Rochester John Marshall baseball enjoys first day of outdoor practice

(ABC 6 News) – Basketball may be dominating the headlines lately in sports, but spring belongs to baseball.

Monday afternoon the Rochester John Marshall Rockets took the field for their first day of outdoor practice.

The team is hoping for a fresh start after finishing 8-15 last season. They will have a new head coach at the helm in Tyler Zemla.

He said the roster has yet to be finalized because they are still conducting tryouts, but he’s excited about the upcoming season.

"I had a preseason meeting with the kids back in November and one of the things I said about our team philosophy is anybody in this room hit a home run last year?" Zemla said. "And it was silent. So just kind of knowing we’re not going to be hitting 3-run homers, we’re going to have to get on base, get the guy over, get him in. So we’re going to have to win a lot of 4-3, 5-2 ball games so we’re going to have to rely a lot on defense and pitching this year I hope."

The Rockets open up the season on the road in Iowa, where they will take on Hutchinson at Wartburg College on April 2.