Resiliency is defined as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.”
The Kent State baseball team has bounced back time and time again this season and their resiliency will continue to be put to the test Saturday against Miami at 2pm in the MAC Tournament in a winner’s bracket final, with the winner advancing to Sunday’s championship round.
Look no further than Friday’s opening round game with Ball State. After controlling the game throughout, bullpen and defensive issues arose in the late innings as Ball State erased an 8-4 deficit and tied the game at 8 heading into the ninth. Using inspired bullpen arm Benny Roebuck, and one of the best catches you’ll ever see by center fielder Micah Kiracofe, the Flashes rebounded from the late inning momentum going against them, and walked it off on a Brody Williams sac fly, leading to a 9-8 win in nine innings.
“We knew we were good, we knew we were talented,” Kent State Head Coach Jeff Duncan told Dane Richardson earlier this week on the Kent State radio network.
“We did not know how resilient we were, and I feel like if there is one word I can explain and I think if you are a fan watching our team, just on the way we’ve won some games too, that we’re a pretty resilient group and we never think we’re out of a game and if you’re going to beat us, you got to really beat us. There aren’t too many games that we’ve lost this year that we were out of a game, or we didn’t climb back in a game.”
“From a whole, we are pretty resilient. We’re a ‘bring it on’ type of team. The thing is I think we handle adversity well I think this team is suited for a good tournament run.”
Kent State faced a storm last night in the form of the Ball State Cardinals and came out succesful on the other side. Duncan knows more storms may be in the forecast at some point.
“Managing emotions, managing storms. I think the biggest things we talk about in this team is there’s always a storm coming and I think they’re always prepared for it and they’re ready for it. There’s always going to be storms coming and I’m not talking about weather, I’m talking about other teams and their energy and nothing to lose in some cases, so just managing that and playing baseball.”
Kent State’s next storm comes in the form of the Miami RedHawks Saturday afternoon. Marked with resiliency, mental toughness and a potent offense and a “never out of a game” mentality, the Flashes try to advance to Sunday’s final round.
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