His squad, the Tonganoxie No. 2 American Legion team, is winless heading into Thursday’s doubleheader against Tonganoxie No. 1.

But the team, made up mostly of junior varsity players from the high school team that played in the spring, is young.

“We’ve got some young kids and we’re going against some older kids,” Bailey said. “It’s a learning experience for them.”

Tonganoxie No. 2 has been close to that first victory.

The squad had one game go into extra innings before the team lost that game.

And last week, against Geiger Ready-Mix of Leavenworth, the team held a 3-0 lead. But Geiger stormed back for a 12-3 win.

“We seem to have one or two innings every game where we make a few too many errors,” Bailey said.

Chris Newton was the team’s top hitter, but injured his hand recently and will be out for two weeks.

Other players Bailey said were hitting the ball well were Tyler Sparks, Logan Forbis, Josh Nowasell and James Bailey.

“They’ve all got pretty good averages, but we’re not getting them all together when we need them,” Bailey said.

Alex Nowasell has been one of the team’s better pitchers, but Bailey said he’s been “nursing a hurt arm this year.”

He’s thrown a few innings this summer, but Bailey hopes he’ll be able to throw more when tournament time rolls around next month.

The squad is 0-12 heading into Thursday’s games against Tonganoxie No. 1, which is 13-1 on the season. The doubleheader begins at 6 p.m. at the Leavenworth County Fairgrounds.

Defeating the other Tonganoxie team could be a tall order, but Bailey expects his team to keep working to erase that zero in the win column.

“They’ve kept their heads up,” Bailey said. “I haven’t seen them let down any. That’s a good thing.”

Tonganoxie No. 2 roster

Boone Sorrell (McLouth)

Chris Newton

Jordan Diekman

Alex Nowasell

James Bailey

Josh Nowasell

Eric Lowe

Logan Forbis

Trey Brumbaugh

Trey Lohman

Ryan Stockman

Tyler Sparks

Jarred Lamb

Grant Ebert

Pat Bailey, coach

Mark Nowasell, assistant coach