The baseball and softball teams have completed spring training, which means both are coming home to not-so-sunny Pittsburgh for the beginning of their regular seasons.

Softball began their spring training games one day prior to the baseball team, facing off against Ave Maria University in Clermont, Fla. on Feb. 22.

The Pioneers collected two losses against Ave Maria, split a two-game series with Florida National University and then went .500 in their remaining six games in the Sunshine State.

If you were keeping track, that results in a 3-6 overall record from Florida (one of the wins came in an exhibition game against Alma College and does not count toward the team’s record).

Throughout the nine games that count toward team record, the Pioneers have a team batting average of .291 (69-for-237) and have put up 40 runs and 41 RBI.

Although the softball team started their games before baseball, they do not have their first games up north until considerably later.

The Pioneers will host Waynesburg University for a non-conference series on Mar.14 for their first games following spring training.

After the Waynesburg series, Point Park will also play series against Malone University, Geneva College and Siena Heights University before ever getting a taste of River States Conference (RSC) opponents.

RSC play for the softball team will (finally) begin on Mar.24 when they travel to Ohio Christian for a two game series.

The baseball team has seen more success early on than the softball team, especially coming out of Florida.

The day after the softball team opened their spring training games, the baseball team began their first of six games as a part of the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational, which took place from Feb.23-25.

The Pioneers swept Judson University on the 23rd, split games with Minnesota Crookston on the 24th and finished up the three-day tournament with a sweep of Cornerstone University.

Coming home from Florida, the baseball team boasted a 5-1 record.

Unlike the softball team, the men jumped right into RSC play. The team headed out to Owensboro, Ky. for a three-game series against Brescia University.

Keeping true to their spring training form, the Pioneers swept Brescia and came back to Pittsburgh with an 8-1 overall record and 3-0 RSC record.

Point Park will hit the road yet again on March 6-7 for a three-game series against IU Kokomo before finally playing at home on March 10 against Chatham University.

Both teams have a tough, ranked schedule coming up in conference play, and I am curious to see how they step up to the competition of nationally recognized teams. Regardless of wins and losses, ball season is back!