A new starting lineup and a new home field to play on has set the stage for a season of fresh starts for the Spartans this year.

The Bainbridge High varsity baseball team took the field for their first outing of the season Monday, March 12, against visitors from North Kitsap, stepping onto new — considerably improved, much drier than usual — grass, sporting a few new names and looking to set a triumphant tone.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. The island squad was bested 5-3.

Coaches, though, were reluctant to attach too much weight to any one early season showing.

“Things are a little sloppy in game one, but that’s to be expected,” said Co-Head Coach Bill Ackerley. “This was about giving the guys a chance to play positions that they would like to play longterm, or that they may or may not be able to, and it gives us a chance to see who’s the strongest, who’s ready.”

There was a lot to look at.

Players traded positions and switched spots often in the NK game, with five guys taking turns on the mound in a familiar getting-to-know-you dance: the Spartan early season shuffle.

“We moved guys around a lot,” Ackerley said. “We played guys in positions they might not necessarily start there when the season comes.

“That’s the purpose of these games, this time of year.”

Co-Head Coaches, longtime friends, BHS parents and regular golf buddies Ackerley and Doug McCombs returned this year for their second season at the helm. The division of labor will remain the same: McCombs tends to lead on the field and Ackerley is the overall program manager.

Along with the coaches, the team is led by a slew of senior Spartans: Garrett Aichele (an All Metro team center fielder last year), Theo Colgan, Kellen French, Tad Grindeland, Liam Kobs, Mitch Kurtz, Brooks Lierle (All Metro), Ian Matthews, James McMurray (second team, All Metro last year) and Ethan Schulte (All Metro, second base).

The roster boats just two juniors: Liam Hatakenaka (named All Metro on the mound last year) and AJ Staff.

There are no freshman among the varsity lineup this year, though five sophomores round out the roster, including Jasiah George, Jonah Giblin, Jonathan Kussie, Parker Loverich and Luis Vales Crespo, one of the team’s two primary catchers — an exotic surprise from a very different island who came a long way to suit up for BHS.

“I guess you’d call him a transfer student, from Puerto Rico,” Ackerley said. “Their town was devastated. They got no power. [His] dad had to go to Houston to find a job, and Luis happened to know some coaches here in the Seattle area who recommended that he come here. A family on the island has taken him in as a guardian, and he expects to live out his high school career on Bainbridge Island.

“We’re lucky to have him,” the coach added. “It’s always nice to have a good extra catcher.”

Both of the team’s Monday catchers were new to the position, in fact, among some other switch-ups.

“The catcher position’s entirely new,” Ackerley said. “Ethan Schulte, who was All Metro at second base, has slid over to short, and we weren’t able to have Brooks Lierle, one of our team captains, another All Metro player from last year, play today because he hadn’t gotten enough practices in.”

The unfortunate absence was felt by all, Ackerley said, and undoubtedly contributed to the loss.

“He’s a very big part of not only our lineup but also our chemistry,” the coach said. “It’ll be good to have him.”

First game jitters aside, Ackerley said the team — and most especially the coaches — were already in a better place than at this time last year.

“We were better prepared for this season because we had a whole summer and fall knowing these were our guys,” he said. “We didn’t get here until late fall last season. That part of it was real nice. I think we’re better prepared. We got a deep roster and a bunch of good young men. We’re looking forward to the season.”

Off the bat (pun intended), the team was obviously hitting well already.

“This was a good hitting team last year and we didn’t lose any of that,” he said. “We didn’t have any seniors pitch last year, except for maybe an inning or two. Otherwise, the entire pitching staff is returning. Plus, we’ve added Kellen French, who is a longtime island resident but he went at played at O’Dea High School. He went and played in Florida for a bit, and he’s back for his senior year.”

Another aspect of the game that’s almost totally new this year is the field itself.

A notoriously swampy patch of ground (the Spartans were unable to play a single home game there last year) the island school’s home turf was the recipient of a pretty radical makeover this year.

“Thanks to the folks at Wing Point Golf & Country Club, they contributed a lot of manpower, expertise and equipment,” Ackerley said. “We put in 8,000 linear feet of … drainage, and then on top of that we skinned the infield and grew new grass. I’m really amazed. It’s starting to pop — a couple of days ago it looked like a desert.”

The Tacoma Rainiers grounds crew also lent a hand — several of them, in fact — to beautifying the BHS ballfield.

“[They’ve] been volunteering their time around the West Sound,” Ackerley explained. “We were fortunate enough, they were working with the island Little League and Bainbridge Island Little League recruited them to help us built a new mound.”

Think that’s just a matter of piling up some dirt? Think again.

“It was quite the process to watch,” the coach said. “All of our boys, our guys helped out. But we watched some real artists at work.”

Canvass thus expertly readied, it only remains to be seen what sort of picture the Spartans will paint this year.