When the season began, the Liberty Christian baseball team was anticipating a potentially winless campaign.And the Eagles were completely okay with that.A group of boys that is used to succeeding on the basketball court and spending their springs playing volleyball was eager for a change.So when the school made late decision to form a baseball program this spring, six committed players recruited six more and the Eagles hit the diamond.“I was excited to play,” said junior Tanner Meyer. “For me, baseball is way better than volleyball.”In somewhat “Sandlot” fashion, Liberty Christian converted their volleyball uniforms into baseball jerseys and gathered in a private field on a residence in Wright City for practices.By season’s end, they were 4-6 and considerably improved.“I felt like we did really well for what we had to work with,” said Fox. “When half the team has never really played before, you have to really start with the basics.”Meyer was one of two starting pitchers for the Eagles, along with Jake Pietzman.“We tried to work a couple of other guys in, and we’ve got some projects we need to work through,” said Fox of the pitching staff.He also sees eighth-grader David Brumagin as a future threat on the mound.“I think once we get better next year, we could be able to make it to Joplin and win state,” said Pietzman.Used to leading the basketball team to the state tournament, Meyer was thrilled to witness the improvements by his teammates, as they avenged losses on a few instances.“We did way better than anyone thought, including myself,” said Meyer. “I didn’t think we would win one game, but we all ended up being pretty fundamentally sound.”He recalls a pair of games against The Christian Academy of Greater St. Louis.“They beat us by four, but then we came back and beat them by nine,” said Meyer. “That was probably the most memorable.”The Eagles admit they may have caught a couple opponents off guard.“We knew we could them, and in the second game we got our bats going and kept scoring,” said Pietzman.Fox says the hitting showed consistent improvement from start to finish.“Initially, I thought we’d really take our lumps this year,” said Fox. “But we were competitive in every game. Some games got away from us in the end.”“We saw a lot of progress, and that’s what I was focused on during this first year,” said Fox.PIETZMAN PITCHESDerrick Forsythe Photo.