DANVILLE — The Post 210 baseball team will be going from meeting up to play in a matter of days.
The Speakers will have its first practice today with its first game on Wednesday, but coach Brent Hart said he didn’t have enough players for the team until Friday.
“We still have three guys playing for Armstrong-Potomac, St. Joseph-Ogden and Harrison High School in Lafayette,” Hart said. “With IHSA starting a week later for the baseball tournament for smaller schools, it has affected all of the legion teams in the area.”
Two members from the team that are from St. Joe-Ogden and Harrison will make an impact when they do show up for the Speakers.
“Brycen Houchens for St. Joe will help out in the middle of the lineup,” Hart said. “Lyric Neal is from West Harrison, his dad started the younger teams with his older brother. He wanted to finish his prep career at Post 210. They are both high-level kids and we are looking forward to watching them play.”
Even with the issues, Hart does have a starter for Wednesday’s game against Rantoul.
“We have Liam Parish from Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin. I think there will be a lot of eyes on him because he will be Game 1 starter,” Hart said. “It will be a short start, but I liked what I saw all spring. I think by the end of the summer, there is going to be a lot of people on him because he’s an athletic kid who works hard and likes to compete.”
While there will be some mainstays, Hart had to move some kids up from the Junior Gold to fill out the roster.
“We moved some 16-year olds up to add some depth because we lost a lot to age,” Hart said. “Riglee Hart, Xander Wilson, Pedro Rangel V, Jaxon Spicer and Marvin Davis. They are up a year early, but I have had them at certain periods since they were eight and they are guys you are going to hear a lot about in high school.
“(Ryan) Edwards won the state title game from us last year and he will be back. We will have Ben Darling, Cruz Dubois, Cole Miller and Easton Barney come back as well.”
While the last few weeks have been slow, the next few days will go fast as the team gets into the swing of the season.
“We will go out Monday and throw some short games and have a few swings and we will practice on Tuesday. And then Game 1 will be at Rantoul on Wednesday,” Hart said. “They are a little luckier than us because most of their team is tied in Rantoul, but there are some kids from Mahomet-Seymour who play there. (Rantoul team manager) Garry Smith is going to have a great team there and have a lot of college signees. He has been at it for 35 years and he makes Legion baseball fun. We go round-robins this weekend, but we want to see Lyric Neal and it will depend on what happens on Monday.”