A new look is on the horizon for the FHN varsity baseball team as a mix of old and new faces look to make their debut in the first game of the season against Parkway North on March 17. North, led by long time coach Bobby Dunahue, is  looking to improve upon their 2022 season where they out-performed expectations, holding a record of 15-18 and even winning a district game. 

“I think [our performance last year] was solid, better than a lot of people expected,” center fielder and senior Steven Thompson said. “I think we won some pretty good games.”

This year’s varsity squad finds a good cast of returning faces, seniors like first basemen Ryan Wilson and catcher Patrick Martinez, who have been on varsity since their sophomore year. Together with newly committed UMSL pitcher Trey Schnieder, they hope to outperform their solid season last year. They will also be in the leadership position for the first time this season, and how well they fill that position will directly impact the teams overall performance this year.

“We lost a lot of seniors from last year and we have a lot of first year varsity players this year,” Wilson said. “We’re gonna have to take on more of a leadership role.”

North’s going to most likely find trouble filling the gaps in production left by players who graduated last season. North had a very good senior cast last year with players like alumni Sean Hampton and DeVon Jennings hitting around .300 in almost 100 at-bats, and Derek Archer and Kyle Button pitching well on the mound. Losing seniors is a problem every school team faces, but for a team that was right under .500, losing some top talent is especially hard. The X-factor to FHN’s success this year is the new players on varsity and how they perform, so the proven players will need to step up and help them get to a winning level.

“I think we’ll be a little over .500 overall, better than I think a lot of people are expecting this season,” Thompson said. “I think overall, the younger kids can play ball so I think we’ll be alright.”