The 17 and under American Legion Post 70 baseball team is anxious to get the 2017 season underway.

The Post 70 team has begun practicing for the season, which is set to begin June 2 with the Terry Jinright Tournament.

“Everybody loves to play summer ball,” said head coach Ross Hixon. “We have tried to assemble a team with every high school team’s best players. Whenever you have that everyone has to bring their A game, and that helps bring out the competition.”

Along with two players from Charles Henderson and seven from Pike Lib, Post 70 will also have players from Opp, Brantley and Trinity.

Will Reeves and Noah Lowery will represent Charles Henderson, while Wood Jinright, Reed Jinright, Trevor Barron, Clay Barron, Cody Hollis, Jade Sikes and Max Copeland will represent Pike Lib.

The rest of the Post 70 players are: Edge Branum, Logan Ross, Kody Richburg, Will Aaron, Spurlin Kelley, Nate Renfroe, Ethan Baker, Dalton Grider and Brett James.

“We have a pretty good variety within the hour radius of Troy,” Hixon said. “We have a good mix of local and out of town guys. It’s a good group for sure. During the summer it’s getting the chemistry together with the guys you haven’t played with. It takes a while to get familiar with everyone.”

Goal one for Post 70 will be to improve as players. Like the 19U team, the 17U group of players has sites set on playing baseball at the next level. Hixon wants his players to take this summer as an opportunity to get their names on people’s radar.

“When I assembled our team I wanted to get the guys that have the desire to play at the next level,” Hixon said. “That way you know they will take it serious and they are going to want to get better. I told them it’s going to be run like a college type deal. They are at the age now where their names need to start being on people’s radar.”

Every play on Post 70’s 19U team is either playing college ball this year or on the roster to play next year. That has piqued the interest of many younger players.

“That appeals to kids,” Hixon said. “When you look at the older team and everyone is playing college ball or will be playing college ball, that is a big draw to kids.”

Post 70 will play almost every weekend, including two tournaments in Troy, one in Dothan, one in Ozark and one in Columbia, Tennessee.

“It’s going to be a busy summer,” Hixon said. “We are going to try and get some mid-week games in there too so we aren’t going weekend to weekend playing.”