Start of Baseball Season

As the 2024 season wrapped up with the Pioneers playing at Victory Field for the 4A State Finals, people had wonders about the next years Varsity team and how much they would be compared to the previous years State Finals Runner-Up team. The Varsity Baseball Pioneers had 11 Seniors on the 2024 roster making things hard on the lower classmen to fight for a starting Varsity spot. While having lots of seniors, Sophomore Liam Delp and Junior Tyler Denny found their way into the starting lineup that consisted of 18 players on the Sectional roster.

“I worked a lot over the winter and worked on my outfield too. I also worked on my hitting so that they can rely on me at the plate in moments big or small,” Denny said.

Having mostly seniors on the 2024 Varsity team, the next years group will be very young and have little to no seniors on the Varsity team, being mostly sophomores and juniors.

“Last year most of the guys on the Sectional roster were seniors, so this year it’s like a fresh start. Most of the guys on the roster this year weren’t on the roster last year. Also, we have open spots for many positions, so if they want to have a chance to be on the starting line-up, they have to be willing to battle for it and take their given opportunities. Lastly, you gotta be able to perform. If you aren’t performing it’s the next guy up. It’s as simple as that. Everyone here wants to win and go back to play at the state level again, and if you’re having a bad day, it’s the next guy up,” Varsity Head Coach Eric McGaha said.

As the 2025 Winter workouts started throughout the Winter and flowed into Spring, most players got work in on their own in the off-season. With the first team workout starting on January 9th, it was time for the players to show what they know and showcase their hard work in the off-season, and translate it into the regular and postseason.

As practices started at the beginning of 2025, expectations were high for the players. Also, many high school coaches talk about staying prepared in the off-season by playing some sort of travel baseball for a team or program which is beneficial to a player’s individual development. Most players on the 2025 JV, Varsity, and C-Team play on a travel team over the summer to stay both in shape and keep player development.

“I just gotta make priorities for baseball. I don’t have a lot of free time due to baseball but I’m willing to make those sacrifices if it means that I am constantly working on my game year round,” sophomore Liam Delp said.