BEA baseball team has experience back

WINGATE — A closer look at the 2016 Bald Eagle Area High School baseball team:

Head coach — Jim Gardner, 16th season

2015 record — 7-13

Key graduates — Colton Comly, Jason Jones, Brandon Gettig, Dylan Burnes, Alex Struble, Travis Reese

Returning lettermen — Byan Guenot, Trey Butterworth, Noah Chambers, Brandon Barnyak, A.J. Onder, Caleb Bell, Andy Swabick

Newcomers — Brian Egan, Kyle Gill, Hunter Eminhizer, Tanner Kresovich, Jake Gates, Ty Walker, Luke Josefick, Tyler Heinbaugh

Outlook — The Bald Eagle Area baseball team finished with an uncharacteristic 7-13 record last season, but that season was filled with one-run and close losses that could easily have gone the other way.

And even though head coach Jim Gardner and his team lost six important players from that team, the 2016 Bald Eagles are looking to turn around that losing trend.

“Our goal this season is to reverse all those close losses and one-run losses from last year,” Gardner said. “We want to turn them into wins.”

So far, according to Gardner, BEA is already positioning itself to accomplish that goal.

“The milder winter,” Gardner said, “along with a turf facility, has allowed us to have a great preseason, and we feel that we are ahead of schedule.

“We have been looking at seven different pitchers — Guenot, Barnyak, Onder, Egan, Walker Chambers and Kresovich — and we are preparing for maybe needing this many in any given week. But we have not decided on any type of rotation at this time.

“Offensively, we want to scratch out runs early, then add on throughout the games. We want to put constant pressure on opposing pitchers and defenses.

“On defense, we want to make the routine plays and keep out mistakes to a minimum. We want to make teams earn the runs they score.

“Another of our goals is to achieve a respectable record, prompting a good seed for the playoffs. The boys have been doing all we ask so far with a positive attitude. I could not be more pleased with our progress to this point.”

Circle these dates — at Penns Valley (Tuesday, March 29); vs. Philipsburg-Osceola (Friday, April 1); at Central (Monday, April 4); vs. Huntingdon (Thursday, April 7); at Bellefonte (Monday, April 18).