Baseball looking to bounce back

Your defending Class 1 state champions are scheduled to begin defense of their crown on Saturday at home with a bonus day doubleheader.  After a disappointing fall season (4-7) that saw the Eagles play all of their games on the road due to turf issues at their field.  Oran will play up one class and take on Class 2 East Carter and Portageville, also a Class 2 school.

Coach Joe Bickings said, "This year’s squad will be young and inexperienced.  That happens when you lose five seniors that had started since their freshman or sophomore years.  We do bring back four starters from last year’s State Championship team.  I look for those guys to be the leaders of the team and carry us along during the season.  We will go through some growing pains as the season progresses and find out what our best lineup is going to be.  With the type of schedule we have for a Class 1,  we are going to be battle tested during the season in anticipation of preparing us for districts and hopefully beyond."

He added, "We’ve already been hit with some adversity with two kids that started in the fall for us are injured.  One won’t be back because of surgery and the other will be a waiting game to see if his growth plate heals.  Now those two spots are open and we will have to find some pitching as those two injured kids were pitchers as well.  With that being said, if our pitching and defense is good and we have some timely hits I feel like we will be able to do some good things with this group.  It’s going to be all about getting better as the season goes on and playing our best in the end."

This year's roster has 22 players.  It includes four seniors, five juniors, eight sophomores and five freshmen.

Roster:

For a printable roster, click HERE

Schedule:  

A Printable schedule is HERE

There will be no radio during the regular season this year.