The 2016 baseball season is in full swing. Liberty is coming off an extremely good season, finishing last year with a 28-5 record. Last season came to an unfortunate end with a loss to Liberty North in Districts. Despite the tough loss the team is back this year with the same core of players and the same goals.

“We had five seniors last year and this year we have 14. All of us played varsity last year,” senior Matt Gastner said. “We know exactly what we’re going into and what we need to do to win.”

With 14 seniors on the team this year, it has created a camaraderie and chemistry that’s hard to come by.

“We have a group of guys that play well together, know their rolls and are genuinely friends with each other,” varsity coach Vince Armilio said. “To have a group of guys that hang out at the field and off of it is unusual.”

The Jays opened their season with a strong beginning as they have only dropped two of their first 20 games. The team’s only losses were to Blue Springs in very close games.

“So far we’ve started off really strong,” junior Clayton Adams said. “We got off to a 5-0 start in conference which is really good to start off with. We still have a long way to go.”

The team has been able to overpower most teams so far this season as they held a +121 score differential through the first 20 games of the season.

“We know how to hit the ball. Our defense is also really good along with our pitching, that has come around,” Gastner said. “Our pitching was something we were a little iffy about, but they’ve come around phenomenally as five or six games they’ve gone out and taken care of business.”

Despite the strong start, the Jays are still taking the season step by step as they hope to finish the season strong.

“We’re just trying to take it game by game and see how far we can make it in the postseason,” senior Colton VanVleck said.

Along with the talent and game by game mentality, the Jays also attribute part of their strong beginning to their efficient practices. The motto of the Jays practices is “eliminate reasons to lose.” With this in mind during every practice, the team has been able to do just that throughout the season.

“Practices are long a lot of the time,” Adams said. “We get a lot done but they’re intense and can still be a lot of fun.”

The Jays 2016 baseball team is unique and talented ranging from their young pitching staff to their 14 strong core of seniors. The current season is full of promise as the team is determined to go as far as they can.

“We all care about the game, play 100 percent and want to grow the team,” VanVleck said. “None of us are about ourselves, we’re just about the team.”