Marysville High School pitcher Andrew Van Hoose (left) delivers the ball to the plate Tuesday afternoon. MHS first baseman Gabe Schaeffer (right) rips a single. The Monarch baseball team has been conducting once-a-week practices throughout the summer to help hone its skills.
(Journal-Tribune photos by Tim Miller)
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The Marysville High School baseball team has been hard at work this summer, even though there have been no games to play.
Once a week since the beginning of June, the Monarchs have been on the diamond, sharpening their skills for future spring seasons.
“We’ve been out here each Tuesday since the first part of June,” said head coach Nick Blake. “We’re using these practices as part of our 10 days of off-season coaching.”
Blake, who guided the Monarchs to a 15-12 record during his first season at the helm this past spring, has been pleased with what he’s seen this summer.
“For one thing, it’s good to see that we have a number of younger guys who are coming into the high school this year out here in a high school baseball environment,” he said. “It’s very important for those guys coming up from the middle school level to start working at the high school.
“Our guys who played on the junior varsity team a year ago are working to find their way onto the varsity roster next spring and our returning varsity guys are working hard, as we are trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together for the 2020 season.
“It’s especially important for the younger guys to get this type of work in, because with every level you advance, the game speeds up quite a bit.”
The weekly practices have attracted between 30-to-40 players.
“I’m very happy we’ve had as many guys here as we have,” said the Monarch coach. “It’s tough to do with all of the other summer activities.”
Blake only has one more week to work with his team as the no-contact period for high school baseball begins on Aug. 1.
“Once fall gets here, the opportunity to see the guys play live is pretty much impossible,” he said.
Still, the Monarch boss plans to do some fall work once September arrives.
“We started last year with four-man groups working on the basics in the fall,” he said. “We will have a lot of guys who aren’t involved in a fall sport working on the fundamentals.”
Blake said the fall focus will primarily be on defense, since the weather will still be good enough to get in work on the diamond.
Once the winter months arrive, the team will begin working on situational offense.
The team has been covering the basics of the sport for the past couple of months.
“We really want to simplify our approach to baseball,” said Blake. “By doing that, I think it takes a lot of pressure off the guys.
“The way baseball is now, it wants to analyze everything,” he said. “I think it’s sometimes ‘paralysis by analysis.’”
Blake said he has seen the Monarchs’ biggest improvement this summer in their approaches to the plate.
“We want the guys to be cognizant of the count, offensive situations and on being patient at the plate,” he said. “We especially want them to get comfortable on working to take the ball the other way.”
While Blake guided Marysville to a winning record in 2019, he has bigger plans ahead for the team.
“From the very beginning, we said we wanted to build this program into one of the elites in the state,” he said. “We want to develop each guy into a good player and teammate.
“Those types of behavior are what you need to lead you to success.”