at the plate. I would also like to force more walks, decrease my strikeouts, and keep hitting balls hard across the yard.
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\u201cFrom a team standpoint, I\u2019d like to see us step up in the big situations of the game. We haven\u2019t been very good in those times and those situations are where games are won and lost,\u201d he said. \u201cThe biggest goal after this rocky start is to win more games, plain and simple. We need to win as many games as we can over the next couple months to give us a chance at making the conference tournament.\u201d
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Although the team has been struggling, there are multiple players that have had a good individual year. Goodale points a few of these players out.
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\u201cJenner Kehe has done a great job as our leadoff hitter in his first year,\u201d Goodale said. \u201cHe has done a great job of getting on base and scoring runs. He has been our most consistent hitter and has done a great job competing every day.\u201d
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Kehe is batting .302 this season and leads the team with 29 runs scored.
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\u201cGrant Schmidt has put up good numbers at the plate and has been our best RBI and power guy and has played really good defense. Sammy Sanchez has been very consistent for us on the mound and gives us a shot to win every time he takes the ball,\u201d Goodale said. \u201cHe has been battling a toe injury the last three weeks but it\u2019s getting better. Hopefully he can get healthy moving forward because we are a better team with him on the mound.\u201d Sanchez is second on the team in strikeouts with 34 and is 2-3 overall in 7 games started. Schmidt agrees with Goodale on the standout showing of a couple of players and mentions more players that have played well. \u201cJenner Kehe and Ed Scott have been a crucial part of our success on offense this season. It\u2019s been enjoyable to hit behind them in the lineup because I know they will get on base and I get the opportunity to drive them in,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cSammy has also pitched very well for us. It\u2019s very fun to play defense behind him because he keeps a good pace and also throws a lot of strikes which gives us chances to win games.\u201d Sanchez was named MIAA Pitcher of the Week in the first week of March (announced on Monday, March 7). In conclusion, both Goodale and Schmidt are confident in the last two-month turnaround. Goodale starts by stating that good health and one good weekend could change everything. \u201cThe guys that have been battling injuries are starting to improve and some younger guys are playing better. If we can continue to improve in all three facets it will help us gain some confidence that we are lacking,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the guys can gain some confidence we can turn things around like last year. One successful weekend can turn the season around and that\u2019s the goal.\u201d Matching Goodale\u2019s confidence, Schmidt – ever the glass-half-full character – believes in the abilities of his team. \u201cI am fully confident we can replicate the same success late in the season as we did last year,\u201d he said. \u201cOur schedule for the end of the season is a bit tougher this year, but if we can get to playing the game of baseball that we are capable, of I am a firm believer we can compete with anyone.\u201d FHSU will have a home series with Northeastern State this weekend. First pitch is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. on Friday at Larks Park before playing at 2:00 on Saturday and 1:00 on Sunday. BY JESSALYN KIRCHHOFF Although the Fort Hays State University Baseball team has struggled early this year with a season record of 3-29, the team had… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":64507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4540,7349],"tags":[4713,14570,11836,14182,13925,290],"class_list":["post-64506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baseball-sports","category-sports","tag-fhsu-baseball","tag-grant-schmidt","tag-jerod-goodale","tag-jess-kirchhoff","tag-jessalyn-kirchhoff","tag-tmn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/5H7A6894.jpg?fit=4176%2C2784&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64510,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64506\/revisions\/64510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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