Mark Schommer is a senior pitcher for the Marauders baseball team, while his sister is a sophomore catcher.

“Right now it is going pretty good team-wise for us,” said Mark. “But we have under-performed a little bit — we are 11-9 [before the weekend series]. But we have only lost two or three games where the other team has really beaten us. We have beaten ourselves with walks or errors — a lot of those losses were in our control.”

He said that personally the early part of the season has gone very well.

“I have pitched five times and have not given up a run yet,” he said. “I have two saves.”

Mark Schommer, P

Schommer said that he prefers the stopper role that he took over his freshman season.

“I like to come in in just about every game,” he said. “I love the pressure and the high-intensity situations. The mindset between a starting pitcher and a closer is very different.

“A starter has a lot of time to prepare with your whole routine whereas as a closer you have one inning — everything relies on that one inning. A starter can give up one or two runs in an inning and then pitch well the rest of the time. As a reliever there is more pressure on each pitch. I have become more mentally tough since my freshman season.”

That maturing has helped Mark talk to his sister Emily about the pit-falls and mental toughness needed to play DII athletics.

“We are very close, so we talk about that stuff a lot,” he said. “We have had conversations on how the college game is so much faster. You have to be locked in a lot more. And in college there is so much more time put into the game. Time management in college is more difficult than it was in high school. You have to learn to love the game through all of the hardships.

” She and I have had a lot of conversations about that. My biggest piece of advice to her was last year when she was a freshman was that you have to find ways to love the game. You cannot go into the game for selfish reasons, you will fall out of love with the game quickly — baseball and softball has a tendency to beat you up mentally, especially as a freshman.”

Emily Schommer said that the jump from her freshman year to her sophomore season has been a big jump.

“Lots of growth mentally and physically,” she said. “I feel more comfortable with a year of college softball under my belt. In college you need a higher level of softball IQ. At this level everybody is a great player — I am getting comfortable playing the way I know that I was supposed to play and getting more confident.”

Emily Schommer said that her brother has been a big help to her transforming from high school softball to college level softball.

“He has helped so much,” she said. “He is my big brother and one of my best friends. He is a role model for me so to have him on campus here has been a huge tool and gift because we talk a lot. We talk about the mental part of sports and we talk about why we love our sport and play it and how we can bring out more good than bad because college softball and baseball is hard. He helps me find the positives.”

She said that her and Mark text a lot after most of their games to check up on each other.

“I want to compete every time I am on the field and competing is not tied to wins and losses but by how much energy you put in,” she said.

Emily Schommer said that it is unusual to see a brother and sister both playing DII sports at the same college.

“I think it is funny to see the reactions of people when they ask me, ‘He’s your brother?’ Or ask Mark, ‘She’s your sister?’ And, ‘He is a pitcher and you are a catcher.’ They love the dynamics of a pitcher-catcher duo within the sports of baseball and softball.”

This past Saturday afternoon in the second game of a doubleheader, Emily Schommer went 2 for 4 with an RBI against Southwest Minnesota State. In the second game of a baseball doubleheader Saturday against Winona State, Mark Schommer pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings and struck out five in relief to pick up his first win of the season.