Bernie baseball proving to be a work in progress this spring

The 2023 spring is going to be an interesting journey for the Bernie High School baseball squad, and that has nothing to do with the brewing storm fronts that have plagued the region over the past week.

The Mules haven’t endured a losing season in the lifetimes of the current players, and at 3-4, they are a long way from preparing for that sports calamity, at this point. However, veteran Mule coach Marcus Massey acknowledges that there will be ups and downs this season.

“It is going to be a work in progress,” Massey said recently of this season. “It is not like we are senior-heavy or anything like that.”

The Mules fell to Bell City 6-0 on Tuesday, which was their second consecutive loss, and that defeat was due in large part to the phenomenal pitching performance of Cub freshman Kale Richardson, who limited the Mules to a mere three hits in seven innings.

Against the Cubs, Massey had three seniors atop his batting order in Landon Ellsworth, Reece Justice, and Owen Bewley, while senior pitchers Seth Teel and Hunter Null started and closed the game, respectively. But every other Mule player, including juniors Jayden Robinette and Hunter Newton, both of whom had two of the three Bernie connections (Bewley had the other), will return for future seasons.

“It’s going to be a building process all year long,” Massey said.

Teel started the game against Bell City on the mound and was roughed up for three earned runs in two innings. However, the more relevant statistic was his 23 strikes and 18 balls that he threw.

Following a recent 6-4 win at Dexter, Massey’s postgame speech to his pitchers was to throw strikes and allow the Mule defense to do its job.

“It is difficult to remember that at the high school level,” Massey said. “Mentally, that is a hard concept to understand.”

Massey’s belief is that a high school baseball team stringing together a long streak of successful hits, that doesn’t end up in someone’s glove, is a difficult thing to do.

“If you can go and really challenge (hitters),” Massey continued, “in high school baseball, it is hard to rack up seven hits in a row, without a pop-up, an easy ground ball, or something.

“You’ve got to challenge them to have base hits.”

Mule sophomore pitcher Blake Nash epitomized that philosophy in his one inning of work against the Cubs.

He threw just eight pitches, with seven being strikes, as he didn’t allow a hit, a run, or a walk, and struck out a batter.

Robinett threw 18 strikes in 32 pitches over 1 2/3 innings on Tuesday and allowed just one earned run on four hits, while Null ended the night with 13 strikes in 24 pitches but struck out three Cub batters in 1 1/3 innings.

“This is a mindset that we are building for the end of the year,” Massey said. “We’re just trying to build that mentality of making the easy plays, the plays that we’re supposed to make, and having a chance at the end.”

The Mules will host Bloomfield (3-3) on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.