By Corlan Joubert ’20

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Coming back from a 9-21 season in 2018, the Strake Jesuit baseball team heads into the 2019 season in a new district and determined to show people that this a new and improved team from last year.

Last year, Jesuit’s baseball team had a rough go of it, ranked at the bottom of their district and unable to make playoffs. This was somewhat unusual for the Crusader baseball program. Two years ago and the year before that, they made a deep playoff run.

However, this season seems to already be looking up for the Crusaders, off to hot start with a 4-1 record. Junior Drew Leach and senior Brennan Keimig have already thrown no hitters.

“It felt really good to be able to accomplish something that isn’t achieved very often. But I definitely couldn’t have done it without the support of the team and coaching staff. They push me everyday during practice to be better, and now it’s paying off,” Drew said.

With all the senior leadership on the team, this isn’t hard to be believe at all. This year the Crusaders have 14 seniors on the squad. With all of the experience the seniors bring, younger players shouldn’t have any problem finding role models.

“Work. That’s all it takes. When you work at something day in and day out, you’re bound to see results. So that’s the main thing I want to get across to the younger guys, that winning doesn’t come without effort,” senior Michael Hansen said.