With spring around the corner, Redhawks’ baseball and softball are gearing up for a new quest for an Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) championship.

The back-to-back OVC champion baseball team was predicted to win the OVC in a vote by the league’s coaches and communications directors. The Redhawks are looking to become the first baseball team to win three straight OVC championships since Austin Peay in 2011-13 according to OVC.com

The Redhawks also have three players chosen for the Preseason All-OVC Team. Senior outfielder Jevon Mason, senior outfielder Brett Graber and junior pitcher Kyle Miller all received honors.

According to OVC.com, the Redhawks’ softball team was voted to finish second in the OVC behind UT Martin by the OVC’s coaches and communications directors. The team finished fourth last year, going 16-10 in league play. Highlighting the team are junior outfielder Paige Halliwill, junior infielder Kynzie Wrigley and junior infielder/pitcher Abigail Rickermann.

Halliwill was chosen as a “player to watch” in the same vote by the OVC after her success last season. She played all 54 games and posted a .317 batting average with 51 hits and 18 extra-base hits, on top of 34 runs batted in.

Baseball will travel to Central Arkansas on Friday, February 17 for their first series of the season against the Bears. They will travel to Middle Tennessee and Albeline Christian before their first home game against the Evansville Aces on March 1.

Softball begins its season on the road at Louisiana Tech on February 11. Their first home series will be a doubleheader on Sunday, February 19 when they host the Saint Louis University Billikens.