Today the Greeley West baseball team faces off against Rocky Mountain High School. This game will be a tough competition for the Spartans but it’s nothing that they can’t overcome with good team coordination. The Spartans will be playing the Lobos at 4:30 p.m.

Rocky Mountain is a tough opponent. They have been Top 5 in the state in 5A each year. This year the Lobos continue to go on undefeated this season, with the hopes that the Spartans will break this streak and take home a win. The Spartans need to come into the game wanting to compete and seeing them coming out with a victory at the end.

There are many disadvantages right now for the Spartans when facing the Lobos, one of them being a lack of varsity players. With the lack of players, they’re needing to pull up more JV players to help with substitutions and players on the field. The Spartans don’t have the same amount of experience like the Lobos. They have more players on the younger side like freshman and sophomores that haven’t played as long as some seniors and juniors have. 

With the Spartans having a younger baseball team, it’s good to install confidence in players and not to shoot too high and too fast for goals they can’t achieve right away. “Just trying to install confidence in these kids is important and making sure they are fully prepared and ready to play,” coach Jim Jorgensen said. 

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With varsity having a lack of players this gives JV players the chance to show off their skills and potential to hopefully move up to varsity and be a starter. When it comes to doing this, it’s important for players to understand they need to come out of their comfort zone. “The goal is just to believe in yourself and grind it out and know that you’ll make it one day,” freshman Andrew Briceno said.

Making varsity as a freshman in high school can heighten your nerves including when you’re playing a massive contribution to the team you’re playing against based on the position you’re playing, or how many positions you’ll be playing in one day. “I’m hoping that I’m able to go 3 for 4 for my team and go 100% the whole game,” freshman Nic Hernandez said.