With baseball season in full swing, students have had the opportunity to watch the school’s baseball teams compete against local teams during tournaments at the baseball field on campus.

“I watched the Hays game and the McCallum game in the tournament,” sophomore Lauryn Munoz said. “Hays was my favorite game because it was exciting.”

Junior Varsity 1 played on campus the first week of tournaments and the freshman team played on campus the second week. Varsity played away for both weeks.

“I enjoyed playing in the tournaments,” sophomore varsity pitcher Josh Teague said. “Based on my performance, I could improve on throwing more strikes when I’m on the mound and not throwing as many balls.”

Teague has been playing baseball for his whole life, and is one of the few sophomores on a team dominated by upperclassmen.

“Our team’s strength would definitely be in the outfield,” Teague said. “We have a good group of outfielders that are really fast and that are able to read the ball well.”

On the other hand, Teague believes his team has room for improvement with their pitching. Varsity has needed to bring up sophomores to the team to aid in that area.

“As always with the program, we lack experience in pitching,” Varsity Baseball Head Coach Sam Degelia said. “I wouldn’t say it’s a weak spot, but that’s the one thing we have to work on. So far, our pitchers have done a great job on the mound.”

Degelia heads a program of about 65 players and 12 student managers. He has coached at Bowie since 1998 and started his coaching career in 1996.

“We have some strong defensive returners, about four or five guys coming back to the program next year,” Degelia said. “Defensively we’re strong and we’re swinging the bat right. Those things are going well. And if we get our pitching up we can compete in the district and win some ball games.”

The varsity team is currently 17 games into the regular season, with a 12-5 record. In district, they are currently 1-0.

“I’ve been playing this sport for a long time,” Degelia said. “I played little league, high school, and college baseball as well as semi-pro. What makes coaching special for me is giving back everything I’ve been taught and teaching these guys, watching them perform, win games, and not only become better athletes, but better people.”