After finishing last season at a disappointing 12-43 overall and 6-20 in the conference, the Skyhawk baseball team is looking at more than just this year’s talent to take them to the postseason.

“I think we are physically better than we’ve been in a long time,” said head coach Victor ‘Bubba’ Cates. “We’ve got a really good group of athletes and I’m very excited about that. You hope that plays out better than it has in the past, but there are other variables than just our physical ability. There will always be variables other than talent. If you know you have the talent, you hope the other falls into place.”

“Your desire to win and how you prepare and togetherness separate one team from another. All teams that win will be good but there will always be teams that you look at and wonder how they do what they do,” Cates said.

When talking to his team, Cates has been using examples from programs from the eastern part of the state: the UTK football and basketball teams.

“I mentioned to the team that UT football last fall had an awful year but it wasn’t because they weren’t physically able to compete. From a physical standpoint they were better than a lot of the teams they competed against but they didn’t beat them,” Cates said. “Then you look the Vol’s basketball team. [They] started the season with people not giving them any thought to have a good year, maybe 15 wins and now they’ve far exceeded that.”

“We’ve competed well with other people too, but we haven’t been able to beat them. You hope that your guys are hungry to win and hard work and preparation in the end makes you hungrier than you might be normally,” Cates said.

Something different the Skyhawks are doing this season to prepare is the way they go about their strength and condition versus last season.

“We’re trying to concentrate on strength and conditioning more during the season than we ever have,” said Cates. “It’s easy to work on it during the fall and winter and then get busy and forget about it during the season. But we’re working out no matter what.”

In addition to the extra workouts, Cates is looking to his returning players, which includes eight seniors, to bring experience and leadership to the field.

The returning seniors are pitchers Micky Dobson, Casey Estill and Derek Link, oufielder Zane Gresback, first baseman Bryan Harvey, shortstop Jason Moore, second baseman Hideaki Sato and catcher Brett Spivy.

“All three [pitchers] are mainstays in our staff,” Cates said. “We count on them on a lot of ways. Not only on the mound but from a leadership aspect. Maybe even more so with the leadership because pitching is such a huge part of our game.”

“Harvey, Sato and Moore have played a lot and done a good job. They’re people that we count on for the experience. There’s so much among the three of them,” Cates said.

“Spivy has done some great things over the years and we’re going to look to him to keep doing great things this season. Gresback we count on as well because of his years playing the game,” Cates said.

As far as conference play is concerned, Cates thinks that the Skyhawks are capable of beating anyone in the OVC because the conference is more balanced than most.

“We’re sitting at 3-7 and no one has won more than six games in our league,” said Cates. “We match up better with the people in our conference than we have at any other time and there’s a comfort in that.

“Our league is so balanced anyway. I’ve been here eight years and seven out of the 10 teams have either won the regular season or conference championships out of the past 7 years. You won’t find that in any league or in any sport.

“So, you like that because it means that everyone’s got a chance. You’ve got to play every weekend. It’s not like other leagues where there are one or two teams at the top. You’ve got to beat everyone,” Cates said.

The Skyhawks have picked up non-conference victories, however, against Bradley, Union and Freed-Hardeman Universities over the past two weeks.

“The conference games are obviously the most important to us even though we try to go out and win every game,” Cates said. “There comes a time when you look at the situation that you’re in and you see things that are more important than they were in the past.

“It’s an internal thing with the players and the team. Our goal is to be in the tournament and compete for a championship. That’s a realistic goal, but it’s got to be an every day goal, not just something that we think about every now and then.”

The Skyhawks now look ahead to nine road games against Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock, Belmont, Lipscomb, MTSU and St. Louis University before opening up conference play.

Their first OVC game is scheduled as a double header starting at noon on Saturday, March 25 in Martin. The three game series will wrap up on Sunday at 1 p.m.