The Atoms Baseball season is just around the corner with the team holding three-day tryouts beginning on Feb. 20 and ending on Feb. 22.

“I’m excited for tryouts to start because it means the start of the new baseball season and I’m excited to meet the new players,” senior Ryan Peich said.

The team this year will lack experienced players that have played on the varsity team in past seasons due to the graduation of 12 seniors from the team last year. “The varsity team only has three returning players this year, so filling spots is going to be a challenge,”  Peich said.

Last season’s team had a very successful run, finishing with a record of 14-9 and reaching the regionals tournament before being eliminated by the Centreville Wildcats by a score of 3-2.

“We are hoping to be as successful as the team was last season,” junior Ryan Gammon said. “It’s going to be a lot more difficult this season because we don’t have a lot of players that have played varsity before.”

Along with a mostly brand-new and younger roster and the departure of former head coach Dan Porter, the team also has a new head coach in Christopher Bagot who was the assistant varsity baseball coach in past seasons.

Despite having a new team, the Atoms will look to overcome challenges and roadblocks they face.

“I feel that if we do everything we are supposed to do and work as a team we should be well off this season,” Peich said.

Working hard during practices will be key for the new roster to improve and win games.

“We’re going to need to put in hard work during practices so that we all get better as a team,” Gammon said.

The team looks to work hard throughput the regular season to finish with a winning record and also make it back to the regionals tournament again as they did last season only to be eliminated.

“One goal we have this year is to make the regionals tournament,” Peich said. “We also want to win as many games as we can, which should be every team’s goal.”

The Atoms will have two scrimmages against Park View and Osbourne on Mar. 6 and Mar. 9 before their first regular season game on Mar. 13 against the Hayfield Hawks at home.