It’s spring and that only means one thing: batter up.

We are past the halfway point of baseball season and the Bulldogs have been having a competitive and hard fought season, with a record of 11-8 overall and 4-2 in conference play. The Bulldogs have been making waves this season with big wins over teams like Seymour, Floyd Central, and Providence and have been putting up some impressive performances on the field under the leadership of third year Head Coach Tim Redford. 

The team is led by a standout senior class with eight committed seniors, the Dogs have had some standout players as well. 

“Tyler McMillen has been great on the mound,” senior first baseman Tyler Hubbard said. “He was a good mop up guy last year but this year he has been an ace.”

McMillen has had a great senior season so far as he is leading the team in earned run average at 2.15 runs and is looking to make some special plays coming into sectionals. It has been an up and down season, but it’s starting to look like they will peak just as sectionals are coming to a start.

“The season has been an upward trajectory from the start of the year,” Hubbard said. “We’ve been getting better every week and starting to play some of our best baseball at the best time. I’ve been hitting for extra bases well this year and for more power. something we could work on as a team is that we’ve been striking out a lot this year and can definitely clean that up.”

Going into sectionals the team is feeling like they are peaking at just the right time. They will face Floyd Central May 28 in the first round. The team defeated the Highlanders twice this season: 5-4 on May 12 and 7-3 on April 16.

“The team is very eager to get going,” Hubbard said. “We know we have talent and are yet to play our best baseball. We feel good going into sectionals. It’s wide open this year and everybody in it can win it. There’s been four different teams in the top 25 from the sectional and we have beat all of them.”

Right now, the team has been focusing on the things they can do better which will help them when they head into the conference championship on Saturday, May 17.

“As a whole, the team has definitely had some ups and downs but we seem to be figuring it out at about the right time. We could work on the whole team being consistent. I feel like at times we have a few guys who are really hot while some are slumping. If we can figure that out I believe that we are going to be unbeatable” says senior third baseman and pitcher Tyler McMillen.

McMillen has been putting up some stellar performances, but says there are still things he feels like he can improve on. 

“I like as an individual I’ve been pitching pretty good. Had some great wins so far while on the mound.”

If McMillen can keep this up the Dogs are going to be rolling into sectionals on fire. McMillen isn’t the only standout player who has been playing well.

“Tyler Hubbard has been electric at the plate, he’s had two multi-home run games and has been a huge part of our offense,” McMillen said. These two have been looking like Lebron and Dwayne Wade the way they have been playing together.

“The team morale I would say has been pretty good this year but I think it will get better as we progress throughout the season. I think that sectionals will be a challenge for sure. Teams like Floyd, Jeff, and Seymour are all going to be challenging, but I think that we have the guys and the right parts to definitely win sectionals and continue playing through June.”

Senior Gavin Rand, who is committed to Hanover for baseball and football, has shown many leadership qualities and has been putting up a great season as well, he has been leading the team with an on base percentage of .492. 

“The season started out really good. We hit a little rough spot recently but have really picked it up the last two games. But rough spots are going to happen in all sports. It’s all about how you play in sectionals. Currently with my arm surgery that occurred in September. I have only been able to hit, but I feel like I have been doing a good job hitting and running the bases,” Rand said.

“The team morale this year has been the best through my four years here,” Rand said. “I think that comes from us having eight seniors and most of us starting every game. Almost all of us have been playing together since little league so I think that plays a role in it as well. I feel like we are trending up in terms of playing. We are getting better each game. Our sectional is pretty tough/ a lot of the teams are playing really well right now so it will be interesting to see who comes out of it. We drew Floyd Central for the first game and that is our focus right now — one game at a time.”

The team has four games left in the regular season against Providence, Columbus East, Silver Creek and Brownstown Central. After that they play their first round of sectionals on May 28.