After a winless season last year, the baseball team aims to outperform their expectations from last season. To improve for next season, the team has been training four days a week nearly five months before the season.
Freshman Jack Lucas and Sophomore Josiah Gingerich have been training in order to accomplish their goals for the upcoming season.
“I want to see the whole team improve. Like winning multiple games against bigger teams. For me personally, I want to have a better attitude and more improvement,” Lucas said.
“I want to get better overall, on the field and especially behind the plate. I hope we make progress as a team throughout the season and hopefully win a game,” Gingerich said.
Sophomore Abraham Wenger utilized the football season for baseball preparation.
“The football season has put me in shape physically and mentally so I’ll be prepared for the baseball season,” Wenger said
These students shared the importance of training in the offseason and how that will prepare their bodies to endure the season.
“It is very important to train in the offseason. If you don’t train, you won’t get better. It helps you get stronger, helps your work ethic, and your mind,” Wenger said.
“Big schools, like TA and Spotswood have been training for a while now. If we really want to compete with them, we need to be training as hard as they do,” Lucas said.
The work ethic and drive of the players coming into this year compared to last has surprised some of the returning players who saw what it was like last year.
“Everybody’s doing pretty good and working at their own pace But getting good work done and coming consistently every day,” Gingerich said
“The work mentality is what most surprised me. A lot of people are training their hardest and actually working. They’ve also been doing stuff at their own time, like on weekends. Not just at school as a team,” Lucas said.
There were some key seniors who graduated after last season. This year, the returning players will have to lead the way for the new plates this year.
We have little seniors so it’s gonna be tough. There aren’t many people like there were last year who’ve been here for a solid 4 years or anything like that. I’m gonna have to step up and be a leader. But we all gotta step up and work together,” Gingerich said.
It’s gonna be hard. Myself and a whole bunch of other teammates are gonna just step it up this year and help out,” Wenger said.
The players’ goals aren’t the only things different this year. The coaches also expect more of the players and are pushing them harder in order to prepare them for the season.
Right off the bat, there’s a lot more intensity and it’s a lot more difficult. It’s a lot more work, and that is good. I think that’s going to help us benefit as a team later on,” Wenger said.
Last year we didn’t do workouts or anything like that. So that’s been a lot better now that we can get into the weight room to get ready for the season,” Gingerich said.
The coaches expect us to be there every day if we want to improve as a team. And hopefully our preparation will prepare us for success later in our spring season,” Lucas said.
