Baseball season is now underway here at Bishop Noll with a new looking team and coaching staff. Although the Warriors have lost many seniors, they will not let that affect their season.

The Warriors are off to a strong start on the season. They are currently 7-5, 4-2 in conference by beating North Newton this past Saturday twice, 4-0 and 8-3.

The Warriors have plenty of returning faces to the team although they lost many seniors.

“Our pitching staff is lead by Zach Hoffman and Robert Aguirre this year. In order for us to be successful, we need them to lead the sophomore class,” said Anthony Hoolehan.

It takes lots of pitching to be effective during the season, especially with the new IHSAA pitch count rule, telling pitchers they can only have a certain amount of pitches per game.

Offensively the Warriors needed to improve, with the two returning leading hitters for the Warriors returning, Angelo Kawanna and Ryan Bradtke, they hope to lead the team in the right direction. The team has put in work all offseason to improve their swings, and in the first few games you can tell they have.

One of the new faces one the baseball team is Mr. Ryan Julian, the new JV coach. Before coming to Noll, he was a head varsity coach for four years at Oregon Davis in Hamlet, IN. Now being the JV coach instead of varsity, he is looking forward to the challenge.

No matter how good the team is, every team faces challenges: it could be injuries, lack of talent, or lack of chemistry. Julian believes that this team is a special group of guys, and that the depth the team has is a huge advantage over other programs.

Julian said he is very excited to get to know his players on a personal level, as well as to  to see what every player has to offer on the field.

“I expect to compete every day both in games and practice. Nothing comes easy when you want to win a lot of baseball games,” said Julian.

The ultimate goal for the Warriors this season is to return to regionals and have another shot at Hebron. Last season, the Warriors lost 3-0 to Hebron in the first round of regionals and they believe they can take that next step.

“If you can get through regionals, anything can happen,” said Hoolehan.

Catch the Warriors upcoming games. May 3 vs Wheeler at Irving Park or May 4 vs Whiting at Irving Park.