New Tradition

University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College baseball coach Joel Barta must have felt like he had journeyed through two separate seasons.

And now he is getting ready for another: the postseason.

Barta's Scorpions have gone from rags to riches and have rallied to put themselves in the Red River Atlantic Conference Tour-nament after what has been a roller coaster 2008 campaign.

In his second year as head coach Barta said he had built the team to his system, creating a buzz around the UTB-TSC diamond.

The Scorpions were in an eight-season playoff drought and when the season started it seemed as though their postseason fate the last eight years wouldn't change as the team started off a jaw dropping 1-15.

"The most frustrating thing for us was knowing how capable our team was," Barta said. "My frustration wasn't that we weren't 15-1 is that we had the ability to put ourselves in different situations and see us giving away games."

Plagued with errors (2.5 errors per game), lack-luster hitting (.238 batting average, one homer) and meatball pitching the Scorps needed a little home cooking.

Barta managed to keep his team together through the first half lull when they embarked on a 17-game homestand where it all changed.

The Scorpions went 11-6 and improved drastically in all major categories.

Pitching-wise, UTB-TSC dropped down from an 11.08 ERA to 5.11.

Offensively, the team batting average went off the charts to .349 during the 17-game stretch including 11 homeruns compared to the one they had in the first 16 games.

"I think if you work through those situations you're able to create great strength at the end of the year," Barta said.

The Scorpions carried that wave of momentum through the conference season where they finished 7-5 solidifying a spot in the conference tournament to be played out at Scorpion Field.

Numbers-wise the team is different but more importantly their mental game has changed as well.

"We've got swagger now," Scorpion Brian Dombeck said. "We're confident and we're ready to go (into the conference tourna-ment).

The Scorpions have drawn NAIA No. 19 Texas Wesleyan in the RRAC tourney and coach Barta doesn't have to look far back to see they can play with top colleges.

In its final regular season series UTB-TSC took two out of three from Division I Houston Baptist University that has put the teams morale on another level with its biggest game of the season coming up on Tuesday.

"We have every intention of going to Oklahoma City and taking that next step," Barta said. "It was our first Division I win for any sport in our school's history and that's big for us (heading into the tournament)."