A year ago, the Spanish Springs baseball team was eliminated from the Northern 4A regional tournament after a pair of emotional one-run losses to traditional local powers Douglas and McQueen.

After the loss to McQueen, that ended the Cougars’ season, Spanish Springs baseball coach Mike Bosco told his players, “we’ve got to learn a lesson from this. We’ll have an older group next year and be more experienced. We should be a better team. We’ll be back.”

The Cougars are indeed back and ready to begin their spring campaign with a more seasoned squad. Cougars coaches and players hope their experiences of a year ago pay off through the grind of a High Desert League schedule in the coming months. Most in the northern Nevada prep baseball community believe they will.

“We want to play,” Bosco said of the Cougars’ fast-approaching season opener. “The kids are chomping at the bit. Many coaches around the league are pointing at us to be a frontrunner. I think we should be strong, but there are other strong teams too.”

Spanish Springs starts its schedule this week with four games in three days, all part of the season-opening Mike Bearman Memorial Tournament. The Cougars play Douglas at home at 3:45 p.m. Thursday before facing Lowry and Reed Friday and McQueen Saturday.

The SSHS-nine has a couple scrimmages under its belt to knock off some offseason rust and give Cougars coaches an idea of what to expect when the games start to count, but Bosco said there are still plenty of questions that need to be answered, most surrounding the pitching staff.

“I have told the kids that I don’t think we have a lot of depth in pitching,” Bosco said. “We’ve got a lot of kids that can pitch, but I don’t know about the quality yet.

“I hope we’ll have some guys that step up and keep us in ballgames. I like what I’ve seen in scrimmages, but scrimmages are different than games.”

The biggest known commodity on the Cougars’ pitching staff is senior Tyler Eaton. The southpaw led the SSHS staff in innings pitched a year ago and was a first team High Desert League selection after posting a 5-3 record with a 3.12 ERA. Still, there is reason for concern. Eaton is battling shoulder problems. Bosco said doctors have told Eaton he does not need surgery, but needs to build up arm strength. The Cougars skipper says Eaton is at about 85 percent with the season set to get underway.

Other Spanish Springs players who Bosco expects to get time on the hill are Alex Vetter, Tanner Oates, Jake Bray, Chase Kittilsen, Justin Agliolo and Josh Manguso.

While Oates and Bray will likely get some pitching chores, their biggest value to the Spanish Springs squad is in the middle infield. Bray and Oates are the Cougars shortstop and second baseman respectively and both were first-team all-league honorees as sophomores in 2009.

“They should be leaders on the field, not cheerleaders, but guys who need to play well,” Bosco said.

Spanish Springs brings back a bevy of all-league players from last spring’s team, the most of any HDL competitor. Bosco believes that gives his team depth, but he also expects the battles for playing time to be fierce.

Center fielder Brandon Mathis, third baseman Humberto Espinoza and designated hitter Davis Murphy all return for Spanish Springs after earning second-team all-league awards a year ago. Agliolo at first base and Anthony Vierra, an outfielder, are back as well after picking up HDL honorable mention honors last spring.

With talent and experience returning at the plate, Spanish Springs should find the offense to be a strength.

“We have a good team. We’re going to score runs and we’ll be there at the end,” Bosco said. “I know that, but the determining factor will be how we come together as a team.”

Northern Nevada’s fickle early season weather has not helped the Cougars prepare during the first two weeks of workouts. On Tuesday, Bosco said the team has had only five outdoor workouts since practice started Feb. 27.

“I’m a fair-weather guy,” Bosco said. “So if it’s too cold outside and we have the option, we’ll go inside. We’ve practiced a ton. We’ve got a lot done inside and with our new (batting) cages, we’re getting in more swings than ever ... We’ve just now in the past few days been able to get out there consistently.”