As soon as one season ends, a new one begins.

That's baseball in Haymarket for the spring and summer as the Battlefield Bobcats have finished their season, the seniors are graduating, and the Haymarket Senators are taking over.

The wooden bat Valley Baseball League ball club is coming off a surprise post-season bid from 2008 when the team finished in the top eight for the first time in its existence. There are a few familiar faces returning for the Senators this year, led by manager Ryan Fecteau, all-star outfielder Joe Conforti, Richmond's Andrew Lawrence of Boston College and N.C. State sophomore pitcher Grant Sasser.

Fecteau took over the helm in the middle of the 2008 campaign and turned the team around well enough to clinch a spot in the playoffs. But back then, he was working with the coaching staff provided by his predecessor Bill Shields.

What that means for this year is this time the Saint Anselm College alum selected his own assistants, drawing from his time spent coaching in Utah and California.

Pitching coach Phil Myers noticed that the team has gelled well so far despite two opening losses.

"I mean, summer ball in college, that's what it's about: all these guys that come out here, you know, they're guys that have pro aspirations. That's why they play summer ball," said Myers, fresh out of USC Upstate.

Even with a western coaching staff, the Haymarket roster is comprised almost exclusively of players from the east coach, with the lone exceptions being Ohio natives Jim Vahalik (catcher) and Matt Suschak (pitcher).

Haymarket went with a big line up this year in the most physical sense of the word. Four members of the pitching staff range are at least 6-foot-4 (Suschak) with junior Steve Forster towering above his opposition at 6-foot-7.

Kevin Johnson, a 6-foot-5 junior out of Pensacola, Fla., is set to lead the Senators on the mound this season as the team's ace hurler while freshman Mark Kuzma is already gunning 90 miles per hour.

"On the pitching side of it, I believe it's a pitching staff that could win a championship here," said hitting coach Mike Martin.

Had it not been for three errors Sunday in a game versus Fauquier, Haymarket may have secured a win on the back of starter Sasser, who gave up one earned run in four innings on the mound. He ended up as the losing pitcher because two additional unearned runs scored as part of a 6-4 Gator victory, a noticeable improvement from Haymarket's 10-1 opening day loss to Front Royal.

Haymarket's offense did not produce any runs until the top of the ninth inning again Fauquier. According to the coaching staff, the top of the line-up is actually pretty solid; it's just the rest of it that needs some work.

After all, first baseman Michael Demma and third baseman Grant Hopkins, who hit in the top four, combined for 11 hits in the first two games

"We're starting to come together as a team," said Martin.

"They just need to stay on it," added Myers.