The Texas Wesleyan University baseball team ended its season in the regional tournament with a record of 47-15, holding the third highest win total in its 48-year program history.

This season, nine Rams were named to the academic All-Conference team, three NAIA Scholar-Athletes, eight  the All-SAC team, and had one athlete, Luis Roman, drafted by the San Diego Padres.

Assistant Coach, Robert Garza, said the teams ownership among players was a key factor in achieving some of their biggest accomplishments, such as being ranked a top 25 team nationally and getting an opening round regional birth.

“This group did a great job of taking ownership of their opportunities,” Garza said. “We had some great leadership that allowed our team to really gel together.”

Garza said there were many times throughout the year that he was proud of his team, but the most meaningful was the way team members committed to each other.

“It wasn’t about one player or a group of players,” Garza said. “It was about the whole team. It didn’t matter if people were starting or were just role players. Everyone had the same mindset, and that was to win.”

Junior pitcher, Stephen Yancey, said some of his favorite highlights during the season were going to the conference tournament championship and beating Oklahoma City University, the top-ranked team in the nation, 14-12. He also enjoyed going to the regional tournament and pitching a no-hitter through 6 ¹/₃ innings, and throwing a shutout through eight innings, where the Rams lost an opening round and battled back to the semifinals

“Losing the first game and watching my team battle back was an amazing feeling,” Yancey said. “If any team could have done it, it would’ve been us.”

Yancey said that although they are losing key players such as Garrett Crook, Casey Moses and Alex Gudac, he doesn’t expect anything less for the next season.

“I don’t care if it’s one person leading the team or 20,” Yancey said. “If we all come together to win and be successful, then we’ll have a great season.”

Sophomore pitcher, Parker Robinson, said he is most proud to say the team made it to the regional semifinal game.

Combined with hard work, Robinson thinks the biggest key in the teams preparation was the relationships and bonds created between the team members.

“Instead of just being teammates, our relationship with each other reached a higher level,” Robinson said. “We became brothers, and ultimately I think that was the key to our success. We truly went to war and fought for the guy next to us, because in our eyes we were competing not as a team, but as a family.”