“Play ball!” – Aragon baseball starts a new season

As the Aragon varsity baseball team prepares for its season, it faces a drastically changed roster, including the loss of senior Sam Tuivailala, who signed with the St. Louis Cardinals over the offseason.

The team, however, seems more than ready to approach the season with a positive mindset. “People will have to work hard to fill those spots”, sophomore Ian Barrie admits.

“You try not to think about the losses, and more of the impact that the sophomores and other new players have on the team,” head coach Lenny Souza says.

With the addition of so many new players to the varsity level, the starting line-up is brand new and roles on the team are still being forged.

“We’re learning our field, getting to feel comfortable with each other,” head coach Lenny Souza commented,“Last year, everything was cut and dry. I could tell you after a couple of weeks the starting lineup, but this year there’s a lot of question marks.”

The first five games of the season will help the team figure out the starting lineup as the coaches will experiment putting players in different positions and see how they perform. Also, the first five games do not factor into CCS qualification, taking much of the pressure off.

Leading up to the team’s first game against Lowell High School on Feb. 23, expectations were very optimistic. “It’s a home game, so the players should feel more comfortable, and we just hope to see the players do the stuff we cover in practice,” said Souza before the game.

As it happened, Lowell jumped out to a two-run lead and held that lead until the end of the game, when Aragon tied it up. As the final inning winded down, the game ended with a tied score of 3-3.

“We did well, but it felt like we played down to their level”, says sophomore Aldo Severson. Senior Tom Sortwell scored the tying run. In addition, seniors Tyler Outzen and Trevor McNeil also scored runs.

“I think we did some things well, but also some things poorly,” states assistant coach Dusty Landwehr. The team, in this sense, sees the game as an indication that they still have to figure out how their team works together. “You take the negative things that happened, and turn them into positive by looking at them as learning opportunities,” explains Souza.

“The competition is going to get harder, and harder, but I think we’re going to rise to the occasion,” says Souza. The Dons’ next home game will be played at 3:15 p.m. against Mills High School on Tuesday, March 8.