With only two games remaining in the season, the ISU club baseball team has this weekend off and, as a result, is taking the week off from practice so that they can rest, focus on schoolwork and enjoy Veishea.

“Even though a lot of guys are partying and stuff, I know a lot of guys on the team are very conscientious about their grades and stuff, and we haven’t had much time to worry about focusing on schoolwork,” said club baseball coach Aaron Hinnah. “So I figured I’d give them this week to enjoy Veishea and then just have … a few nights of the week where they can, after their classes, go somewhere and study.”

Hinnah said that he let the other players have input before he made the decision to give them the week off. In the past they’ve had games on Veishea weekend and didn’t have a chance to take the week off.

The Cyclones (6-9, 5-7 Mid-America Conference North) are coming off a weekend where they lost two out of three conference games at home against Minnesota State (8-4, 3-3 Mid-America Conference North). The Cyclones lost the first game by a score of 9-3 and the second game by a score of 5-4 before winning the third game by a score of 14-4. The Cyclones are currently in last place in Mid-America Conference North.

The group of people he said that this break would have the most benefit for is the upper classmen.

“The young guys are usually at every practice,” Hinnah said. “They love being there, and they’re still kind of in that high school mold of themselves where they’re still in shape and used to going to practice every single day.”

Hinnah said that if they had a team made up primarily of young players, they would probably be practicing this week.

One player who Hinnah thinks will especially benefit from the week-long break is junior Ethan Schroeder. Schroeder struggled at the plate last weekend and pulled himself from the third game when Hinnah was gone, and he was left in charge.

“Baseball is a mental game, so if you’re struggling up at the plate or struggling in the field or anything else you’re kind of thinking about it,” Schroeder said. “Taking a break is definitely a good thing, it helps you get back and kind of look at what you’re doing wrong and hopefully fix that before your next game.”