The Journey Through the Diamond

As their season heads into its final stretch, the Polson High School Pirates baseball team has proven themselves as a contender in the All-Class run for state. Assistant Baseball Coach, Drew Dumont said, “They are a good group of kids; now they just have to put it all together.” In the third season of high school baseball, the Polson Pirates currently sit at 11-4 with not a single out-of-conference loss.

Many of the players have been playing baseball since they were young, and their families were the ones who got them involved. Junior Noah Agliano said he was influenced by “some of the older players that have now graduated, like Dawson DuMont and Espn Fisher,” but for sophomore Brayson DuMont, it was his dad who influenced him. Brayson said, “My dad got me and my older brother involved at a young age,” and he continues to look up to both of them.

Almost all of the baseball players train outside of the high school baseball season. For  senior Landon Pablo, that means “baseball in the summertime, and then you start back up in January for open gyms.” Many of the players play summer baseball for the local Mission Valley Mariners, which starts right after the high school season ends. Brayson says he also does “weightlifting and hitting off the tee” during the off-season. Though players struggle to play outside in the winter, they try to do as much as they can in those cold months leading up to the season. 

Baseball has a tryout in order to make the team. Coach DuMont says that they are looking for energy and leadership skills. Players say that tryouts include “ground balls, catching a pop fly, hitting, and then running from home to first.” In all 21 Pirates made either the junior varsity or varsity teams. 

For Brayson, the hardest part of baseball is “the mental side, like the strikeouts and getting over them.” Once you understand pitching and hitting, that helps you get over your mental battle. Pablo said he was in a hitting slump, but then Sean Elser, business teacher, reminded him that he had hit a home run the game before. He said, “Ken Griffy Jr. (the greatest home run hitter of all time) said, ‘home runs are just accidents’ because you are supposed to drive the ball.” Although he didn’t see that home run as getting out of his slump, he hopes to keep growing to become a better baseball player.

Baseball can be a superstitious sport; players often do something before they hit or pitch to get themselves in a good mindset. DuMont said, “Baseball’s weird like that.” Agliano says he reads the Bible verse of the day before every game. And Pablo said, “I used to put a penny behind home plate.” He would bury it under the dirt where the ump stands, but one day he just stopped, and he doesn’t know why. 

Despite winning fourteen games, only eleven of them were in-conference, leaving the Pirates one win short of making it to the state competition this year. However, they are proud of beating Ronan twice, winning 10-0 on May 2 and 8-1 on May 5, and holding onto the paddle.