Plainfield Central’s baseball team is off to a 1-2 start, having lost to West Chicago, beaten Morris and lost to Providence Catholic on Thursday in the first round of the WJOL/Don Ladas Memorial Tournament.

That doesn’t mean the Wildcats, who are coming off a 15-15 finish in 2013, are heading for a losing season. The Morris team they beat went out and beat Minooka the next day, and Minooka had earlier beaten Providence Catholic, which beat Plainfield Central on Thursday.

That’s just baseball in this area. Everyone is competitive, and coach John Rosner’s club is in that mix.

The Wildcats return a lot of experience in the infield, as senior second baseman Christian Armstrong, junior third baseman Austin Blazevic and senior shortstop Matt Ryan all have last year’s varsity season under their belts. Senior outfielders Kyle Kudla and Nate Paprota and senior pitcher Nick Rana also are returning starters from last year’s club.

“We are looking to improve on a .500 record last year with a strong core of returning players,” Rosner said. “The left side of the infield returns with two-year starter Matt Ryan and junior Austin Blazevic, who looks to have a big year. Nick Rana will be our leader on the mound.”

Blazevic will also pitch, as he got the win against Morris. Kudla, who got the save, and Jake Anderson have also already seen time on the hill.

“I don’t know if he [Blazevic] is going to overpower people, but as long as he’s down in the zone, he has a pretty good breaking ball,” Rosner said after the win against Morris. “And as long as we play good defense behind him, he’s going to have the chance to get some wins.”

Other players vying for time for the Wildcats this season will be Danny Brandon, Matthew Bunetta, John Kostelz, Mitchell Krippel, Simon Leclair, Ramsey Mallory Jr., Kevin Padilla, Asa Sprunger, Joshua Tesch, Austin Weitendorf and Samuel Wielgos.

“With the players we have returning and contributions from our newcomers, we should have a pretty nice season,” Rosner said. “One of the main things is timely hitting, and we certainly had that in our win against Morris, getting a big hit with the bases loaded.”