With the high school baseball season now wrapped up, the local baseball players will suit up for the American Legion Post 70 baseball team.

The American Legion Post 70 baseball program will field two teams once again in 2017, a 19-and-under team as well as a 17-and-under squad.

Rush Hixon will take the reigns as the 19U coach for his second season and with one practice under their belt, they are ready to get the summer season under way.

“I can’t wait to get going,” Hixon said. “Getting the first year under my belt was really good. I was blessed with a great team last year and we have half of that team back this year. Not only am I more experienced, they are too.”

Post 70’s roster will once again be full of local talent from both Charles Henderson and Pike Liberal Arts, but will also have players from Dothan as well as Montgomery.

“It’s very similar to last year. We have kids from Charles Henderson and Pike,” Hixon said. “We have kids from the Dothan area, Enterprise High School and Park Crossing.”

Many of the players are familiar with one another by being teammates or rivals. Coach Hixon believes that familiarity will benefit his team throughout the season.

“The players like a lot,” Hixon said. “Most of them play against one another during the high school season and a lot of them are rivals. Once they get on the same team they get to know each other. It creates friendships and lifelong friends.”

After a grueling high school season, these players now strap on the cleats ready to make their name known to college programs. Summer ball gives these players the opportunity to show off their baseball skills to coaches and scouts.

“These guys are playing to get looked at for the next level,” Hixon said. “The competition level is raised a good bit. You won’t play many teams that won’t be very good. The competition level is the biggest thing. It turns into a job ordeal where you are really trying to be seen.”

With that being said Hixon and Post 70 still want to be successful as a team. The hope is that if they players succeed individually it will make the team more successful.

“I think it goes hand in hand,” Hixon said. “If they get better as individuals, they are going to help the team. That is one thing that we harp on them. We want them to prepare for the next level and once they do that it carries over into the team aspect of it.”

Post 70 will begin play next Wednesday when they head to Montgomery to open the season. Troy and Post 70 will play host to two separate tournaments this summer including one next weekend. Their second one will be in July.

“In one of the tournaments we reached out to a lot of the good legion ball teams from across the southeast, teams from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee,” Hixon said. “That should be a good tournament to see where we stand amongst the other legion ball teams in the southeast.”