Ottawa baseball coach Levi Ericson enters his second season at the helm with a solid mix of veteran players and newcomers who he feels can make an instant impact.

“For me it’s been a more comfortable, more confident start to the season,” Ericson said. “I learned so much from last year being my first year as head coach and that’s helped me be even more prepared for this year. It’s been a smooth start, we’ve had some really great practices, and thankfully the weather has allowed us to work on a lot of things on the field.”

The Pirates finished last season 18-17 overall, including going 7-8 in Interstate 8 Conference play, and reached a Class 3A regional final.

Ottawa has eight seniors on this season’s roster in Colt Bryson (P/SS/2B/3B), Brayden Batistini (OF), Michael McGill (OF/P), Lucas Farabaugh (3B/P/C), Adam Swanson (P/C/OF), Noah Marvin (P), Brody Pagakis (1B/P) and Brendyn Fuchs (1B/P).

Swanson is a two-time unanimous Times All-Area first team selection and was an I-8 all-conference pick last year after hitting .396 with 10 doubles, three triples, six home runs and 31 RBIs while also going 3-3 with a 4.40 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 55 innings.

Fuchs and Farabaugh were both Times All-Area second team honorees.

“Anytime you can build anything around a kid of Adam Swanson’s caliber it makes things easier,” Ericson said. “He will be the focal put on offense and defense. He’s a great hitter with power, he’s a guy who’s hitting high 80s, low 90s on the mound, and he is, in my opinion, one of the best catchers in the area.”

Rounding out the roster is juniors Kaden Konwinski (2B/3B/OF/P), Brecklin Winter (2B/P), Alexio Fernandez-Jobst (OF), George Shumway (P/2B/SS/3B), Jack Carroll (OF/P), Rizon Contreras (2B/OF/P), Sam Clift (OF/P), Maverick Burress (3B/OF/P), Jackson Lucas (UTL/P), Dane Schmitz (1B), Logan Cottingham (1B/C) and Logan Olson (3B/OF/C).

“I feel like the strength of this team is going to by our pitching and defense. We only graduated around 20 innings from last year,” Ericson said. “After Swanson, Lucas Farabaugh was second on the team in innings pitched, Noah Marvin was our late-inning guy and closer, and George Shumway was brought up midway into the season and kind of ran away with the No. 3 conference starter. I also feel we have 12 more arms that we feel can come in and be effective.”

Ericson said there has been a lot of work and talk in Ottawa’s opening practice sessions about having a good approach at the plate. While he feels the pitching and defense will be strong, he also feels that the Pirates can be a pretty good offense team through the order.

“We’ve spent a lot of time talking about having approach at the plate, having a plan not only in each at-bat but every pitch,” Ericson said. “Every at-bat brings with it a different situation, so you have to have a plan before you step in the box but also have the ability to adjust. We have to be ready to hit every pitch.

“I felt like we were a little too passive at times and took too many middle-middle fastballs that we should have been putting in play. I feel like this group collectively has great baseball IQ and is working very hard on doing the things that we are asking of them at the plate.”

Ericson said the early season will bring with it a lot of moving parts in trying to find the right spots and roles for his players.

“We have a great core back, a great mix of experience and new guys to the varsity level,” Ericson said. “We also have guys that can play multiple spots on the field. We are going to have the ability to be flexible as far as who is playing where depending on who is pitching, but also in certain situations.