Spring comes along and as baseball players dig their dirt-trodden cleats and worn leather gloves out of their closets, they can start to feel the excitement of another opportunistic season coming along; But little did the Tigers know that their season would start off as strong as a slugger hit to the outfield.

The baseball preseason started early January with the players enduring arduous weighted workouts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. According to senior Tyler Lewis, head coach Tim Funkhouser designed the Joliet Challenge that involved four teams to compete in various workouts to see who’s better at what exercises, and who can lift the most; this challenge lasted for two weeks and seemed to really help the boys see where their strengths and weaknesses lie.

Then the team started to participate in student-ran open field days, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, where the boys would practice a number of repetitive tasks, such as taking ground balls, pitching and hitting.

And as preseason progressed, the Tigers were starting to feel positive about the season to come.

“We thought we were going to do fairly well in our conference,” Lewis said. “The only thing putting any doubt in our ability to play was that we had lost a few big contributors to our team when the seniors graduated.”

But on March 17, the Tigers were able to overcome their loss of teammates by starting their season with a win against  the second best team within the state—Plainfield South.

The fight to the win was rough; Plainfield South proved to be worthy first opponents and with three errors throughout the game, tensions were high. But by the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers were able to take a breath of relief as freshman Drew Westcott slammed a homer and secured the Tiger’s final run of the game, ending with a score of 4-2.

Senior pitcher Andrew Yancik said that being back playing the sport that he loves and then coming out with such a monumental win was a perfect start to his season.

“Overall, it was an overwhelming feeling to get a win and start the season off on a good note,” Yancik said.

And after one good note, followed an ever better melody.

Their second game was against Joliet Catholic, one of their oldest competitors. The tensions were high as the Tigers entered the field on March 18, but they were prepared to use everything they had practiced to represent the pure talent Edwardsville has.

“As a team I thought we felt confident at the plate for the situation we were put into,” senior leadoff Dylan Burris said. “We all knew the key to winning the game was getting guys on base; as we scored more runs, we gained confidence.”

And as the confidence built, their number of runs did as well.

The boys were immediately in the lead at the end of the first inning with a score of 1-0; by the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers were up three more runs in a shutout against Joliet up until the seventh inning. Eventually, Joliet was able to secure two solid runs by the end of the seventh, and the game closed with a score of 6-2.

To add to their success, Tuesday, March 21, the Tigers won their third game in a row against Greenville, with an ending score of 12-1.

With such a great start to a season, individuals can get conceited and blame their success on their own hard work, but the Tigers know where their greatness resides: teamwork.

“Although we have only played (three) games, I have high hopes for our baseball clubs this season,” senior second baseman Joel Quirin said. “We are really coming together as a team; we get along really well and it translates on the diamond.”

The Tiger’s next game is against DeSmet on March 23, at the Tom Pile Field at 4:15 p.m. and they are ready to prove their greatness once again.

“My teammates and I are ready to take on whatever lies ahead of us,” Yancik said. “We are extremely confident in one another and feel like this team can accomplish a lot this season.”