Amateur baseball teams in Region 13C will start to get their seasons going this weekend.
The Jackson Bulls are scheduled to open their season on Sunday with a 2 p.m. First Nite League game at Heron Lake. All-time team wins leader Ryan Rasche will get the start for Jackson vs. the Lakers.
The Bulls lost a couple of pitchers during the offseason as Pat Boggess has retired and Sean Minder moved, but they have also added some new faces and will have as deep a group as they’ve had in a while.
Jackson opens its home schedule at Wacker Field vs. Mountain Lake on Sunday, May 14.
There should be enough work for all of the arms on the roster as in addition to its league schedule, Jackson again has traditional nonleague opponents Blue Earth, Lamberton and the Milroy Yankees on the schedule.
The Bulls also have a game scheduled at Larchwood, Iowa, which plays in the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Association.
Rounding out the 25-game schedule is a nonleague game vs. region rival Hadley. The Buttermakers have ended the last two seasons in walk-off fashion in Game 3 of a playoff series in Hadley.
Lakefield will wait until Wednesday to open its season by hosting the Fairmont Martins in a 7:30 p.m. game at Stan King Field.
The Frogs still have most of the players who were with the team when it first took the field in 2012 and with that core now reaching their 30s, they have added some players from the past few classes at Jackson County Central.
Phil Pronk is expected to get the opening night assignment for Lakefield.