ESCANABA — The Bay College baseball team begins its season with its first week of games in Florida today. Second-year head coach Mike Pankow returns a roster that includes nine players from last year and 17 freshmen who are expected to add immediate depth.

The Norse went just 10-22-1 with their first team ever a year ago, but Pankow expects to see some solid improvement this year.

“I expect us to be a very competitve team,” he said in a phone interview Thursday night. “It’s hard to win games at this level and you get in that trap of how many you should win, but we’re a heck of a lot deeper than last year with the guys we brought in. Expectations are we should improve record-wise.

“We kind of underachieved last year, but the more I reflect on last year the more I realize they were all freshmen who hadn’t gone through the fire. When big opportunities arose we weren’t able to take them. I think those returning sophomores know what’s like to go through the fire now and are used to playing college baseball. That will be a big part of our improvement.”

Returning players include pitchers Kyler Moir, Logan Bailey, Alex Morehouse and Mason Korhonen. Also returning are second baseman Jeff Allen, third baseman Lucas Weinert, catcher Dane VanDenHeuvel and outfielders Sam McDonald and Riley Johnson. Ben Snyder and Tanner Halvorson will also be new to the team as sophomore transfers.

Incoming freshmen include Gladstone graduates Carson Shea and Jared Crow, Escanaba graduate Jake LaFave and Bark River-Harris graduates Matt Richer Jr. and Jackson Bower.

Other freshmen Pankow expects to make an impact include Joseph Delgado, Scotty Adams, Nicolas Goebert and David Ibn Ezra, a native of Israel.

“David is an extremely talented young man that came in from Israel,” Pankow said. “As a freshman, he’s coming in with a lot of experience. In Israel you have to do military service, and he played on their national team so he has experience playing in different parts of the world.

“The Gladstone kids — Jared Crow and Carson Shea — they’re so well coached and will be in the middle of our pitching rotation and batting order. Joseph Delgado is a super utility guy. He could do anything we asked him to do on the field. Scotty Adams hits left-handed and can play all three spots in the outfield if we need him to, and Nick Gobert is going to be one of our better starters. He’s from Germany.”

Pitching was Bay’s biggest strength a year ago, and Pankow expects that to continue this season. He also feels good about his hitters entering today’s season-opening games against the University of Northwestern (Minn.) and Washington College.

“I thought our preparation for this was right on schedule. We started hitting live three to four weeks ago and our pitchers were way ahead of our hitters. Now, our hitters have started to square up and put together good at-bats,” Pankow said. “We’re ready to be outside and ready to play. Outside of some injury and illness, we’re going to be all set. When you play this many games, you’re going to find out about your depth real quick.”

Bay’s first and only home games will be against Dakota County Technical College April 25 and 26. Those games have extra importance, as the winner advances to the NJCAA regional tournament. Bay was 0-7 against the Blue Knights last year despite playing them tough more times than not. Pankow says the goal is to go much further beyond that this season.

“When you look at our season — as an independent and not being in a conference — the season really comes down to those seven games with Dakota County,” Pankow said. “Last year, we wanted to prove we could play with them and have a chance to get in that tournament. We proved we’re on their level when you look at the scores. We lost some really close games and had some games that got away. We have an improved team this year, so the goal is not just to play with them anymore, but to be able to take it to them and be in that regional championship.”

The Norse also added three assistant coaches to help with preseason practices, which helped Pankow tremendously.

“We’ve gotten a good deal of help. Chris Reynolds and Jon Bintner helped out last year, but we added Tyler Swanson, Tony Nelson and Jake Sinclair,” Pankow said.

The schedule:

March 7 — University of Northwestern (MN), Fort Pierce, FL; Washington College

March 8 — Alice Lloyd College, Vero Beach, FL

March 9 — Hagerstown Community College, Vero Beach, FL; Miami University

March 10 — ASA College (Miami), Lake Worth, FL

March 11 — College of Lake County, Fort Pierce, FL; Nyack College

March 12 — Ancilla College, Vero Beach, FL; Hagerstown Community College

March 13 — University of Northwestern (MN), Fort Pierce, FL

March 21 — Rainy River Community College

March 22 — Rainy River Community College

March 27 — at Riverland Community College; Itasca Community College at Riverland Community College

March 28 — St. Cloud Technical & Community College, Austin, MN; Central Lakes College-Brainerd

March 29 — Northland Community & Technical College, Austin, MN; Central Lakes College-

April 3 — at Milwaukee Area Technical College

April 4 — at Milwaukee Area Technical College

April 5 — at Carroll University JV

April 8 — at Marian University JV

April 10 — at Dakota County Technical College

April 11 — at Dakota County Technical College

April 14 — at Ripon College JV

April 25 — Dakota County Technical College

April 26 — Dakota County Technical College