Following a winless season in 2025, the Bushnell- Prairie City High School baseball squad and coach Dave Arnold are aiming for improvement in 2026.
But it won’t be easy for the Spartans.
“We’re low on numbers,” said Arnold. “We’ve only got 13 kids.”
“Last year, we only had four kids that had ever played high school baseball before,” he added. “Now, I’ve coached all these kids at some point, whether it was junior high or last year, so we’ve got a little bit more of an idea what’s going on.”
“We’re young, but we’re learning,” said Arnold.
Steering the Spartan ship will be seniors Connor Palm and Ryan Adler.
“Connor’s our go-to guy,” said Arnold. “He’s our shortstop or he’s our ace on the mound.”
“He’s been with us for four years,” Arnold added of Palm. “He was with us when we won 32 games and he was with us when we won zero. He’s been through it all.”
Two other key returnees for B-PC this season are Thomas Anderson and Dylan King.
“Thomas Anderson is back. He was our starting catcher last year,” said Arnold. “Dylan King was a second team all-conference guy last year. He’s an all over the infield guy and he’s probably going to be our number two arm on the mound.”
From there, Arnold looks for the younger kids to help shoulder the load.
“Alex Kohler is going to have to pitch and play some shortstop,” said Arnold of the freshman. “Miles Strode is a nice first baseman that’s going to have to pitch as well.”
Other players on the roster include returnees Ryan Adler, Braxton Kempf, Jayden Powell, Shaden Shannon and Jadyn Robinson, along with newcomers Eli Ferguson, Ethan Hyde and Landon Ferguson.
“If you evaluate this year’s team compared to last year’s team, we lost a couple of players from last year,” said Arnold. “But overall, I think we are a better group this year.”
“Some of these freshmen, they’re nice ballplayers,” he added. “You mix them in with Dylan King and Thomas Anderson who have a year under their belt (is a positive).”
“It’s kind of hard as a freshman to figure it out,” said Arnold. “They’ve never played against older kids before. (King and Anderson) know how it is and we’ve got to build from that and keep going forward every day.”
“We’ve got some seniors that have been with us for four years,” said Arnold. “Hopefully they can guide the way for us and show these younger guys how we do things.”
“So far they’re doing a great job of doing that.”
For the Spartans, it is not a matter of wins and losses, but improvement.
“I told the kids when we started that I don’t think it’s fair to put a number value ‘Let’s win 10 games, or a regional, or whatever,’” said Arnold. “Our goal is to move forward every day instead of moving backwards.”
A key for the squad, like many, will be its pitching.
“It’s going to be pitching, just like everyone else,” said Arnold as to a key for the team. “We’ve got a pretty beefed up schedule with 35 games and Connor Palm and Dylan King can’t pitch them all. We’re going to look for some of these other guys to throw good innings for us.”
