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While a few games have had to be moved, the Morden Mud Hens are picking up steam as the Border Baseball League season continues and player/coach Derek Holenski believes good things are coming their way.
"It's always exciting to get back out there," Holenski says. "It's been a struggle with the weather, I think we've rescheduled more game then we've played at this point, but that's the nature of playing ball this time of year in this part of the world. We take any chance we can and it's been fun so far."
Four games into their season, Holenski believes there are positives despite the early record. "We're starting to trend in the right direction, obviously the results are maybe not where we'd expect with this group. We've had a couple of really close losses that a timely hit here or there and we're looking at a 3-1 record instead of a 1-3 record. We're taking care of the things that we can, which is limiting walks, limiting errors defensively, so those are two items that are trending in the right direction and it's all about process, so we're happy with how that's going and results will come. Nobody is pressing the panic button just yet, and obviously we want to have a better record than we have but there's no stress there yet."
The optimism Holenski has comes from a roster that has changed a little bit but at it's core, still knows how to play ball. "We've had some turnover this year. Couple of guys have left town to play for other teams, couple of guys sort of retired, and so we've got some young kids. They may not be new to our team, they may have played a game here or there as a pick up player the last couple of years. We've got some good, young ball players that are excited to come out and we're excited to have them. It's how you keep programs like this going, finding success with turnover. We're a little different look than we've been over the past few years, but we still have a lot of the same players and the expectations are still there. We want to be there at the end of the season and challenging for a spot in the finals."
Having a connection with the community has always been important and Holenski says Morden is special and the group takes a lot of pride in representing. "It's always been good, we're so happy to represent the town. We always get phenomenal support from fans or different fundraising activities we're doing throughout the community, we always get great support. Even with minor ball, there's quite a good relationship there, our guys are always happy to help out whether it's a one-off player clinic or coaching a team for an entire season, there's a strong relationship there. It's always great to see when you're playing a game and kids that you coached three, four or five years ago are in the stands watching, it's always tons of fun."
Many communities are like Morden with ties to their ball clubs and for Holenski, that makes the rivalries all the more fun to play in. "It's great, the way the baseball programs work, you end up playing with or against those guys over the years. There's a lot of friends you end up playing against, but as the old saying goes, there are no friends on the ball field. It makes things competitive and those rivalries are strong. They're competitive games, too. These are good games and a level playing field, which makes it a ton of fun to be a part of."
End of the day, Holenski says it's just a bunch of guys playing a kids game and now many of them get to share it with their families, and that means a lot. "It's good, there's quite a crew of us that have kids around the same age and we watch them run around the bases after games or chasing down a foul ball. It's always fun to see and you hope that you can continue to give them the opportunities to maybe go out there one day themselves."
Morden's next home game is June 17th against Winkler.