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This summer’s Niwot Legion B baseball season is back in swing under the direction of Niwot High School’s head baseball coach, Craig McBride.

Last week, the team competed in a tournament in Omaha, Nebraska from Thursday, June 16 to Saturday, June 18. Despite an initial 5-2 win against the host team Omaha Central, Niwot fell to the Missouri Fighting Elks 13-1 in its second game, beginning a string of losses that continued throughout the tournament.

Of the Fighting Elks, McBride said, “They had some older kids that had been together for awhile and their pitching was really good.”

On Friday, June 17, Niwot lost to Saint Joe's, 8-5, after falling behind in the sixth inning. Saturday showed similar losses with Niwot losing a close game to Washington, Illinois with a final score of 7-6, followed by a loss to McPherson, Missouri, 16-3.

Despite the recent losses, McBride remained hopeful for the rest of the season. “I expect that they

will have a good summer,” he said. “We have a lot of players that will probably get some varsity time next year.”

The summer season is a valuable time for players to improve their skills before trying out for varsity in the spring. The Cougars had seven seniors last spring, including six who started. Much of the Niwot Legion B team is comprised of players who got minimal varsity time last spring, so summer presents an opportunity for these players to pack in experience in anticipation of the high school season.

“We’re working on getting them ready for next spring since [the majority] of the players didn’t get a lot of varsity time in the spring season,” McBride said.

McBride expects that with the experience his team is getting this summer, many of the players will have a better chance of getting increased playing time next spring.

So far this season, Niwot Legion B baseball has a record of 5-7-0. The team started

the season out strong with two decisive wins against Greeley West with impressive scores of 24-5 and 15-5, and a 15-2 victory over Silver Creek.

In the team’s second game against Greeley West, Niwot pulled ahead in the fourth inning, scoring nine runs to Greeley West’s one.

Of the team’s 16 players, several have performed particularly well so far this season. McBride cited Joey Neve as hitting the ball consistently, Jordan Wills as excelling at shortstop and pitching, and Ben Goss as a key player in the team’s victory against Omaha Central.

“Trevor Green is really having a good summer so far,” McBride added. “He wasn’t able to play in the spring because he was hurt all year, so this is really the first opportunity that he’s been able to play and he’s hitting really well.”

Joey DesEnfants has also been a valuable asset to the team as a catcher. “He’s a freshman that we

caught on varsity this past year,” McBride said of him. “[DesEnfants] hadn’t previously gotten a lot of plate appearances, but he’s having a good summer. He did a great job catching for us.”

Cohesion is a key component the Niwot Cougars are working through this season. As a fairly new team, the players are still getting to know one another’s strengths and weaknesses on the field.

“We have several players that missed the spring season,” McBride said, “so we’re just going game by game and trying to get some continuity built between the players. Before this summer, they hadn’t been on the field together a whole lot, so they’re learning a lot.”

2016 Niwot Legion B baseball roster:

Joey DesEnfants

Dylan Ferrero

Aidon Galloway

Colton Goldfarb

Ben Goss

Trevor Green

Noah Hulin

Ben Karbassi

Tariq Maaherra

Jaryd Meek

Griffin Mitchell

Joey Neve

Jake Sims

Chandler Snead

Quinn Williamson

Jordan Wills