The Lake Land College Baseball team under the tutelage of head coach, Julio Godinez and assistant coaches, Gabe Black, Davis Johnson and Bert Bradley, finished the 2024 season with a 30-24 record. They went 17-13 in the Region 24 Conference. Their record at home was 17-10, on the road, 13-8 and at neutral sites, 0-6.
The Laker Baseball team overcame a 7-game losing streak early in the season after a 2-0 start with several winning streaks of six or seven games. In the Region 24 tournament held at John A Logan College in Carterville, IL., the Lakers lost the first game, a 9-8 loss to Southwestern Illinois College Blue Storm, followed by a 2-1 win over Olney Central College Blue Knights before having their season ended prematurely with a 7-6 loss again to the Blue Storm.
Coach Godinez is entering his sixth year as the skipper for Laker Baseball. Previously, he spent six years as an assistant for Eastern Illinois University. Since taking over the program at the Fall of 2019, Godinez and his staff have been able to move players on the team to the next level, including two in the major leagues, Hayden Birdsong (San Francisco Giants) and Cole Paplham (San Diego Padres).
Regarding this past season, Godinez felt that the team did well in the regular season but came up short in the playoffs. He mentioned, “Winning 30 games is a gold standard in college baseball. It means that the team did well. We had a talented bunch.”
According to Godinez, “The strength of the team from last year was our offense. Our offense kept us in games well. When pitching struggled early, the offense stayed steady. In the back half of the year, the pitching stepped up and improved.”
He revealed, “For our offense, it was guys getting on base via base hits and hitting to move the base runners along. We have a few guys that can hit for power. Our team’s philosophy is to get to second base in the way possible. In addition, the team stole 70-80 bases on the season, which is surprisingly good for a 50-game regular season.”
He cited, “The tough part of the pitching from last season is that we lost 80% of the pitching from the previous year. We had to hit the ground running and put in a new group. It took time for the group to jell together as a unit.”
For the upcoming season, he stated, “We will have close to the same offense as last year. The pitching would be a lot better overall. Our talent regarding pitching will be better based on experience from last year.”
The baseball team will open on the road at Senatobia, Mississippi on Saturday, Feb. 8 and 9 as they will be hosted by the Northwest Mississippi Community College Rangers in a doubleheader on back-to-back days.
After traveling to Fulton, Mississippi and playing the Itawamba Community College Indians in a doubleheader in back-to-back days on Feb. 15 and 16, the Lakers will host the Lewis & Clark College Trail Blazers on Friday, Feb. 21.
The team will open on the road for conference play on Thursday, Mar. 6 at Mt. Carmel, Illinois as they will be hosted by the Wabash Valley College Warriors. The Lakers will host the same team in two days.
Their season will conclude on Saturday, May 3 as they host the Olney Central College Knights. Let us root for the Lakers to have a successful season in Baseball.
