‘Failing forward’ represents headway in growth

After falling to Osseo, Minn. in a close, 910 contest on the road to start last week on Monday, the Wildcats baseball team bounced back with a 7-6 win on Tuesday, May 4 at home against Onalaska.

“We’re still in that mindset of getting our work in and getting our innings in early in the year,” Coach Ryan Bishop said. “We didn't really have a preseason this year, so games like this are important and we’re getting there.”

Saturday, May 8, the Wildcats didn’t look like they missed out on a preseason when they defeated Prescott by way of shutout, 9-0. Pitchers Keenan Mork, Eli Condon, Andrew Adermann and Teddy Norman collectively threw 10 strikeouts while giving up just one hit. The Wildcats’ bats connected for 11 hits on their way to nine runs in the win.

'As always, our goal remains to compete every pitch and fail forward in the process. We're getting more consistent with that each day. But after a two-year break, patience continues to be important in our overall team development this season,” Bishop said.

Bishop said he likes to use the term “failing forward” to represent the headway that his team has made already this year.

“That's an important aspect of playing a team sport, and especially a sport like baseball where you're going to deal with so much failure,” he said. “You have to have that confidence that your brothers are going to be there for you. And that's where we are right now; we're building on that. We haven't had a lot of that the last few years and these guys are having to relearn the importance of that aspect of the game, because there's more to it than just the physical part.”

The 3-3 Wildcats faced Big Rivers Conference opponent Hudson on Tuesday on the road after the printing of this publication. Hudson will make the short trip to River Falls on Thursday to play the Wildcats at First National Bank of River Falls Field at 5 p.m.

Photos by Gaylen Bicking.