JOHN DAY Prairie Citys new baseball team made its season debut at the Les Schwab Icebreaker Tournament last week at Seventh Street Complex.

This is the first time Prairie City School has fielded a baseball team in seven years.

The teams inexperience showed, but the athletes improved over three days of play.

Head coach Mark Woodbury saw them gain valuable experience.

It was an eye-opener for all the kids, Im sure for most, it was their first time batting against a live pitcher, he said.

Scio, a 3A team, left the 1A Panthers scoreless in the first game on Thursday, as the score ran up to 0-20. The coach said it couldve been worse, and he noted their opponents were nice to his players in the lopsided game.

The Panthers managed to get the bases loaded at one point, but struck out before they could score any runs.

Garrett Lovell, Ethan Camerena and Devin Packard took on pitching duties for the Panthers.

On Friday, the Panthers faced 2A Union/Cove and got on the board. However, they lost the game 6-21 in five innings.

Pitchers in that contest included Wyatt Williams, Devin Packard and Garrett Hitz.

The Panthers final game with Grant Unions junior varsity team, coached by Travis Heiple ended with another loss for Prairie City at 8-18 in six innings.

We made a lot of mental mistakes and missed communicating on pop flies and ground balls, Woodbury said, adding the team would work on those issues this week.

That will get better, he said.

He noted the games showed were a brand new team with brand new players.

I was happy for the hits and the catches, he said. Were getting progressively better every day thats what we need to do.

He said the only player on his team with a significant amount of experience, and the only one with pitching experience, is Lovell, a senior who transferred to Prairie City from Grant Union last year.

Garrett is kind of like a fourth baseball coach for us, he said, adding hes a leader on the team, sharing his knowledge with the other players.

Im pleased with the progress of every single player, he said. Every day is a new adventure with them. We have a lot of room to improve, but if the kids work hard, well get there. Every time we get on the field, we get better.

Next up, the Panthers face the Grant Union junior varsity at noon Friday in Prairie City.