USI men’s baseball had a rocky start to its spring season, but this past week, both Kyle Kempf, a junior outfielder and Alex Holder, a junior pitcher, received weekly honors from the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

Kempf was named player of the week by GLVC and Holder was named pitcher of the week.

Both players agreed their awards are big honors, but they are more focused on the team as a whole and trying to win conference.

“The biggest thing was we got three out of four wins off the best team in the league right now,” Kempf said.

Holder said his success is due to his team.

“It feels good. I wasn’t really expecting it,” Holder said. “Everything is just better; hitting, pitching and we are finally able to put a whole game together.”

The team won its last two games against the University of Wisconsin Parkside this past weekend and has the record of 14-15 and 11-11 conference record and listed as the third team in the eastern conference.

Kempf said even though the team had a rough start, it has improved in the past few games.

“Things started out a little rough, but the past couple of weeks we have been gaining momentum and getting a lot better as a team, so things are on the right path,” he said.

Holder said what is important is the team is winning their conference games.

“The season started slow,” he said. “We didn’t have a good record when we started. Now we are winning a lot more conference games which are what counts.”

The team has 11 more games before the conference, nine of which are GLVC. During those games, the team will try to do what it can in order to win conference.

“It’s all about mindset,” Holder said. “In the beginning, I don’t think we were playing as a team.”

Now the team is practicing what it can to become a better team.

“We are mainly focusing on the small things,” Kempf said. “Catching the ball, making sure we are hustling for everything, coming out of practice like we did today and becoming better at everything.”

Kempf was the team’s leading hitter during the six games against Bellarmine University and the University of Indianapolis, the GLVC-east leading team. He scored five runs, a triple, a home run and six RBIs in those games leading him to his award of player of the week.

Holder pitched a one-hitter during the second game against the University of Indianapolis, struck out a season of eight batters and needed a total of only 89 pitches to complete the 8-0 victory against University of Indianapolis.

“The first goal is to win conference,” Holder said. “From there it’s about working our way up to where we were last year.”