TRACY — After graduating some talented arms at the end of last season, the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton baseball team will look to rely on its strong bats and develop its pitching to put together another strong campaign.

The Panthers return six starters from last year’s team, many of whom were getting their first real varsity experience. Those innings last year helped the players get acclimated to varsity-level competition and they’ll look to continue building on it this time around.

“A big tell for us is, if we don’t strike out more than six or seven times, we’re going to be in a lot of our games,” Fultz said. “If we start striking out and chasing, that’s kind of a tell-tale sign that we might not have a very good day.”

Connor Lanoue returns as a key piece for the Panthers on both sides of the ball. At the plate, the senior infielder finished third on the team in OPS with a .940 clip, including 11 RBIs and a home run. He was also second on the team in innings pitched with 31, compiling a 4.74 ERA and a 1.81 WHIP with 26 strikeouts.

Still, the Panthers lost most of their pitching from last season. Trevor Smith threw 51 2/3 innings with a 2.30 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 78 strikeouts last season, leading the team in all three categories to earn Independent All-Area first team honors. The Panthers also graduated Alex Munson and Noah Knakmuhs, who ranked third and fourth on the team in innings pitched.

“It’s going to be a lot of trial by fire with this group,” Fultz said, adding that the players have gotten in a lot of summer work as they tried to limit Smith’s innings in order to get the younger guys more varsity experience. “It’s going to be a lot of learning how to locate. Like the other day when we played Lac qui Parle, some of our younger guys were leaving some pitches up and they were smacking the ball around the field … The more varsity innings they get, they’ll figure out what pitches work, where to throw them and hopefully we get more than just Connor rolling here.”

David Schuh also returns with pitching experience for the Panthers, primarily as a relief pitcher last season, while Griffin Zick, Jackson Kruse and Taylor Squires are among the other players to get innings early on.

Schuh, Lanoue and Zick are the lone seniors on a roster that features five eighth graders.

At the plate, Aiden Sanow and Brody Hauger are two players who have impressed for the Panthers early. Sanow had a strong season last year, finishing with a .936 OPS, while Hauger hit for a .601 clip. Both have taken a leap early this season, however; Through four games, Sanow leads the team with a 1.383 OPS and Hauger is third at 1.083, with Schuh also in the mix with a 1.178.

“They’ve been kind of carrying our lineup this first part of the year,” Fultz said. “Some guys are a little slower going, and these two have been consistent … Besides the strikeout thing, we’re going to kind of go as Aiden and Brody play. The whole game’s not on them, but if those two have good at-bats and they play good defense in the field, we’re going to be in a lot of games.”

TMB finished middle of the pack last year with a 9-10 record, losing in the first round of the section tournament. Still, the Panthers have high hopes this season. In addition to trying to get back to the double-elimination part of the Section 3A tournament, TMB is hoping to contend for a Camden Conference title.

“We haven’t won it since probably 2011, maybe a little earlier than that,” Fultz said. “They think they can do it. The kids don’t really see any team that’s head-and-shoulders above everybody else. If they play well, they think they can win the conference.”

A big part of what gives that group that potential is their love of the game, Fultz said.

“They like baseball, and it makes coaching them really easy,” Fultz said. “Motivation and stuff like that, they respond well to that stuff. This is a really fun group to coach, especially when we win. They have a lot of fun, they’re a tight group and they do things the right way. It’s one of those things that you hope they have as much success, because they’ve earned it in my eyes.”