The 2016 baseball season didn’t end the way the Pike County Bulldogs would have wanted, but first year head coach Chad Mansmann says it was a step in the right direction.

The Bulldogs finished the season with a record of 3-17 and made it to the first round of the post season, accomplishing an off-season goal.

“I think the hard part is behind us,” Mansmann said. “Our goal this year was to try and set a foundation. We accomplished our goal. We made it to the playoff. That was our goal from day one and we accomplished that.”

At the beginning of the season, Mansmann knew defense would need to improve for the team to succeed.

“We struggled very much so in the beginning of the season,” Mansmann said. “Late in the year I think we averaged one error per game. That is not what you want, but it is a drastic improvement from 10 to 11 per game at the beginning of the year.”

The Bulldogs did make the post season in 2016. Even though they lost the first round sweep to Geneva, the players were able to experience post-season play.

“The more baseball you play is definitely important,” Mansmann said. “We need to play as much baseball as we can. The experience factor is the most important thing that this team went through this year. We had a lot of young guys step up, from seventh grade on, that had to play in a varsity game. I think that is drastically going to improve our leadership and our experience in years to come.”

During the summer, Mansmann is urging his players to keep working hard in preparation for 2017.

“We have to get on a weight program,” Mansmann said. “We all need to get a little bit bigger, stronger and faster. A lot of these guys just play baseball so they don’t get to see the weight room very much. That is something that we need to build on in the off season.”