The Siena Heights University baseball team hasn’t had a winning season since 2012 when it finished 33-25.

Their last winning season before that? You have to look all the way back to 1994, when they finished 35-34. How about the last time before that? The year was 1984, when the team went 21-19.

For a program that has three winning seasons in the last 31 years, it is easy to look at this season as just another year. Except… that’s not the way this season’s been going.

The Saints are off to a fast start this year, currently posting a 6-3 record following a tough spring break trip to Florida for the Warner Tournament and a two-game home stand with Indiana Wesleyan.

And the Saints already have two walk-off wins to account for a third of their victories.

“There is a lot of momentum,” said senior pitcher Justin McPherson of the walk-off victories. “Our first game of the year we won on a walk-off, and that gave us so much momentum over the next two games where we started 3-0.”

“Our last game against Indiana Wesleyan the game was tied 2-2 before it went 11 innings, and we won on another walk-off. To have that kind of win against a good team gives us momentum going into conference play.”

McPherson is only one of 15 seniors on the team that made up a large freshman class back in the 2013 season when the Saints went 13-18. He said that continuity of the senior class being together for so long is the major reason for the team’s early success.

“We had a lot of freshmen that year,” he said of the 2013 season. “In the past four years, all of us freshmen have developed to become more of a team and less of separate individuals. This year’s team is more of a team than we have had in the past.”

The strong senior class hopes to leave their mark by getting to the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament, a feat that has yet to be accomplished during their tenure at SHU. The WHAC tournament takes the top six conference teams at the end of the year based on overall conference record.

“Our number one goal, first of all, is to make it to the WHAC tournament and win it,” McPherson said. “And then we can go from there.”

The Saints are poised to do just that, as many of their toughest competition is behind them after completing their annual spring break Florida trip with a 4-3 record.

“The Florida trip has become a necessity of every college baseball team,” SHU head coach John Kolasinski said. “Everyone makes one now unlike the past. The trip allows us to be ready for conference play and for the players to define their roles for the season.”

“The trip gives our hitters a chance to see live pitching,” McPherson said. “The teams that we play down there are really good teams, so you see really good pitching. And vice-versa for pitchers, we see really good hitters. It gives us time to develop and get ready to come back here and get ready for conference play.”

The Saints will resume their schedule March 19-20 with two double-headers consisting of four total games with Rochester before beginning WHAC competition at Marygrove March 23.

The fourth winning season in 32 years? Things are looking good. And with the Saints’ current record at 6-3, they boast a .667 winning percentage, which if that holds up, means the Saints are on track for their best season in program history. That’s something worth cheering for.