Rider baseball  is underwade and what’s a better way to start this season off of than with an alumni game. February 18th come out to the Hoskins Fields to watch; JV will be playing at 12 p.m. and varsity will play against alumni at the Hoskins Field, there will be food trucks, games, corn hole, and merchandise. Coach Jeremy Crouch is optimistic about this season, he sat down with the Rider Chronicle to discuss his expectations and returning players.

Q: What are your expectations going into this season?
A: The expectations are always for us to kinda maximize our potential as a team and whatever that is we kind of will not know till the end. Obviously we want to win a district championship and hopefully position ourselves to make a run deep into the playoffs, but not only that we want to maximize our abilities throughout the year.

Q: Will you be doing anything different from last season?
A: No, not really, we feel really good about our practice format, plans and the way we go about things. So we are probably keeping it the same and just try to keep getting better.

Q: Who are your key returning players?
A: We have a lot, we have 12 seniors that are back, all of which are pretty good players. Then we’ll have a handful of juniors that are trying to compete for a varsity position. Our pitching staff being back is kind of key, Mathew Brown, Kaden Jones, Devin Cox and others it’s a big part of it. Travis Russel being a part of our offense last year will be a big part as well. Those are probably some of the main guys who were excited to have back.

Q: Who are some newcomers that you expect to make an impact on the team this season?
A: Well there are still a couple of seniors that are trying to get playing time and earn playing spots, such as Jacob Masters, Isak Parker, Jace Rios that might try to break into the line-up. We also have guys like Chris Chavez, Tanner Poirot, Kreasen Dean, They are all trying to find a spot and there are some other juniors as well that are behind seniors but they’re still eager to win a varsity position.

Q: What are your biggest obstacles this season?
A: Our biggest obstacle is ourselves. I think it is always yourself, if you can find a way to play good team baseball and not get caught up in your own selfish interests then you have a chance to be really good. But if we get caught up in our selfish desires then we fail and fall short of our goal.

Q: What are your biggest strengths this year?
A: Depth is a big strength for us. Obviously I think it’s because of the big group of seniors we have, then we have guys below that, juniors and sophomores who are all pretty good at baseball.

Q: Are there any tournaments you and your team are looking forward to?
A: We got a new tournament, it’s called the PBR invitational but it is in Flower Mount Eden. There are a whole bunch of really good teams in this tournament, so it will be challenging.