After senior Evan Uhland hit an extra-inning home run that secured a perfect 29-0 season for varsity Head Coach Mr. Ed Freije and the baseball team last season, the squad now looks to repeat last season’s outcome.

With a large amount of seniors returning from last year, the team feels as if it has a shot at repeating a State title heading into this year’s spring. Senior shortstop Jared Poland said, “I think we have a really good chance of going back to back due to our strong Senior Class. We have some juniors who will also contribute to make us better. Chances should be high that we play at Victory Field in June.”

New home with new ambition

With the finishing touches that had been put in the newly acquired facility, Poland said, “The addition of Brunette Park has been great because we have never had a nice field. Every baseball player knows our past two fields were worse than subpar. With this new field, we will be able to practice longer, because of lights, and more often even when we don’t have a practice scheduled because we have an actual home field.” The newly added park should give the team some familiarity to play at this upcoming spring than in past years, Poland said, “This year we will be able to host home games and practice on our actual field.” The team will practice and play its home games there for the length of the season.

All for State

Keeping the objectives he had set for them in September, Freije said, “Our goals year in and year out are the same, to win a State championship. That’s been the tradition and goal of our program for a long time. Our guys are committed and have been working throughout the offseason and we’re working to put together the pieces and get a routine going.”

Since the implication of these goals at the beginning of the offseason and the recent finishing of the fields at Brunette Park, Freije said, “We are excited to have a place to go to day in and day out and have two fields available. We’ve been practicing there the last couple of days and it’s nice to have a big facility and be outdoors. And it helps to have the convenience to split on to two fields.”

The new facilities at Brunette Park look to give the team an edge over the competition it did not have last year. Freije said, “It will be helpful to have a home field and fans up in our bleachers, something that we didn’t really have last year.” Although he thinks that one of the biggest struggles for the team will be transitioning from its offseason workouts to getting on the field, he said, “The more we can get onto the fields at this point will help this transition into a practice atmosphere.”

All of the components of a well rounded team heavy in returning seniors, goals that the team has been chasing since the beginning of the offseason and the finishing of the fields at Brunette Park look to aid the Irish in putting up another banner  in the Welch Activity Center.