The DU club baseball team completed their fifth season with a double-header at Veteran’s Park against Metro State on Sunday. They lost both games, 11-1 and 11-8, finishing their season at 5-15.

The DU club team is part of District VIII, The Rocky Mountain District of the National Club Baseball Association. Other teams include Metro State, Colorado College, University of Wyoming, Fort Lewis, Western State and Johnson & Wales. The majority of the Pioneers’ spring baseball games are against one of these opponents.

“This was a hard season; we have lots of young players and are doing a lot of rebuilding,” said senior club president Kyle McKendry.

The team has only three seniors and two juniors, so the vast majority of the 20 players on the active roster are underclassmen. This bodes well for upcoming years, according to McKendry, but made for a tough 2011-2012 season.

The season unofficially began in the fall, with non-conference games against area teams like University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and University of Northern Colorado. There are 20 fall-season competitions, which is nearly as many as the team plays in the spring against their conference.

Tryouts and practices commence in late January to early February, depending on the weather each year, according to McKendry. This year, the official season started two weeks before spring break. During spring break, the team traveled to Arizona to compete against other collegiate club teams.

Though their season has come to a close, the Pioneers said they are looking forward to next year.

“With three of us graduating, we have been trying to do more recruiting,” said McKendry, referring to his fellow seniors Wes Masi and Gabe Keeler. “We hope to get our roster up to 25 players and to continue building the club baseball program.”

McKendry also mentioned that a goal of the club is to have a greater on-campus presence next year and to attract more players and more fans.

“Not many people know about club baseball at DU,” said McKendry. “I think, in the future, it will become more recognized and grow as a program.”

The team will host the Joe Lubar Memorial Golf Tournament on May 12, honoring last year’s starting pitcher. Lubar passed away in February of 2011 in a skiing accident. This will be the second annual memorial tournament.