By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

ST.  PAUL, Ore.– St. Paul baseball had finally gotten over the hump when the Coronavirus pandemic hit this Spring Sports season.

Last Spring, the Buckaroos won an tight-knit 2-0 game against former league opponent Santiam for the program first entering this season.  And though the season is on-hold for the forseeable future, the accomplishment from last season has sparked the interest in the small rodeo town for the possibilities to come.

“Kids were excited this year after last year’s first ever St. Paul baseball win in the playoffs,” said Head Coach Dwayne Nowlin.  “11 seniors came out for baseball. We have a full V(arsity) team and full JV team. Out of the 14 V(arsity) players 11 can pitch and the freshman class we have 12 freshman at St. Paul that play baseball.”

The pitching depth is helpful no doubt about it if you’re 1A like the Bucks or a 6A team, and though they don’t have a ‘true’ number-one pitcher on staff, the innings the staff can work with is there with the depth.

Seniors in TJ Crawford, Jacob Coleman, Reed Overfield, Mitch Curtis, Hayden Scott, Caide Schneider and Steven Coppola to name a few will be relied on once hopefully the season kicks back up to continue from the foundation laid from the Seniors before them this year.  To leave their mark for those 12 freshman coming up behind them beyond this year.

“This year we don’t have a #1 pitcher, we have a lot of guys that will pitch innings. We have great senior leadership and six coaches this year that all have baseball experience so that is helping the younger players out a lot,” said Nowlin.  “Senior leadership is going to be huge this year cause probably six or seven of them are everyday starters.”

And now as they wait in the coming days of what is possibly to come of their season, Nowlin is now relying on that Senior leadership to help keep themselves active during this downtime they find themselves in at the moment.

“Just told them you never know we might play this year or this summer, so throw the ball around,” said Nowlin.