The HHS baseball team will kick off their first game on Thursday playing against Stonewall Jackson High School. The team started off their season strong in their first scrimmage against Waynesboro High School winning 13-6. 

This can surely be attributed to the work the players and coaches have put in. After last year’s disappointing season the team has been preparing for this year through offseason workouts. Freshman Aaron Miller has been in attendance at almost every single workout this year.   

“We’ve been having off season workouts, like, four times a week since around November of last year” said Miller. 

The talent at the tryouts this year was very young. “Probably 80 to 90 percent of the team is freshman and eighth graders this year,” said Miller. 

Due to the majority of the team being young the coaches decided to only field a JV baseball team this year to better develop the younger talent on the team for future years. Sophomore Josiah Gingerich, who is a sophomore and a leader on the team, spoke on the decision. 

“I think it was a better decision for the program in general. Being able to grow on a younger level and learn from each other and move up to a higher level is really important.” said Gingerich. 

Because of the young talent on the team and last year’s disappointing results, some schools have counted out Harrisonburg in their games. 

“There’s definitely low expectations from other schools. They’re not really worried about us, but we’re ready to go out there and compete.” said Gingerich. 

Gingerich seemed excited about the upcoming freshman and 8th graders and was looking forward to them developing. 

“This year will definitely be a learning year, learning how each player plays, and then in the coming years we’ll definitely have more competition.”

The team hopes to see results come of their hard work and is looking forward to this season.