Mid-Buchanan baseball jumps out to hot start, looking to continue in second half of season

By Calvin Silvers

The Mid-Buchanan baseball team is off to a hot start for the spring baseball season, as they jumped out to an impressive 10-1 overall record, including an 8-game win streak in that span.

Almost eclipsing their total season wins from last year already, the team is feeling confident, but the second half of their schedule is not an easy path, and the team is ready to truly showcase their skills.

The Dragons began year two under Rob Davenport, who took over the baseball program after an 11-7 season. After a 13-13 record in 2023, the team is off to a great start, and finally feel like things are clicking.

“There’s some familiarity with what’s going on and what we’re doing,” Davenport said. “We’ve got kids buying in with what we’re trying to do on the mound, where I think last year they questioned that and they’re starting to see the benefits of what we’re doing, so I think it just really just comes down to buying in.”

Besides having their footing under them, the team has excelled in team bonding. Not only do a majority of the kids on the team play at the same facility outside of high school baseball, but they opted for more bonding activities.

“We just have a lot more of a family this year. It’s a lot more like a wolf pack, as he (Davenport) said the other day to our team,” junior pitcher William Archer said. “We’re all just one big family. We play together.”

Playing together has led to an unselfish mentality from the core group. Last season, you may have seen athletes trying to do too much, which would ultimately hurt the team in the long run.

However, this year, athletes have found their roles on the team, and as Archer mentioned, nobody is trying to play hero ball.

“I think as you get older, you kind of mold into that and try to pass that down to the younger guys,” Archer said. “I think just over time, you just kind of mesh into that, like you just don’t care about what’s going on with yourself. You need to put all your stuff behind you and just worry about the team and winning.”

Passing on that mentality could prove beneficial to the entire Dragons’ program, as the team fields no seniors. With such a young core, it has added a bit of life for Davenport.

“It’s a really fun group to have and we’re young, that’s the cool thing about it,” Davenport said. “We’re starting some freshmen and some sophomores, so it’s just really fun to look at what’s going on right now, but also looking into the future.”

The schedule doesn’t get any easier, as some heavy hitting teams are on the horizon for Mid-Buchanan. Despite having confidence, the team can’t become complacent.

“Last year we went, we weren’t ten wins, but we had a pretty good start last year as well and ended up about .500, so we know there’s a lot of baseball still to play and we have a lot of good teams on our schedule coming out.”