As a crisp spring afternoon turns to evening, their fellow students are either eating dinner, lying down on the couch to do some homework or heading to a meeting for a student group in which they’re involved.

But for the baseball team, it’s time to close out another practice with just as much intensity as it started with hours before.

The team is coming off a weekend in which it won the first two games against No. 1 Georgia Tech, but surrendered 11 runs in the final two innings of a 17-11 loss in the third game of the series on Sunday.

Redshirt junior pitcher Sam Walls, the team’s closer and a biochemistry major, said the team doesn’t have enough time to keep it’s mind on the successes and failures of those games.

“Losing that game was kind of a heartbreaker because we expected to win all three, and I mean we were still happy we took two out of three,” Walls said. “But no one’s satisfied. And when we came out Monday to go work out and lift, it was forgotten.”

The previous weekend UCLA swept three games from N.C. State at Doak Field.

And while a 24-3 midweek victory against UNC Greensboro came after that, redshirt sophomore pitcher Eryk McConnell, a biology major, said the sweep at the hands of the Bruins was still weighing on the team.

McConnell said the series against the Yellow Jackets took care of that.

“We definitely should have swept, but we got our swagger back…I think that’s the biggest key we had is just getting our confidence back and knowing that we are one of the top teams in the nation,” McConnell said.

Junior outfielder Brian Aragon, a sociology major, said the team got off to a rough start last season when it lost of five of six games against Miami and Georgia Tech to open the conference season.

He said that made the team aim lower, simply trying to win two of three games against teams to get the series win and build momentum.

This year, Aragon said the team believes it can sweep any opponent it plays.

“This year, we’re more confident. We’ve worked hard, and we feel pretty good about ourselves,” Aragon said. “And we feel that [if] we take that Friday game, there’s no reason we can’t take the next two games.”

Sophomore pitcher and outfielder Chris Engle put the mindset of trying to take every game from opponents another way.

“You don’t want to stop there,” Engle said. “Why leave a team down when you can bury them?”

Freshman pitcher Eric Surkamp, a business management major, said the team’s bullpen is working hard to avoid another late-game meltdown.

“We had six outs left, and we couldn’t just close it down,” Surkamp said. “So we’re trying to improve on that and shore up our bullpen and make sure that we secure those wins the next time they come around.”

Engle said the area the pitching staff is working on is mentality.

“It’s all in taking a tougher mental approach — more focus, more concentration in practice so when we get to the playing field we don’t make those same mistakes,” Engle said.

Walls said the team is working hard in order to perform well this season.

The team is ranked No. 20 in this week’s Baseball America poll.

Walls said he believes the team can rise much higher than that though.

“We want to be the best team in the nation,” Walls said. “We feel like we’re the No. 1 team, so we expect to come out and win every game we play.”