Reigning State Champion, Moses Lake, get set for a new season
Casey McCarthy/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake senior Tre Ramirez surveys the field before shouting instruction to his team as head coach Donnie Lindgren gets set to run the drill again. The Chiefs gear up for a new season after claiming the 4A state championship in 2019.
Casey McCarthy/Columbia Basin Herald Pitchers kneel beside the mound in practice on Tuesday at Larson Playfield as the Moses Lake baseball team gets set for the 2020 season
Casey McCarthy/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake head coach Donnie Lindgren talks with his team at the beginning of practice on Tuesday afternoon at Larson Playfield as the Chiefs get set for another season on the diamond.
Casey McCarthy/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake senior catcher Tre Ramirez looks to lead his team back to the state tournament after claiming the title in 2019.
Casey McCarthy/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake head coach Donnie Lindgren shouts instruction to his infield players during a drill, as the Chiefs run through different gametime scenarios in practice on Tuesday afternoon at Larson Playfield.
MOSES LAKE — The trophy has long been tucked away in the case at Moses Lake High School, and it’s a clean slate now for the reigning 4A state champs in 2020.
Just as he told his 2019 team to forget the past coming in, Chiefs head coach Donnie Lindgren said he has been stressing “forget last year” early on.
“Last year’s in the past,” Lindgren said. “This is a whole new year. We’re going to have to do things the right way.”
Early on in practice, Lindgren said he’s been stressing fundamentals as he fills in the pieces lost from the 2019 title-winning lineup. The Moses Lake coach said if this group can nail down the fundamentals, he likes their odds.
“They have the confidence that they can do it again,” Lindgren said. “To be honest, it’s hard to win. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.”
Lindgren said he’s looking for his three senior captains — Dax Lindgren, Tre Ramirez and Gabe Passey — to help lead what is a larger group of underclassmen than in the past.
The Chiefs coach said it’s nice because all three lead by example.
Ramirez, the team’s senior catcher, said he remembers what it was like being one of the younger players first stepping onto that varsity stage. Ramirez said he wants to try and take some of the younger players under his wing, knowing how “scary” and “intimidating” that moment once was.
“They can work, they can mess up,” Ramirez said. “And also, learn from it and make themselves better and the team better.”
Coming off the state championship doesn’t change his approach, Ramirez said, but does help him remember the high level he’s capable of playing at.
“I want to grow off of what I finished on last year, be better than that, so I can push my teammates to be playing at that high level as well,” Ramirez said.
The goals for this season, the Moses Lake catcher said, are “same as last year.”
Senior pitcher and first baseman Dax Lindgren has one last run with the Chiefs before he heads off to play at Gonzaga University next season. In his final season with Moses Lake, Dax Lindgren said he expects to be competing right back where they were last year.
“We’ve got a good group of guys, and I think we’re just as good this year,” Dax Lindgren said. “I think we can be right there again.”
Many of the players the senior first baseman has played with since he was young have now moved on after graduation. Dax Lindgren said it’s a bit of weird feeling being on the diamond with a new group.
The Moses Lake senior said he wants to try and be more of a vocal leader and role model in his final season, helping to set a precedent for expectations every day.
“Just try and teach them to bring the same energy every day to practice, and carry that over to the game,” Dax Lindgren said. “Hopefully, they’ll figure it out. I’m sure they will.”
Coach Donnie Lindgren said what he likes most about this team is that they’re “just a bunch of baseball players” at the end of the day.
“They don’t want to be anywhere other than the baseball field,” Donnie Lindgren said. “They’re gritty, they’re dirty, whatever it takes. They’re hardworking, but a fun group of guys.”
