A drop of sweat trickles down the pale forehead of a figure covered in blue and gold. The sound of metal banging against the ground can be heard throughout the stadium, silent with anticipation. Time seems to stand still as the figure readies his tool and the opponent across from him propels the small, white ball directly towards him. As soon as the bat and ball meet, a clinking noise is projected all around the field, and the silhouette darts towards the next base, as if running for his life.
This scene is just one of the many parts that made up the Jesuit Freshman Baseball season. This spring, the freshman team competed against many different schools across the state. So far, they have played in 24 games against 21 schools, including Flower Mound, Flower Mound Marcus, Rockwall, four different Frisco schools, Bishop Lynch, Midlothian, and Coppell.
A freshman baseball player, Tanner Jones ‘20, spoke about his experiences of playing on the team. He acknowledged the difficulty of transitioning from middle school to high school baseball, noticing that “playing on a high school level is different because there’s more pressure and more difficult teams to face, but facing more challenging teams makes you a better athlete.” He also reflected on how some of the upperclassmen influenced him to play on the Freshman team and looked back at the team’s performance so far in the season.
Jones considered how “[the upperclassmen] inspire me to have fun with the game no matter what happens, they also inspire me to work harder so I could be one of them one day…I feel that there are some things we could have done better, but I’m glad the season has gone the way it has because we have learned more and we have had fun together as a team.”
Coach Grimes commented on the baseball season for the freshmen and how they have performed so far, discussing that “lately, we’ve been getting good pitching and defense, and timely hitting. That’s usually a recipe for success…I see this team having a solid core of players that will play at a high level one day on the varsity team. And we have several student-athletes that I can see developing into quality varsity ball players.”
He spoke about how in not just freshman baseball, but also in JV and varsity baseball, last year’s championship influenced some of the players this year to join the team. He mentioned that “this freshman class came in knowing we have high expectations within the program. But, that’s true every year. We just want the freshmen to work hard every day, continue to develop, and hopefully learn from watching the older players play and practice.”
Eli Steger ‘20, another player on the freshman team, described his thoughts about the past season and the team as a whole. Steger explained that “our performance this year hasn’t been as consistent as we would like, but when we perform our best we’re a dangerous team.” He recounted one of the upperclassmen who impacted him to play baseball for Jesuit, saying that it was “JT Mix [who inspired me]. Even though he’s injured, he’s at every game and practice supporting and helping his team.”
Before the baseball season had even started, Steger set goals for himself of what he expected to accomplish on the freshman team. He discussed how he “strived to hit for a .400 average, not impossible, but not necessarily easy as well. For future years, I would like to start on varsity and win multiple state titles. It’s going to take work, but if I really enjoy doing something, I’m willing to sacrifice, and I’m not going to let anything get in between myself and my goals.”
As the freshman baseball season comes to a conclusion, the team reflects on past games and looks ahead to future seasons on JV and varsity. Jones also spoke about his goals as a Jesuit player is to “be on varsity as a sophomore.” Coach Grimes considered what kinds of people he looks for as leaders for next season’s teams, saying that “I think team leaders are young men who don’t make excuses, play hard, and show up every day ready to work. Generally, these types of kids are looked up to and respected by their teammates.”
Go out and support your fellow Rangers at their next game on Saturday, April 22 at Prosper High School and at their last game on Monday, April 24 at Jesuit!
