Staff file photo / Dan Hiner Cardinal Mooney pitcher Ben Oddis delivers during a regional semifinal against Waynedale on June 4 at Massillon.

Last spring, Cardinal Mooney baseball coach Ed Reese led a lineup filled with young talent.

The Cardinals finished 19-7, including a seven-game winning streak, to win the program’s first district title since 2013. It was a nice step forward after going 9-15 in 2023.

After reaching the regional semifinals last season, the Cardinals are positioned to make another run when the season starts on Friday.

“A district (championship) is a goal for a lot of teams, and we hadn’t experienced that in quite a while,” Reese said. “Just crossing that first hurdle and experiencing June baseball, I think it’s gonna help a lot this year. We know what to expect. We know the type of play and the type of teams that you need to play and play against to make it that far. I think that experience is going to be valuable this season.”

Reese said last year’s team “raised the bar a little bit.” And he said the goal is to get better each day and progress the program forward even more.

And the Cardinals have plenty of players returning to potentially make that happen.

Mooney returns eight of the nine starters from last year’s regional semifinal against Waynedale in Massillon. Despite losing eight seniors, the only senior starter in the game was catcher Trent Litman.

With their experience, the Cardinals have some wisdom to fall back on. But they also have positional versatility, so the lineup could be adjusted to fit their opponent on any given day.

“We have 13, 14 guys who have played varsity,” Reese said. “Finding the best combination that works for us is the advantage we have. We can do a lot of different things with a lot of different guys.”

The bulk of the Cardinals’ key players are now juniors. The third-year hitters are led by Ford Stacy, Kaden Reese and Andrew Bushey.

Kaden Reese led the starters with a .461 batting average, Stacy drove in a team-high 31 RBIs and Bushey scored a team-best 34 runs last season.

The pitching staff will also be led by a pair of juniors. Ben Oddis and Taco Verroco both posted ERAs of 2.42 and 2.15, respectively last year. Oddis led the team by appearing in 11 games, and Verroco pitched in 10.

“It’s gonna be fun when they’re upperclassmen playing against upperclassmen. These last couple years, they were underclassmen playing against upperclassmen,” Ed Reese said. “The experience, the way they carry themselves … it’s like they’re not regular juniors. They know what we’re playing for, they know how to carry themselves day in and day out, they’re constantly trying to get better and make each other better. They’re a fun group to coach.”

As an independent, Mooney has filled its schedule with some challenging opponents.

The Cardinals will open the season on Friday against Canfield before going to Norwayne, hosting Triway and Columbiana and finishing March with a trip to Archbishop Hoban.

Their schedule also features games with Warren JFK, trips to Boardman and Waynedale and home meetings against West Branch and South Range. That’s all in addition to two games against rival Ursuline.

Ed Reese and Mooney hope the returning experience will help the Cardinals navigate that tough schedule and return to the regional round.

“It’s a veteran group. We got a lot of three-year and four-year starters returning, so experience shouldn’t be a problem for us,” Reese said. “It’s a fun group. Everyone’s working hard every day, and I think everyone’s working for the same goal. It’s been fun so far, and we’re excited to start this week, whenever that may be.”