The UNA Lions currently sit sixth in the Gulf South Conference and face an uphill struggle to return to the NCAA regional tournament as they did a season ago.

The Lions hope to finish the season strong in their final eight games in order to improve their seeding for the GSC tournament that begins May 2.

Last season, UNA constantly flirted with national rankings and was consistently

at the top of the conference.

“It’s been a little disappointing year,” said Andrew Almon, third baseman. “We came off the past two years with great regular seasons.”

With no automatic bid to the NCAA regional tournament sitting on their doorstep, the Lions are going to have to manufacture a return trip.

“We’re probably going to have to make a good run and win the conference tournament to make it back to (NCAA) regionals,” Almon said. “We’ve got a lot of talent, and it’s been an up and down year. We’ve had some games that didn’t fall our way which seems to be the story of the year.”

UNA has shown fl ashes throughout the season, including a series win at home against UAH who was ranked ninth nationally at the time.

“We’ve beaten all the top teams at least once,” Almon said. “We’ve got the confidence and the talent to beat those teams again. We’ve just got to get into the tournament and do it.”

Besides the series win against UAH, the Lions have come away with wins against top conference and region teams such as West Florida and Delta State.

“Against some of the top teams we’ve had small leads late in the game and they were just tough to hold,” Almon said.

With a 12-9 conference record and an abysmal 5-11 overall away record, the struggles of this season aren’t easy to pinpoint.

“We’re kind of performing below our standards,” Cyr said. “Our starting pitching has been good again this season. It seems like when they pitch well, we’ve just not hit the ball as good as we should.”

The Lions are currently batting .309, but the bats are not as consistent as Cyr thinks they could be.

“It seems like we’ve been hitting just enough and not really as good as we can as a team,” he said. “Hitting goes up and down and there’s not one team that stays hot all season.”

“I think we’re like second in the conference in fielding right now,” Almon said. “I think we might be playing better defensively this year.”

Indeed they might be, with a team fielding percentage of .967 compared to .963 a season ago, but where have the differences in 2012 and 2013 come from?

The Lions finished 2012 with an 8-8 record on the road compared to the current 5-11 away record. The Lions also fared better in 2012 at home, posting a 28-6 record at Mike Lane Field while this year’s team is sitting at 17-6-1 with no home games remaining.

“The goal going into the season was to get back to the (NCAA) regional tournament,” Almon said. “We haven’t done a good job to set ourselves up for that so far. But there is still a chance of doing that by winning the (GSC) tournament.

“We’ve got the pitching depth and a deep enough bullpen to come in and pitch some extended innings so we can go out there and win the GSC tournament.”