The Simpson baseball team is set to start American Rivers Conference play Saturday, beginning competition against one of the most wide open conference races in recent memory, with the extra year of eligibility granted by the COVID-19 pandemic leaving a lot of teams with large amounts of returning talent. The Storm finished in 6th place last year and won their opening American Rivers Conference Tournament game, but will have to overcome a returning conference champion Coe College, Luther who finished in second place, and a rising power in Loras, who is ranked 15th in the country according to D3baseball.com. The Storm start their conference slate this weekend at Dubuque, who finished just a game ahead of the Storm last year.