The Pioneer-Pleasant Vale Mustangs had a spectacular season a year ago, but they were not able to reach their biggest goal. The Mustangs had their eyes on bringing home a baseball state championship, which would have been the first in program history. After making a run through the playoffs, they lost in the state quarterfinals. While it was a tough way to end the season, head coach David Riesen says his team is ready to get back at it and make another push for a title.

“We finished last season with a 40-2 record,” coach Riesen stated. “We lost Red Oak, the eventual state champion, in the quarterfinals. We expect to make a deep run in the postseason every year but this season we will be a young squad, starting two seniors and two juniors. All four of those players are three-year starters and we expect a lot out of them from a leadership perspective.”

Brock Weber and Jaycob Munholland are the two seniors in the starting lineup. Brock is the Mustangs’ starting catcher and an outstanding pitcher that topped out last spring at 84 miles per hour with a good change and breaking ball. Jaycob is the starting first baseman and a pitcher that is effective at locating his pitches and keeping hitters off balance.

The juniors that Riesen has in his starting lineup are Ty Parker and Brayden Drewke. Both young men have started on the mound for three seasons and this year will be no different.

“Ty is our number one pitcher, topping out at 88 miles,” Riesen said. “He threw six hitless scoreless innings in our season opener against Alva, striking out 15 batters. He is also an outstanding hitter. Brayden is a middle infielder and pitcher that has hit at the top of our lineup since his freshman season. He hit .511 last spring and scored 82 runs. He is one of the best leadoff hitters that I have coached.

While they have these four leading the team, coach Riesen says that it is not going to just show up and get the victory. They are going to have to work through issues that arise, but he has faith in his guys.

“The biggest challenge that we will face this season is our youth and inexperience,” he said. “We will make some mistakes that will be attributed to the youth of the team and have some growing pains but I believe that with our pitching we can make a run by the end of the season.”