It’s been a bit of a slow start for the Clintonville baseball team, but they’re hoping to turn things around, starting with a double-header this afternoon at home when they host Marinette. The Truckers are coming off a 5-3 home win over Little Chute on Tuesday, after falling to the Mustangs 2-1 on Monday on the road. Junior catcher Kyle Finger acknowledges this team does have a lot of youth, but he expects the Truckers to make the necessary adjustments and pick up the pace.
“Especially this year since we’re such a young team, we’re starting a lot of juniors and only a couple of seniors came back,” said Finger. “It’s just an adjustment. A lot of these guys are still used to JV and as they get more varsity experience they’ll get more experienced.”
The Truckers sit at 2-4 in the North Eastern Conference, and while the bats have yet to come around, Finger says there are some positives after the first six games.
“We’ve been very defensively strong,” Finger said of the team’s performance so far. “We work on a lot on defense in our practices, and hitting just goes along with that. Our defense has just been rock solid this year, few errors.”
The North Eastern Conference features many quality teams, currently led by 7-1 Luxemburg-Casco. Early on, head coach Ben Smejkal likes what he sees from his club, but now it’s a matter of playing with consistency.
“They do have a lot of talent,” said Smejkal. “They are constantly improving, building skills, getting better every day. We’re doing and competing with other teams in the conference. I guess when it’s all said and done, we can compete with them, it’s just a matter of getting the job done on a daily basis.”
Clintonville hopes to take advantage of a sputtering Marinette team that’s in town this afternoon for a double-header at Olen Park in Clintonville. You can catch game one live on Frog Country 92.3 at 3:30.