It will be a whole new look for the Wright City baseball team this year.

The Wildcats lost nearly their entire lineup to graduation and have only seven upperclassmen on this year’s roster.

“You don’t replace people like Troy Muse and Kyle Tuepker,” Head Coach Jeff Sargent said. “Those are possibly once-in-a-coaching-career talents. But other guys that played vital roles, like Tyler Brittain, Andrew Pfhul, Chase Jones and Donovan Mozee are also gone. Losing all those guys in one season is a lot. It’s a lot of pitching that’s gone and it’s most of your position players, so it’s tough.”

Sargent also signifies a change in the program.

He took over as head coach following the resignation of Shannon Wells.

Sargent, who was previously a varsity assistant, isn’t worried about the transition.

“I know the kids, so there isn’t a huge difference. I think the biggest difference is that I want to create competition,” he said. “I feel that it’s vital to success that we create competition and don’t just give things to kids. If you don’t earn it, we’ll continue to do what we did. We’d get to the district championship game and lose to a team (Lutheran St. Charles) that’s not as good as us. We lost those games, they didn’t win it.”

Senior infielder and pitcher Justin Bote expects to lead the new-look Wildcat offense.

Bote hit .370 last season.

“We’re going to rely on seniors like Justin Bote, who has been hitting the ball great, as well as Michael Holmes,” Sargent said. “He hasn’t hit as much, but we’re going to have to rely on him offensively more this year. He’s had a good preseason. Colin Schlapper is an upperclassman who has made dramatic improvements, too.”

Sargent expects sophomores Cameron Swaringen and Kyle Bruning to have productive seasons, as well.

“They both started some games for us on varsity last year, so we do have some good sophomores coming up that got a little experience last season,” he said.

On the mound, Holmes is the leading returner, along with Bote and senior Tanner Riley.

The roster currently lists 15 pitchers, although nine of those are underclassmen.

“We might have more pitching, but we don’t have as dominant of pitching. We might have more players that can do everything, but they’re not as good as the guys we lost right now,” Sargent said. “It’s just going to take time. With the core and nucleus being freshmen and sophomores, we’re either going to surprise some people or it’s going to be a rough year. You just never know when you have so many young kids.”

Sargent expects all five of his freshmen — Jordan Brodbribb, Dillon Seabaugh, Hunter Brouk, Blaine Tuepker and Conner McFadden — to contribute throughout the season.

The high volume of underclassmen should leave Wright City fans optimistic for the future, but Sargent isn’t looking that far ahead.

“You can look to the future and be excited for what we have, but I try not to,” he said. “We can compete right now. Just because they’re freshmen and sophomores doesn’t mean they can’t be competitive.”

The biggest hurdle in being competitive, Sargent said, is the middle infield positions and catcher.

The team had to replace all three starters from last year’s team.

The Wildcats opened their season with a loss to Pacific in the 4 Rivers Tournament, and continue the tournament Friday.

“I think we could have a better record than last year, but we could have a terrible record, too,” Sargent said. “There’s just so many unknowns with the young kids. We have a good, core group that works a lot harder than the kids last year. There’s not a sense of entitlement where they already think they have a spot. They work hard and do what we ask of them every single day.”