Typically in a high school sport, freshmen are on the freshman team, sophomores are on JV, and upperclassmen are on varsity. With hardwork and dedication, Gage Eastlick was able to be the only sophomore on the varsity baseball team. From Little League to varsity, Eastlick shares his struggles on playing on a higher level team.

Q: How long have you played baseball?

A: I’ve played since I was 5, so this my 11th year.

Q: What position do you play?

A: I normally play pitcher. When I pitch, I’m trying to make sure they don’t score on our team. I also play first base, which is usually the bigger guy on the field and his job is to get the ball to whoever is on the base where the runner is heading.

Q:  Have you played the same position or have you recently switched?

A: I started as third base because there was usually someone who played first base already. I still practiced first base though, so there wasn’t that big switch.

Q: How many different teams have you played for, and what were they?

A: I played Little League growing up, and also I played travel ball a lot. My first team that I played travel ball for was Golden Spikes.

Q: How does it feel to be the only underclassmen on varsity?

A: There’s a lot of pressure; everyone’s throwing harder and hitting harder than what I was used too. It was stressful at first, but then I got used to it and I gained confidence with the help of them team. Someone who helped me a lot was Steven Bowers because it was his first year on varsity too, so we both went through everything together.

Q: What are your strengths as weaknesses as a team?

A: We’re way better at offense than defense. We have great hitters and we always get people on bases and score runs.

Q: How do you plan to improve those weaknesses?

A: We plan to improve our defenses by having situation practices. Those practices usually consist of all nine guys on the field and Coach just hitting fly balls and calling out situations and we have to think on the spot what to do. Those type of practices also help with our mental game.

Q: What are your individual strengths and weaknesses?

A: Personally, my strengths changed a lot throughout the season. I throw the ball well but I did have some struggles from getting used to varsity. Also my hitting has improved from playing more.

Q: Is there anything you want you readers to know?

A: As a team, we’re very hard-working; if we have a goal we’ll work hard to reach it. We all support each other, like for example when somebody hits a fly ball or pop up, and they’re upset, we encourage them that they’ll get them next time.

by EMC COWLES