Tweet

“Baseball always gives you another chance.”

Relentless positivity best describes the outlook of Grand view’s baseball team and its coach, Lou Yacinich, towards the rest for this season.

With only two returning starters the team is almost entirely different from last season.

“We have the ability to gel together and be a strong opponent for anyone that we play,” Yacinich said.

Yacinich says that one of the players to watch out for is pitcher and team captain Cody Mathews who has thrown two shutouts in his last three games. Another standout Yacinich says to keep an eye on is Ryan Curtis, another team captain; Curtis is hitting over 400 this season.

Relief pitcher Austin Marchant has also had a big role in the teams record so far this season. In the seven games that Martin has relieved, he has managed to pick up three wins and four saves making him responsible for seven of the teams ten wins so far this season.

Marchant says they have started putting together complete games and they are showing the conference what Grand View baseball is about.

Teammate Ben Jensen agrees, “Early on we’ve seen glimpses of how much talent we really have on this team, which is a lot. As the season has progressed things are starting to come together on a consistent basis,” Jensen said. “We definitely have the tools to make some noise this year nationally.”

Not only does the team find success on the field but in the classroom as well, with 24 members sitting above a 3.0 or higher the team comes away with an overall GPA of 3.17.

“They represent themselves very well in the classroom, in the community and on the baseball field”, said Yacinich, “very proud of them, very pleased with what they’ve done.”

Yacinich requires his players to give back to the community. “We want to make sound citizens out of them.”

Yacinich has a grandson, Jake Yacinich, who is in his third year with the Anaheim Angles and is currently in spring training.