Baseball, America’s past time, will now gain the spotlight as the new season begins today. It’s the time of year for strikes, outs, and hopefully some homeruns. To fill up the roster, the start of practice also means the beginning of tryouts.
Tryouts usually are comprised of a variety of drills including base-running, hitting, infield, and outfield drills. Hitting drills measure a variety of elements, but also the speed of a player’s bat through the zone.
Defensive drills on the infield consist of fielding ground balls and throwing to the bases in situations. In the outfield, players are evaluated on quickness and arm strength. This will help the coaches determine how strong a player is at covering the vast outfield.
“Tryouts usually last for about a week to a week and a half. It all depends on the kind of weather that may be taking place that day. But usually it’s very quick,” junior Trevor Meyers said.
A high school baseball team can carry up to 25 players.
“There are three cuts for tryouts and whoever makes the third cut is on the team. On estimation, about fifteen to sixteen people usually make the roster. The coaches won’t cut a player just because they weren’t good enough or not yet ready. If the coaches think that a player is unprepared then they will send the player to the J.V. baseball team instead of cutting him, if the player is a sophomore or younger,” Meyers said.
“Hopefully we will have a pretty good year, and make a run to win the conference,” senior Joey Runion said.
