Young Cambridge-Isanti baseball team works for growth

Coach: Mike Bergloff.

Last year: 2-20, 1-13 Mississippi 8.

Top returnees: Seniors Logan Ostlund, P-OF-3B; Brayden Coplan, OF; junior Colton Block, LHP; sophomore Marcus Hubbard, C.

Outlook: This season the Bluejackets return just five lettermen from a year ago, but Bergloff is excited about the program’s future because, in his words, “the talent is coming.”

“In the past few years, our juniors and seniors were going to play because of loyalty to them,” Bergloff said. “We have had to make a change in our program; we’re going to change the culture and change the results.

“This year we’re young, with only three seniors on the roster. We’re going to start two freshmen and a sophomore.”

Bergloff feels that, once his team is able to practice on a regular basis outside, the improvement it can make may be dramatic.

“We’ve set expectations, and we expect to improve as the season progresses,” he said. “A tremendous amount of growth has to happen for us to be successful.

“But the talent is good. The potential is there.”

What makes the Bluejackets’ challenge more daunting is what is shaping up as a strong Mississippi 8 Conference. Defending league champ Monticello finished third in the state in Class AAA last year, while Saint Francis, Princeton and Big Lake also return plenty of talent.

“The league will be tough,” Bergloff said. “But we have some big, strong young kids who are very good players. We’ll work on the mental aspect of the game, the confidence, as much as the physical.

“We know that our team’s improvement could be dramatic by the end of the year.”