Photo by Sarah Waite
Expectations were set high for the HHS baseball team this year following their unprecedented success in last year’s inaugural season, and the team has certainly lived up to the hype so far.
With a large number of major contributors from last year coming back, the team was excited about their potential for this year. Coach Blake Marquardt also set his sights high for this team, and he has seen them compete well so far.
“I think your expectations are a little higher when you have nine seniors on the team and many of those are major contributors to your team,” Marquardt said. “I think when you have that much experience, along with a mix of younger guys that are very talented, I think the expectations for the season were to surpass what we did our first year as a program.”
Of course, there is no way the team would be able to stack up to these expectations without a lot of hard work.
“The team has measured up great to our expectations because each player comes into practice every day looking to get better,” senior second-baseman and pitcher Connor Laux said.
That hard work has led to success in both tangible and more intangible ways. As for the former, the team has gone 14-4 so far this year and is currently ranked 15th in the state. For the latter, the team has developed a strong chemistry thus far and has managed to avoid injuries, which absolutely contributes to the cohesiveness of the starting lineup. These things combined have led to a lot of success.
“The baseball season has been great so far; the team is connecting and enjoys playing together, which I believe is leading to our success this season,” Laux said.
Marquardt has also seen the benefits of playing injury-free and cohesive baseball.
“We’re measuring up exactly where I think that we should be at this point; we’ve stayed healthy, and as long as we can continue to stay healthy, I think we will reach our goals by the end of the season,” Marquardt said.
As for those goals that Marquardt mentioned, they are still set very high for this team, but he thinks they have a pretty good chance of meeting a good number of them.
“Our longer goal is to compete at the highest level that these guys can and get as much out of them as we can,” Marquardt said. “I also know that the guys would really like to see us go to state this year.”
The team does have a very good chance at making the state tournament this year if they keep playing the way they have shown they are capable of. The team’s four losses have all come against ranked opponents, including 8th ranked Norris and 9th ranked Grand Island. They have also picked up wins against three ranked teams, with the highest ranking victory coming against Grand Island.
Despite the success that the team has experienced, everyone understands that there is still room for improvement and work to be done.
“Every day we’re at practice trying to get better and improve our skills,” Marquardt said. “Right now we’re just really focused on our defensive skills and our base running. I think that the games that we have gotten behind on, those are the areas that we have not succeeded in, so I think we’re just trying to fine-tune those things before districts.”
Laux and the rest of the team are also taking that approach and working to make sure that all of the little details are perfect for the team leading up to the time when it matters most.
“We are looking to improve on the little things, such as throwing strikes, making the routine plays and having quality at bats,” Laux said. “If we do that then I believe we can reach our goal.”
The team will have one more opportunity to see if their efforts are paying off before playoffs begin when they head to Crete for their final game today at 4:30.
