As spring sports draw to a close, senior athletes must say goodbye to where they played their high school sport. Especially with baseball season coming to a close, with districts and state coming close, seniors Bailey Jelinek, Alex Letcher, Joey Cooner, Kyle Goodsell, and Jeremy Eierman have been looking back at their high school baseball career, and evaluating what they will miss most. Head coach John Eierman will especially miss this senior group.

“I’m really going to miss my friends,” Jelinek said.

“I will miss going on all the trips and all the games, being around my friends and just having fun while doing it,” Letcher said.

“I will miss all my time being spent with my teammates,” Cooner said.

“I will miss the friends that I have gotten really close to while playing baseball for four years with them,” Goodsell said.

“The thing I’ll miss most is playing baseball every day with my best friends,” Eierman said.

“I will miss this senior class a bunch. It will be my last year of my coaching career,” Coach Eierman said. “They have had their ups and downs, like every class, but they work hard, they’re resilient, and they want to get better. I am looking forward to see how they compete this post-season.”

Through a senior night win against Osage, the boys are reaching towards their goal of a state championship. According to Ozark Sports Zone, their rank has moved from ninth to sixth in the class three rankings. Eierman, Goodsell, Letcher, and Coach Eierman have high expectations for their battle through districts and state.

“I’m expecting to destroy everyone and win state,” Eierman said.

“I’m expecting hard competition and at the end we are going to come out on top and win it all,” Goodsell said.

“I’m expecting for it to be a little tougher than the regular season, but I expect to come out on top,” Letcher said.

“I expect for the boys to go into the post-season with confidence, to play with energy, and to be good teammates,” Coach Eierman said. “If they do that, they will be successful.”

Through the season, the team has been focusing on improving, along with the seniors evaluating their hard work throughout their high school career. Jelinek, Letcher, Cooner, Goodsell, and Eierman all believe that they have come a long way since their freshman year.

“I’ve come far,” Jelinek said. “I’ve matured a lot as a player.”

“I have improved a lot since my freshman year. I’ve gotten bigger, stronger, faster and better every year,” Letcher said. “I hope to play college baseball and keep improving.”

“I have come a long way since my freshman year,” Cooner said. “I worked really hard for four years and it has paid a lot of dividends.”

“I have come pretty far but it’s not about one player, it’s about the team as a whole and how the team can get better,” Goodsell said.

“I’ve come a long way, worked very hard and gotten better at every aspect of the game and I’ve become a better teammate,” Eierman said.