Crowder aims for 6th regional title under Lallemand

JOPLIN, Mo. – Crowder is the #1 seed heading into the Region 16 Tournament where they will compete for their sixth regional title under head coach Travis Lallemand.

“[The teams’] job is to uphold the standards of the program and the standard is to be at a high competitive rate in May,” Lallemand says. “I think that’s more of an environment around our program as much as anything.”

“It’s pretty cool to just wear the name ‘Roughrider’ across your chest,” says Crowder catcher, Jack Stroth. “To come out here and be able to represent the wonderful program that’s been set before us and keep representing this wonderful program.”

This team has been working towards postseason success since the first day of the season.

“We’re not preparing for the tournament today,” Lallemand says. “We started preparing way back in August.”

But the Roughriders are keeping their postseason preparations simple.

“We don’t change our mindset or anything from the postseason to the regular season,” Stroth says. “We just continue to show up and play the game that we’ve been playing.”

“In my opinion, there’s not a whole lot of decisions to be made in the postseason,” Lallemand adds. “You just simply look back at your 52-game schedule and see what worked and repeat those things.”

Crowder enters the tournament weekend with a 46-6 record over 52 games.

“We’ve got some ‘fear bats’ in the lineup, as we call them,” Lallemand says of the teams’ strengths. “Guys that can put up some damage swings and that results in some big innings for us at times.”

Clutch hitting is another key.

“Winning twos is a big thing in winning championships,” Lallemand adds. “If you can win with two outs and you can win with two strikes it increases your chances a lot.”

The strategy for game 53 isn’t anything different.

“We have a saying around here and it’s just, “Be who we are,” Lallemand says. “That’s all we can ask for out of our players and if we can do that, it increases our chances for success.”

Crowder will play their regional tournament opener against Metropolitan on Thursday afternoon at Joe Becker Stadium in Joplin.

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