By Peter Skrumbis

This year, the varsity baseball team won three of their last four league games and was able to compile a 13-12 overall record. Last year, the team went winless in league.

“Going from no wins in league to four is a huge improvement,” Coach Matt LaCour said. “Our league is the toughest in Division III, and that has been proven in the playoffs so far. St. Francis was in the title game of Division II last season, returned seven starters and finished in fifth place.  We will try and build on the four wins in league in the future.”

LaCour sees a few areas of potential improvement for the team.

“Our players need to learn to handle failure and more on,” LaCour said. “It is something unique to baseball, that H-W kids don’t get in many areas of their life. You will fail in baseball and if you don’t handle it the right way, you will fail again in the same way.”

LaCour plans to implement a training program over the course of the summer.

“Our players need to go through the grind,” LaCour said. “The summer is the grind. We need to make major adjustments in some areas as a team. We need to pay the price for success.”

The team benefited from solid starting pitching and timely hitting but was sloppy in the field. The team led the Mission league in errors, with 59.

In comparison, the rest of the league combined for 29 errors all season.

After the 13-12 season, Coach LaCour looks to “establish ourselves as a team that is highly competitive in the Mission League,” he said.