Like all spring sports, the harsh winter has set back the 2014 baseball team a tremendous amount. On Saturday, March 8, the team spent the morning shoveling the field in hopes to be able to play on it sooner rather than later, setting a trend for the other spring sports.

“I didn’t actually believe we were doing it at first,” sophomore Jacob Cassel said. “But we have to get on the field as soon as possible, and once we got going it went by fast.”

Last May, the Spartans lost to Tamaqua 4-3 in the District XI championship game at Coca Cola Park. Winning a silver medal is good to some people, but the team wishes to avenge it with a gold this year. They plan to get back to the championship game this year and, of course, win it.

“I didn’t play much last year due to [an] injury,” said senior Tyler Mann, “so of course I want to contribute to the team and help win a championship.”

The team has seven starters returning from last year, which is good to have experience to make a championship run. Three of the seven returning starters will also have more than one year of starting under their belts.

“The team looks promising; we have a lot of veterans back, but we have some question marks,” assistant coach Mr. Matt Greenawald said. “On the whole, however, at this point I’m quite optimistic.”

One of the returning starters, senior pitcher and first-baseman Pete Long looks to earn his 20th career win this upcoming season, the equivalent to scoring 1000 points in basketball. He has currently won 18 games and is on track to be the winningest pitcher in Southern Lehigh history.

“Getting to my twentieth win would be quite an honor for me,” Long said, “but I’m more focused on bringing home a championship.”

Unknown to most students, the team plays their home games at Limeport Stadium instead of the high school. Their first game is scheduled for March 26th, but if the weather keeps up and the snow doesn’t melt, who knows when the season will start.