By Gavin Swanson Posted March 14, 2016
After a rather disappointing season last year, baseball starts with a clean slate and has its eyes set on the playoffs. With a team of returning seniors and new juniors, varsity baseball looks to redeem itself from the cold clutches of last year.
Team captains Brian Shettler and Mickey Donovan weighed in on this upcoming season.
Shettler, who plays shortstop and pitches on the team, believes the team will work hard this season, and as a result, will get more wins.
“I feel like we have just as much talent, except this year I feel like we’re going to work harder and put more plays together which hopefully ends up in more wins,” said Shettler.
Donovan, who catches, added to Shettler’s statement.
“We have a lot stronger team dynamic this year,” said Donovan. “The team I’m on right now, I’ve been playing with since sixth grade. So I think we all know that it’s our last year and we’re taking it a lot more seriously and we want to win a lot more than we did last year”.
The team feels good about playing every team in the league. The captains believe the team has the right mindset going into this year to become a real contender for the playoffs.
“We feel like we can beat every team in the league. We have a mindset, we can beat anybody at any given time, any day,” said Shettler. “You guys should come out and watch every game you can ’cause we’re going to have a good season and we’ll play every game as hard as we can”.
Donovan parallels Shettler in his belief that they can play and beat every team this year.
“This year we’re just trying to play with a chip on our shoulder and not really care who the team is; just go out there and win no matter what; do what we have to do to get the W. We’re playing with a higher intensity this year and all the games are going to be good games,” said Donovan.
This year’s roster staffs a full team of seniors and juniors. They are: Anthony Good, Roberto Rodriguez, Trey Marriott, Darrin Nelson, Jesus Munoz, Mickey Donovan, Travis Hardy, Jake Barnes, Kyle Schultz, Jayson Smith, Jared Taylor, Brian Shettler, Nico Espinola, Kyle Young, and Michael Rangel. The varsity coaches are Ron Espinola, Dioney Mendez, and Pat Donovan.
The season looks good for the varsity Buckaroos. You can support the team by attending their first home game. It will be next Friday, March 18 at 3 p.m., right after school.
“We got new jerseys, concessions stand is gonna be open, there’s gonna be music playing, there’s gonna be balls flyin’, there’s gonna be fans yellin’, there’s gonna be bats swinging, there’s gonna be Spring Creek losin’ and Lowry winnin’, all sorts of good stuff,” concluded Donovan.
