The Niles North Varsity Baseball team will play at the Niles North baseball fields against St. Patrick at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 2 and it’s sure to be a nailbiter. The Niles North Baseball team has kept a record-breaking 6-0 after their games in Disney over spring break. They were up against some pretty tough competition down in Florida: Athens, Ringgold, Haveford, and Georgetown Day.

They fell to DePaul prep 7-5 in a game Monday night, but adversity will only strengthen the team and allow them to focus on their bigger goals in the season, according to athletes on the team.

“Coming into this season the expectations were high from both the coaching staff and the returning players to have an exceptional season. Unfortunately, we lost Monday night but our goal for the season remains the same: 20 wins. We say it before every game and that is what we strive for. This year, if we play solid baseball, I believe that that goal is fully reachable,” said junior Phil Klafta.

The team’s goal of 20 wins is boldly stated by most members on the team. Hard practice and preparation for their games in Florida is apparent and it isn’t about to go to waste after only just one loss.

“At the beginning of this year we knew we had a good team cause we had most of our starting players returning. We started the season hot winning our first 6 games. After Florida we all knew this year could be even better than we thought and there is no doubt that we could win a lot more than 20 games this season,” said senior Jack Foreman.

To add onto this swelling of Viking spirit, the team has endured hard practices to get where they are in the season.

“Well, we’ve gotten off to a great start. We just got back from our Florida trip, where we went 4-0, which was great for our motivation going forward. We have a great group of players this year, and the season looks bright. Our goal going into this season was to win 20 games, but hopefully we can go far past that, and even make a deep run in the state tournament.” said junior Henry Toth. “Every practice we get after it, and try to fix the little things to avoid mistakes come game time.”

“An experienced team wins championships and an experienced team is something we have been this year,” said senior Eric Wheeler.

Come and see the home game this Thursday at 4:30 p.m. to cheer on our hardworking Varsity Baseball team!