By Maggie Brandenburg
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A very smart frog once said, “It’s not easy being green.” And today for Carmel athletes, it’s also no longer easy to be blue and gold. With the tradition of excellence in athletics this school has built over the past several decades, domination is no longer the exception, it’s the norm. And for the seniors on the baseball team, it is their last chance to leave the mark they want to on the school by capturing the Sectional tournament title for the first time since 2000.

“We’re just going to come out harder than last year and just more focused. Last year we got our first win against Noblesville and we kind of just laid down,” Kyle Lloyd, varsity player and senior, said.

According to Head Coach Eric Lentz, a tough Sectional division with teams from the Hoosier Crossroads Conference and rivals like Westfield and Noblesville have stood in the way over the past few years of a tournament win. Also, replacing key players from last year who graduated has put a little more inexperience in certain spots.

“It’s very competitive, so I think that, you know, we just have to continue to do what we’re doing and hopefully we’ll have some breaks and good things will happen for us this year,” Lentz said.

Another key part to the success of this year’s team is the player’s experience especially with playing together. With 13 seniors going out for the team and stand outs like Lloyd and senior Brooks Fiala, the team has more leadership coming in this year than in previous years. According to Lentz, a large part of a successful baseball team has to do with the chemistry and how the team works together.

Lentz said, “Baseball in some ways is a grind in the sense that you’re playing a lot of games in a short period of time. You get little injuries here and there and people have to step up and keep guys positive.”

For Lloyd and Fiala, both said the key to success when the Sectional tournament comes around is getting focused. The team has consistently put up good regular season records and has had success in the MIC conference, they said, but just doesn’t seem to be mentally prepared for each tournament game.

Fiala said, “Last year we had a big win to get to the Sectional Championship and then we kind of just laid an egg and blew it, so I think we just need to concentrate.”