Mexico baseball had a large senior contingent last season.

The Bulldogs are moving on from their eight seniors – four starters – from a year ago with a roster of 31 that includes one senior. They are doing that mainly with having those kids be ready to play just about anywhere.

“There is plenty of opportunity to take over a spot, take over the mound and I want to make sure the kids seize the opportunity,” head coach Daniel McCarty said. “Come into workouts, practice, games, whether you are fine-tuning things or in the groove, people see that and people feed off of that player-wise.”

The main goals McCarty said he would like to accomplish with the Bulldogs this year, and a reason he has been “stressing” since summer last year is he wants to make all of his kids are ready to battle and they have less growing pains.

Having several non-seniors returning from plenty of playing time a year ago helps, including kids like Sam Ryan, Austin Maxwell, Landon Hilderman and Drew DeMint. Ryan and Maxwell are expected to slot into the pitching rotation along with junior varsity standout from a season ago Brady Fox. Tyson Carr and Jaydon Eldridge are in the running for other rotation spots, but McCarty said everybody on varsity can pitch.

“Of our 21 guys we are carrying on varsity this year, everyone can pitch,” McCarty said. “It’s not really normal, but we’ve stressed the last few years about how you always need quality pitching and people who will focus on the principles of throwing quality strikes and getting ahead of people. Our kids were like, ‘I can do that’ so our kids took on that program and are excelling.”

McCarty has much confidence already in throwing several kids out to the mound and also in his returning position players like the all-district third baseman Ryan, shortstop Maxwell and centerfielder DeMint, who McCarty mentions is on pace to break Andrew Runge’s all-time stolen base record he set a year ago. Despite losing Ty Sims behind the plate, McCarty said he has confidence in Cooper Bledsoe at catcher from the games he played for junior varsity.

Fox could have a big breakout season, McCarty said, after eventually working his way up last season to pitch in some varsity games. His son, Chance, could take over the role at second base. McCarty said he expects even them and the other younger players to ready to compete even against tough opponents like the first two on Mexico’s schedule: Houston (20-6 a year ago) and Portageville (35-2 and a state Final Four a year ago).

“These guys have been competing since June 1,” McCarty said. “After our season ended, the very next day – June 1 – started for our summer baseball. We’ve always had 25+ guys come out for summer ball so these guys have been working since June 1.”

Those aforementioned games occurred in a Wood Bat Tournament, which sounds strange for a sport dominated by metal bats, but McCarty said every Bulldog other than freshmen is accustomed to wood bats. They have been doing all their work with wood in an effort to improve.

“Since we don’t have many seniors and we’re all speed and no power – a single-hitting team – I feel the urge to go to all wood bats for practice, jamborees and our scrimmages (until March 18),” McCarty said. “I’m hoping that will pay off because a wood bat makes you square up the ball more. If you don’t square up the ball, you’re going to break your bat and/or it’s going to sting.”

McCarty wants the Bulldogs to be used to district play and perhaps make another run like they did last season when they advanced to the district title game, which decided by a tight 2-1 margin to Macon. As usual, he wants them to be used to limiting their “freebies” – walks, hit by pitches or errors – to less than two per game.

“Those are baserunners for free, basically,” McCarty said. “If we can do that per game, we have a very good shot at winning the ballgame.”