The Central baseball team is off to a 2-2 start to their season after four games against two teams over the weekend. The Dutch won both games against Robert Morris-Peoria and lost both games to Rockford. If Central makes it back to the conference tournament this season, it would be their first back-to-back appearances under Head Coach Matt Schirm, who enters his sixth season. With confidence in his pitching staff and defense, he says his team’s success will come down to how they can perform at the plate.

“I’m really confident in our pitching staff, I think we have a solid defense. It really comes down to offense for me. How are we going to progress offensively, are we going to have guys step up and replace some good hitters we lost to graduation last year, and can we manufacture runs when things aren’t clicking that well offensively, and that kind of comes down to me as a coach too. So that’s really the big thing, if we can do well offensively, I really like our chances to make some noise in the conference.”

The Dutch have some local talent on the team. Knoxville alumnus Ben Wallace enters his sophomore season as one of the top hitters on the team. Pella alumnus Landon Vander Leest has transferred back to Central, and will likely be in the starting pitching rotation. The Dutch return to action on Saturday and Sunday for a three-game series at MacMurray.