By Carson Kipp

Baseball season is just around the corner and with it comes grind season, more specifically, morning practices for those aspiring to be a part of Walled Lake Central baseball.

Morning practices have been a long time tradition at Walled Lake Central, spanning from January 9 to February 15 every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 5:45 am to 6:20 am. While there, players mainly work on their pitching mechanics, slowly increasing their pitch count and velocity each week. Catchers are also expected to make an appearance to catch bullpens for their pitchers and work on technique in multiple areas. These practices allow pitchers and catchers to get some pre-season exposure, and also reduce risk of arm injury early on. “It’s a good time to work on our mechanics and it gives our team an edge over the competition. Its also helpful for freshman because it allows coaches to see them throw before tryouts,” said senior Nick Murray.

The team only lost two seniors last year and more attention is being brought to the program, with players such as seniors Cooper Dundas committing to play collegiate level baseball and Christian Hakim striving for the All-State title. “The program is looking great, more and more freshman come out each year and with all of this practicing were doing, everyone is getting a lot better,” said senior AJ Wisniewski. Preparations are in the works and it looks like this year’s Walled Lake Central Baseball team is going to be better than ever.