The South baseball team is getting the season rolling with games beginning this week.

The Jaguars finished last season with a record of 17-11, ending the season with a loss in the sectional game against Lee’s Summit. They are returning 13 lettermen from last season and look to return to conference and districts.

Head Coach Ben Baier talked about the team goals for this season.

“We want to go out every day and compete to the best of our ability, and always try to contend for conference and district championships,” Baier said.

They did not win the conference title last year, missing out on a three-way tie, but defeated Truman in the district quarterfinal, Blue Springs in the semifinal and Lee’s Summit North in the championship game. Blue Springs, Lee’s Summit North and Lee’s Summit were the three conference co-champions in 2017.

Senior Allante Hall talked about the team has improved since last season.

“We’re more mature and more prepared this year to go into the season, and we went through it all last year and we know what it is like this year. Hopefully, we can gel together more and win more games,” Hall said.

The players train in the offseason by playing on recreational and competition teams in the summer and fall seasons, along with other methods of training. Senior Will Heller talked about how he trained during the offseason.

“I’ve been hitting the gym outside of school, and I’ve been working on my hitting and fielding. As a team we did offseason conditioning and competed; we did four days a week, two in the weight room and two in the small gym,” Heller said.

He also talked about how he thinks the team has improved since last year.

“I think we’ve matured mentally a lot, coming into last year we didn’t have very many people with varsity playing time, but I think this year we have a lot of guys returning with experience so that helps with team chemistry and helps us grow as a team,” Heller said.  They won last night by a score of 13-2 against Park Hill South High School.

The next game is next Monday March 26 at 4:30 p.m. at home.