The weather is turning more spring like and it is just in time for college baseball teams who are seeing their regular seasons draw to a close. Morningside has six games schedule this week to end the regular season and the dry and warm conditions are a welcomed change according to coach Brian Drent.

He says they’ve only had four practices on a baseball field since January and they are hoping they can get more in with the good weather and be ready for the conference tournament. Morningside has won four straight games to move into third place in the Great Plains Athletic Conference standings and Drent says the Mustang’s fate is tied to defense.

“Last year we led the league in defense and this year I think we are at the bottom and we have most of our guys back. I think that is a byproduct of being inside so much,” Drent says.

Morningside returns to action Thursday night against GPAC leader Northwestern.

The Wartburg College baseball team has won six straight games and now owns a share of the Iowa Conference lead. The Knights are tied with Coe at 10-2 in the league race and coach Joel Holst’s team is 21-5 overall. “We were 7-1 in Arizona and spent some time up in the Metrodome with four games and did well up there,” Holst says. He says they’ve been fighting the weather right now.

Wartburg is coming a sweep of a four game series with Loras over the weekend. He says they knew they had a veteran team and they have had solid pitching with good defense to start off the conference season.

Ryan Powers and Drew Yoder lead the offensive attack for the Knights. Powers is hitting four-34 while Yoder is at four-oh-four on the season. Powers is a three-year starter and a junior from Calmus and has been hitting .600 through the early part of the season. Yoder is a senior first baseman, who Holst says has come up wtih a lot of big hits.

Wartburg returns to action at home on Friday against Central College.

The Clarke University baseball team has made progress under first year coach Dan Spain. The Crusaders are 18-11 on the season and it is a program that has enjoyed only one winning season since 2003.

Spain says they haven’t met their expectations yet, but they are close. He says they have a good mix of guys and the key has been a pitching staff that sports an earned run averaged of 2.85.

 Spain says starting pitchers Andrew Redman, Zane Ridings and Jordan Hohensee set the tone for the team. “We’ve got three guys at the top of our rotation who are top 10 in the nation in a lot of categories,” Spain says.

He says they compete every day in practice and he says it doesn’t matter what game they play, whether it be shooting pool or baseball, they play hard and compete.

Spain says that competitive nature has translated into more offense as well. “They are gonna fight, go into deep counts, put the ball into play and try to come up with the big hit when they can and understand situations,” Spain says. He says they stress never taking a pitch off and not being and easy out.

The Crusaders are 5-3 in the Midwest Collegiate Conference. They return to action this weekend with a series at Mount Mercy.

The Northwestern College baseball team is sitting at the top of the Great Plains Athletic Conference standings. The Red Raiders are 7-1 in the league race and have won seven straight.

Northwestern coach Brian Wede says it’s a combination of offensive output with the team hitting .320 and also what they are doing on the pitching mound. The Red Raider pitching staff has an earned run average of 2.64 in conference play, and he says they have surpassed all their goals.

Wede is hoping his team can maintain its momentum but the weather can make it difficult. He says they try to get into a routine and keep the momentum as long as they can. “Having the pitchers that we have is a really good momentum keeper,” Wede says.

Northwestern returns to GPAC action this weekend with visits to Dakota Wesleyan and Nebraska Wesleyan.

Loras is the early surprise of the Iowa Conference baseball race. Picked to finish ninth in the coaches pre-season poll the Duhawks are off to a 6-0 start following a sweep of a four game series against Simpson and pitching is a major factor. The Loras staff has an earned run averaged of 2.54 and opponents are only batting .228.

Loras coach Carl Tebon says you are no better than the guy who starts the next game and their pitchers have been doing a good job and giving them a lot of innings. He says they have good leadership and depth in their staff.

Loras is winning the close games it lost a year ago and Tebon says experience is a major reason. “We have basically the same team we had last year, not much of a difference…they’ve been in those games, it’s being able to execute, it’s being able to perform under pressure,” Tebon says.

Tebon says the players have been motivated by the pre-season poll. “I think it was one thing we kind of used in our favor a little bit,” Tebon says. He says coaches in the polls usually go off what happened last year and he says he felt confident their pitching would keep them in every game.

Overall, Loras has won nine of its last 10 games and Tebon hopes the weather will allow his team to keep playing. The Duhawks are scheduled to play the University of Dubuque in a doubleheader on today.

Loras is 12-4 overall.