'Give me 100%, 100% of the time': Centennial's baseball motto as team gains experience
Not every team gets to win.
Some teams have to go through struggles before they can succeed.
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In the case of the Pueblo Centennial Bulldogs baseball team, their losses this year aren’t due to lack of effort or talent. It is simply because the team is so young.
Having six underclassmen in the starting lineup is a tell-tale sign. It also means the team will have more experience together going into the future.
“We're pretty young this year. We're kind of in our youth movement starting right now. We're starting two freshmen, four sophomores,” Coach Joe Vigil said. “That's pretty young, but they're sometimes doing good things. We were usually the team that played good baseball for five innings, but we got to play seven in high school. So that comes back to bite us sometimes.”
Despite the youth movement, the Bulldogs do have upperclassmen who are doing what they can. One thing is for sure, the team is getting experience, and at this level, that experience will prove to be beneficial in the long run.
“Our seniors are doing a good job,” Vigil said. “We have three seniors. They're leading us. But I keep telling myself that those freshmen and sophomores are not going to stay freshmen and sophomores forever. Next year will be a new year. We're looking for bright things. We think that in the next couple of years, we will be a pretty good team to deal with.”
One thing that Vigil is excited about in the future is his pitching staff.
“All my pitching is real young. I'll return just about everybody on the mound next year. We're switching some guys to find their spot in the lineup and on the field. We're doing good things, and that scoreboard doesn't always show the growth that we've made.”
With the team winless in the South-Central League and its worst record in several years, Vigil is trying to preach to his team, win or lose, be competitive.
“Just compete. I just want them to learn how to compete,” Vigil said. “That's my biggest thing is it doesn't matter if we're up 10-0 or down 10-0, every pitch means something and just learn how to compete because sooner or later those games and those outs are going to mean something. I’m always trying to instill that in them. Our famous thing is to give me 100%, 100% of the time.”
The bright spots on the team this year are senior Josh Lucero who leads the team in several categories including home runs (three), batting average (.548), and runs scored (19). He is helped out by a couple of sophomores who are looking to put their name on the map.
“You know Josh Lucero has been a great leader for us,” Vigil said. “He's a senior and he's been with me for four years so I really expected him to be there. So it's no surprise that he is kind of our leader but another kid, Bryson Byrd, he's done a great job as a sophomore and Landen Lenn has done a great job as a sophomore so both of those guys have come along too.”
The team is currently 3-11 on the season and is 0-5 in the S-CL this year.
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Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo Centennial baseball is learning despite losing
