Going to Arizona is the first step toward the goal of a winning season for Simpson baseball.

The team has a lot of returners, and the players hope their veteran talent can give them what it takes to have a strong season.

“We want to win a lot of games and make it deeper into the postseason than we have in the past few seasons,” senior outfielder Austin Burlin said.

The team has been practicing for the last few months to get ready for its spring break trip to Arizona, which is a spring training of sorts.

“It’s kind of to dust the rust off a little bit, getting everything going and getting some of the more basic things going. Like timing. The pitchers start working up their innings and different things to prepare for the conference season,” Burlin said.

“We’ll play some pretty good Division III teams this year. It’s a bunch of scheduled games and a bunch of teams and everyone just plays. It’s a month-long thing where a bunch of colleges go to play. It’s actually called the Collegiate Spring Training.”

Players work up to the season through offseason workouts and training. The ultimate goal, though, is winning.

“I’ve played a lot of catch, played a lot of baseball, watched a lot of baseball, took grounders and just a lot of baseball-related things,” sophomore pitcher and infielder Colin Sexton said.

Simpson baseball has 10 seniors and 11 juniors this year. That paired with younger guys becoming role players is what Burlin and Sexton hope will get the team wins during the season.

Burlin said head coach Ben Blake plays the guys that are playing well and that the starting lineup is anything but static.

The team’s first conference games are on March 25 and 26 at Coe.

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