Spring is upon us, The sound of the ball hitting the glove will soon be filling the air on the school’s baseball diamond.

While the team did not have a season last year, head coach Blake Knecht said, “Our program is in great shape in terms of players and ability. We have been blessed with a talented group of young men year in and year out.”

The team has been doing their best to be physically and mentally prepared. The team began doing team offseason workouts in early October, but those workouts got put to a halt with all sports being stopped until January 4.

Offseason workouts started on January 15..

Both the lack of a season, and the loss of senior players with graduation, these losses affected the team. Butt Knecht has optimism for younger players to have a shot at the varsity level. “Losing seniors every year is always a challenge because you must fill the void that they leave behind,” he said.

Taking a look back to two seasons ago, the team’s season was strong. With a 15-9 record the team went onto the playoffs, They played well but lost to Selinsgrove in the first round of the PIAA 4A State Championship.

While that was two years ago, the team still has core players from that team. Seniors Ryan Schubert and Jason Williams both were parts of the team as sophomores and have both continued to strengthen their abilities.

Williams said, “I’m excited to play my last season of baseball as a high school student and to play amongst my teammates that I am lucky enough to call my brothers.”

The only concern Knecht has for the team coming into the season amidst such an odd year is that the players and even the coaches aren’t mentally prepared for the season ahead.

Knecht said, “We are going to do our best to retrain, reteach, and refocus so that the year of baseball we missed has minimal impact on this year’s season.”

The coaches, players and fans are looking forward to the season and seeing some Rams baseball in the spring since we all missed out on a season last year.

As the season grows closer the Rams hope to tighten up loose ends and be able to come into start of their season strong and ready to overcome outside circumstances posed by the pandemic.