The Legion baseball season commenced Saturday, April 5 for the Powell Pioneers. These guys were eager to get back out on the field to compete and are working hard to make this season a success.

The team has been putting in work since the beginning of February, with optional practices every Tuesday and Thursday until mandatory practices Monday through Thursday started March 17, and players expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming season.

“I’m feeling excited,” senior Trevion Solberg said. “I think we have a good team, and it’s my senior year, so I just think it’ll be fun.”

The Pioneers had nine seniors graduate last year, so the majority of the players have had to step up with little to no A-team minutes.

“I think the biggest challenge is adjusting to the next level because our team is pretty young,” junior Kolby Gates said. “We got second in state last year for the JV level, so we got to heart, but we just need to have that varsity experience, and it’ll be alright.”

This transition for the players may be tough, but they are stepping up and trying to prove people wrong. It will be exciting to see how this team does with the jump from B to A. 

“We’ve been putting in a lot of extra effort outside of practice, going indoors during our lunch break or after practice even,” junior Talon Nuss said. “Just putting in that little extra work that will really get us to the top this year.”

It’s going to take that work outside of practice to be that winning team, and the Powell players understand that, using strategies to help them improve.

“Just intensity during practice. Stay focused constantly,” Nuss said. “It’s going to be a tough season, so we always need to stay prepared and yes, always work hard.”

Even though it’s important to have fun as Solberg said, the team knows it’s just as important to keep that intensity and work hard at practice to see success, and mindsets were positive going into opening day. 

“I’m pretty excited, and I’m ready to go,” Gates said. “I hope all my other teammates are too, but just bring it and be ready to play.”

The beginning of the season might be rough getting used to the speed of A games. 

“I think it’ll be good for us to see where we’re at,” Solberg said. “I believe it’s a double-A team, so it should be… a challenge for us, but I think it’ll be good, a good indicator of where we’re at.”

Time will show how these inexperienced men fare against A-team level competition and if they have what it takes to dig in and prove people wrong. 

“We got a lot of gut. We’re always the underdogs, we always have been and I feel like, last year we finally started to prove to people that we’re at that level,” Nuss said. “So just come out and prove that again this season.”