Seminole High School’s varsity baseball team is set to open this season in February. The team is hoping to capitalize on the momentum from last season, despite losing eight seniors to graduation.

Last year was the team’s first under new a head coach and former Seminole High School graduate, Justin Frost. The team “started off really slow out of the gates going 2-9” before eventually turning a winning streak to finish 12-12, commented senior pitcher Garrett Jones.

The Seminole season included big victories over defending state champion Spruce Creek in comeback fashion and a 10-run win over DeLand and pitcher Scott Moss, one of the University of Florida’s top recruits. The Seminoles’ run ended with a one-run loss to Lake Brantley, who would go on to capture the state championship. With such performances, the team has shown that it has what it takes to win the games, but they will need to be more consistent if they hope to make a run this season.

Jones believed the future for the team is bright. “It’s our second year under Coach Frost so the seniors are more familiar with how the program is run. We have a lot of experienced seniors on this year’s club.  It’s impossible to replace the teammates we had last year, but we can certainly use our experience to our advantage and be a more consistent ball club.”

Senior Jesus Fernandez also saw a strong outlook for the future, noting “that last year was our wake up call.”  He added, “The years before we were a team that won one or two games a season, and with the introduction of a new coaching staff, we had a .500 season last year. With the practice we are putting in this year I think we have a chance of once again gaining the title of state champions.”  Hopefully, the team will manage to capture its first state championship since 1992.