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Game one of 132 starts Friday for the Quad Cities River Bandits.
The new season opens with a three-game set in South Bend over the weekend before the home opener Tuesday against Wisconsin.
It’s year two under manager Jesus Azuaje.
In year one, Azuaje showed the bandits will play aggressive and that won’t change.
The focus this season? Turning close games into wins.
A good mix of returners like catcher Blake Mitchell and infielder Austin Charles along with new faces on the pitching staff.
Including 19-year-old and number four Royals prospect, David shields.
I love pitching deep in to games and close games. The adrenaline is unmatched,” Shields said. “Its different in the blowouts, when its tighter you have to lock in a little more. Helps you out because you have to stay dialed. I love pitching in those games.”
Its the Royals way. Were going to take the extra bag. Have good pitching and execute,” Charles said. “Move runners over and situational hitting. Were definitely going to get the job done and do everything we can to win.”
We have a great team. A lot of scrappy guys. We’ll go out there and score some runs,” Mitchell said. “Hopefully have less closer games than what Azuaje said. Win by more than a few runs. Go out there and have a lot of wins.”
Were going to be fundamentally sound and go out and compete every single night. They did it last year and the group we have this year. We have players coming from Columbia who stole seventy plus bags last season,” Azuaje said. “Its going to be a fun group to watch. Go out there and compete every single night. Every pitch. Pitching wise we are strong. We have (Justin) Lamkin and Shields. Both lefties that are both electric so it’ll be a fun group to watch.”
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