Senior Josh Patrick feels bittersweet about his senior year of baseball.

“It’s a little emotional knowing this is my last year of playing the sport I love so much,” Patrick said. “But I’m excited for the season to start.”

Coach Rich Bennett is also excited for a new season and said the key players returning this year are Patrick, junior Dustin Bennett, and sophomore Ethan Livingston.

Coach Bennett believes the boys are good leaders for the baseball team.

Even though the Hornets ended with a record of 8-12-1 last season, Patrick feels confident about his team, and believes this season will be better than last year.

“I feel like we have good team,” Patrick said. “But once the season is over, I will definitely miss it a lot.”

Dustin agrees that the outcome of the season will be good, due to the team’s hard work during practice.

“This season will be better than the last. We are working harder than ever,” Dustin said. “We are learning to control what we do on the field and are uniting as a family.”

After playing for 12 years, Dustin is setting goals for his team in order to improve even more.

“We need to improve on working together and becoming more aware of the game and what to do once the ball is hit,” Dustin said.

The Hornets have their work cut out for them as they graduated three players who made the All-League team last year: Mitchell Conely was second team, while Ryan McCoy and Matt Carpenter were honorable mention.

One change for the Hornets this year is being reclassified in the MHSAA state tournament.

The Hornets lost to Lapeer to end their season last year in a Division 1 district game, but this year Kearsley will be playing in Division 2.

The Hornets will compete against Birch Run, Clio, and Mt. Morris for the district crown. The tournament will be at Birch Run.