Conner Basler’s Senior Season At SEMO Postponed

Countless spring sports athletes have had their seasons cut short due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Those who have been affected the hardest are the high school and college seniors.
Connor Basler is no exception.
The Valle Catholic alumnus was supposed to play his senior year of baseball at Southeast Missouri State University, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the season was cut short.
“It’s kind of crazy,” he said. “We started off the year and were just starting to click, then this whole coronavirus thing started. I don’t really like it, but it is what it is.”
The Redhawks weren’t the first to call off their college season, but as more teams backed out, it was only a matter of time before SEMO followed.
“We were actually practicing when we heard that the College World Series and the postseason were going to be canceled,” Basler said. “Other conferences were canceling the rest of their seasons, and we were kind of like, ‘This is crazy. This is going to blow over.’ We kind of thought everyone was overreacting. Then when we got the news that our season was canceled, everyone got down. It was a really sad moment.”
The Redhawks were 9-8 overall and 2-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference play before the rest of the season was called off.
“We were just into conference, so I would say about a third of our season,” Basler said.
Basler, a second baseman, had started in 16 of the 17 games and was hitting .224 with 11 runs scored and six runs batted in. He had nine walks and had been hit by a pitch twice for a .367 on-base percentage.

See complete story in the April 15 edition of the Herald.