Eagles prepare for 2025 baseball season

“We’re coming off a season where we didn’t have a lot of success in terms of wins, and we’re not returning any first-team all-conference players — let alone any all-state players — so I think you have to be realistic in that sense,” said fourth-year head Coach Max Reitz. “On the other hand, we ended up starting and playing a lot of sophomores last year in pretty important positions — especially up the middle of the field. We have all those guys back this year.

“I’m optimistic we’re going to have more success this year. I don’t know how good this team could be yet. A lot of it will depend on our pitchers throwing strikes and our infielders turning ground balls into outs.”

The Eagles were 9-17 overall in 2024 and 7-10 and in a tie for fifth place in the Northwest Oregon Conference, missing the state playoffs for the first time since 2013 (outside two COVID-affected seasons). HRV finished the season winning three of its final four games, but prior to that was a seven-game losing streak which essentially ended the team’s chances of reaching the postseason. Three seniors — Addison Postlewait, Davis Parr and Hunter Bryant — return, as do four of those juniors who Reitz referred to with ample varsity playing time: Maverick Hockett, Trevor Jacobs, Kingston McAdam, and Bodie Stuben. Postlewait and Stuben are the team’s co-captains.

Reitz said: “Those two kids have been doing a great job of providing leadership early on, and they’ve earned it with how they perform on the field and uphold our core values.”

Stuben was selected by the Northwest Oregon Conference coaches to the second team all-league in 2024. Postlewait was chosen by coaches as honorable mention as a right-handed pitcher.

Also bolstering the varsity’s “opening day” roster are juniors Chaz Valentine and Nicholas Tuttle, sophomores Davin Snyder and Max Graves, and freshman Tyson Harjo.

Reitz said: “We’ve been hard at work of course the last two weeks, like everybody, trying to get ready. We had a great preseason and a good turnout of kids.

“We’re actually lucky … to have some really great weather the first week and so I think compared to previous years we’ve probably spent more time out on the field in these first 10 days of practice that we usually do — so that’s been nice. We’re getting ready; we’re about to find out how ready we are.”

Hood River is scheduled to play its first two games at home (weather permitting) March 18 vs. St. Helens, and March 21 vs. Pendleton. A Spring Break trip to the Medford area includes a three-game-in-four-days slate.

“The kids we have in the program — top to bottom — are the kids who really want to be out and work on their baseball and really are fired up to play baseball and competing and taking on the challenges of high school baseball,” Reitz said. “That part’s made practices very fun.

“At the varsity level this group right now is very cohesive and that’s very enjoyable. Their default is to kind of support each other and root each other on. And so, as coaches, we’ve definitely been enjoying that vibe. If we limit walks and we limit errors on the infield then I think that creates a fairly high ceiling for this group.”