Baseball suffered a third consecutive loss at Lone Star on Tuesday night, falling 4-2 against the Rangers. With the loss, the Redhawks playoff hopes are now contingent on a win versus the Rangers on Friday.

Though a 3 game losing streak has undoubtedly made postseason prospects more difficult for the Redhawks, some, like junior 3B Cooper Wixon, believe the high stakes situation will lead the team to play harder and limit the mistakes that have been more present lately. 

“Since it’s the last opportunity to get into the playoffs, it’s a lot more motivating than you think it would be,” Wixon said. “Those teams haven’t beat us, we’ve beat ourselves. If we play well, then we should win.”

Disappointing results on the field have led the Redhawks to increase their focus off of the field. Despite the rough stretch, sophomore pitcher Ian Garza hopes the advances made in practice will come to a culmination as the team looks to finish the season strongly versus Lone Star on Friday.

“In practice, we have been working on everything from hitting, base running, fielding, situational baseball, and pitching,” Garza said via text. “Everything in order to get us the best chance to be prepared for our game Friday.”