As of Friday, the Harrisburg high school baseball team had yet to take a single ground ball in practice due to weather and Missouri State High School Activities Association restrictions. That, however, does not diminish the excitement Harrisburg head coach Chris Ackman feels for the upcoming season. Heading into his fifth year as head coach of the Bulldogs, Ackman returns all nine starters.

The 2021season brought the Class 2 District 12 title to the Bulldogs as they finished the season with a 10-12 record before falling in the opening round of the Class 2 state tournament to Putnam County, the eventual third-place finisher. The 2021 team had no seniors, so things look pretty promising for the 2022 Bulldogs.

“We’ve got three seniors, Tanner Lanes, Trevor Smoot, and Gavin Curtis returning,” said Ackman. “We’re coming off a district win and a third-place finish in the Lewis & Clark Conference. We’ve got a team that returns everyone. So expectations are high. But with Harrisburg baseball, expectations are always high.

As with most high school teams, the starting lineup is greatly dependent upon who is pitching in any given game. When pressed, however, coach Ackman felt junior Anthony Alicea would be the opening-day pitcher with junior Landon Edwards behind the plate. Lanes will man first base with sophomore Hunter Cole at second. Sophomore Logan Fritts will play the hot corner and junior Brayden Ott will play shortstop.

With junior Braden Wyatt still nursing an ankle injury from basketball season the right-field job is up for grabs at this point. 

When Alicea is pitching, junior Austin Darwent will patrol center field and sophomore Carter Bremer will play left.

In addition to senior starter Lanes at first, Smoot will be looked upon to fill holes at pitcher, first, third, and designated hitter. The remaining senior, Curtis, will fill in at catcher and designated hitter. 

There are high expectations for Alicea both offensively and defensively. As the Bulldogs’ best pitcher from 2021 with a 7-2 record, he was also the top offensive player. It is expected he will fill both of those roles again this season.

Juniors Braden Ott, Austin Darwent, and Logan Fritts will all fill several roles as Ackman looks to plug them into the shortstop, third base, and second base spots as needed. “Those kinds of guys are great to have,” said Ackman. Fritts is also expected to be the No. 2 pitcher as well as bat in the middle of the order.

Several sophomores, Cole, Bremer, and Austin Starbuck, who looks to get time as both a pitcher and catcher, picked up valuable playing time last year as freshmen. In addition, sophomore newcomer Luke Poulsen will see action as a pitcher and outfielder.

Freshmen who also look to see varsity time this season include Bryce Ott, Ike DeMuth, and Trace Combs.

“Last season we did two things very well, play defense and pitch,” Ackman said. “One thing we did not do well is hit. That was a major issue for us last year and that has been this focus this spring.

“I think we had two kids hit over .300 last year so we made it extremely difficult for our defense and pitching. It made it difficult when we were struggling offensively.”

Because of last season’s offensive struggles, Ackman anticipates there will be several different lineups used, especially early in the season.

Harrisburg looks to open the season on Saturday in Centralia with a modified doubleheader. The Bulldogs will play two games, one against Centralia and one against Brookfield. The following week will be a busy one with a Monday game at Hallsville, then the home opener on Wednesday against New Bloomfield. Thursday will be another home game, this time against Father Tolton. On Saturday, they will travel to La Plata to play both La Plata and Putnam County. Putnam County knocked the Bulldogs out of sectionals with a 1-0 win.

This year’s veteran Bulldog team has set lofty goals for this season. “We’ve won four district championships,” said Ackman. “We’ve just not been able to get past the sectional round, but those aren’t supposed to be easy and we’ve run into some teams that were better than us at those times. We want to go further than any team in school history and hopefully be standing at the end of the year.”