The Truman State baseball and softball teams have displayed their speed this season, as baseball leads the GLVC in stolen bases while softball is tied for second-most stolen bases in the conference. The baseball team has stolen 55 bases this season out of 75 attempts — a 73 percent success rate. The Bulldogs are ahead of the Missouri University of Science and Technology in this category by two.
Senior outfielder T.J. Wood leads the team and the league with 18 stolen bases. The team also received contributions from freshman outfielder Mason King, who is tied for the fourth-most stolen bases in the league with 12. Junior infielder Nick Agliolo comes in third on the team and is tied for 11th in the GLVC, with a perfect record of nine steals out of nine attempts.
Wood says he has started to steal more for the baseball team this season after the team’s previous lead base stealer, alumnus Zak Larkin, graduated and became an assistant coach at Truman. Wood says he has gotten more opportunities to steal as the team tries to use the threat of base stealing to pressure its opponents. Wood says the team lately has had more success stealing bases and says the ‘Dogs are on a streak of 18 stolen bases.
The softball team led the league in stolen bases earlier this season but currently is tied for second place in steal percentage. The ‘Dogs have stolen 58 bases out of 72 attempts so far, tying them with the University of Illinois-
Springfield’s 58 steals and putting them one behind McKendree University’s 59. Freshman outfielder Christa Reisinger stole 32 bases thus far this season, accounting for more than half of the team’s total stolen bases and 13 more than the league’s second-best baserunner. The Bulldogs also found stealing prowess in sophomore outfielder Riley Cook, who has stolen eight bases, and junior catcher Lex Van Nostrand, who has six steals.
Reisinger says stealing bases is important because it allows the team to advance runners into scoring position, turning a single into a better chance to score. Reisinger says the team uses a mix of the coach calling for a steal and player’s discretion to decide when to try stealing a base. As the team’s lead-off hitter, Reisinger says getting on base and creating opportunities is important to her.
“That’s always my goal, to just try to get on base so that we can move people over, steal or whatever, and get people in scoring position from the beginning of the game,” Reisinger says.
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