During the winter there were two groups of athletes that pushed and trained in preparation for the upcoming season and one of those teams was baseball.
Lead by senior Austin Soria, a few members of the team that were not involved in winter sports were at the field almost every day.
“After school we would go down to the field and work on our fundamentals so when the season arrives we won’t be shell shocked,” Soria said.
Freshman Trystan King was also down at the field almost every day during the winter sports season preparing for his first season of high school baseball.
“I think playing throughout the winter helped a lot. I feel like it prepared me more for the level I will be playing at,” King said. “It is way harder than any other level of baseball I have played before.”
During practices the players would work on hitting, pop flies and a little bit of pitching. According to Soria they were also looking at underclassmen who are going to fill vacant spots left by last year’s seniors.
“We have gaps we need to fill in the outfield and in the infield. It gave us a pretty good look of where we will be at considering people involved in winter sports were not there,” Soria said.
According to Junior Colby Long, the practices were always full of excitement and jokes to ease up the mood and keep everyone relaxed.
“We would always crack jokes and kind of make fun of each other,” Long said. “That also gives us a pretty good bond as a team because everyone gets along well and all enjoy being around each other.”
When the team was not working on their skills they were working on the field.
“No one maintains the field except us, so we have to rake the field, pull weeds and all of that stuff,” Soria said. “It isn’t fun but we play little games and stuff so we are having fun but still getting stuff done.”
According to King, this makes the team appreciate the field and take care of it better rather than if someone else was to work on it.
“Working on the field on our own time makes us appreciate what we have better,” King said. “I think that if someone else worked on the field we wouldn’t care about and just trash it. So I think it is almost a life lesson as well.”
As the season approaches the team is looking in pretty good shape according to Soria.
“I think we will have a decent team this year compared to previous years,” Soria said. “We will have a good outfield and a solid infield with outstanding pitching. It’s going to be a good season for sure.”
