MIDWAY, Ky. - With the regular season just hours away, Midway baseball players are ready to be through with what's proven to be a claustrophobic preseason.

One of the coldest and most snow-riddled winters to hit Kentucky in some time has prevented the Eagles from spending any significant time on their own field. They've instead been forced to do nearly all hitting, pitching and fielding drills inside Hunter Field House, an on-campus gymnasium.

So with a season-opening weekend trip to Lawrenceville, Ga. on the horizon, the mere ability to take a field is proving to be very alluring.

"(We're just), ready to get to Georgia," senior Grant Hotchkiss said prior to the team's season-opening games against Huntington (Ind.) and Georgia Gwinnett on Friday. "Once you get to Georgia, baseball looks a lot bigger than it does in that gym."

But that's just one of the reasons Hotchkiss and several other key returners are particularly eager to get back into action.

After winning a regular season River States Conference championship in 2023, Midway lost Hotchkiss, an all-conference player the previous season, just five games into 2024. 

Injuries continued to mount, with multiple starters being forced to miss multiple games. As a result, Midway had its moments but struggled to find consistency, finishing just 22-25 and being eliminated in the first round of the conference tournament.

But with the bulk of his veteran core coming back, coach Luther Bramblett believes his squad is equipped to look more like the one that won the RSC title than the one that endured a string of "peaks and valleys" last spring.

"For the first time in the nine years that we've been a program, we have real, quality depth," Bramblett said. "The guys that we lost last year to injury are back and they're close to 100 percent, if not 100 percent. I'm confident and I think our guys are pretty confident that this could be a special year."

The offense retains three bats that hit over .300 last season, including average leader Shane Taylor, who hit .387 while  finishing second on the team with 36 RBIs. 

Midway returns three other players who had 30 RBIs in Josh Halterman (35), Britten Robinson (33) and Eli Glasscock (31) while also bringing back Ayden Sciandra, who stole a team-high 12 bases in 2024.

Though it did lose Owen Clark, who struck out a single-season program record 110 batters last season, the pitching rotation retains senior starters Blake Kincaid and Dylan Burton. Kincaid and Burton have both made all-conference in the past and have a combined 61 career starts between them.

With so much experience set to return, players say much of the onus to improve lies with them, and they're working to smooth out the finer details going into the season.

"We're definitely paying attention more to the detail," said DJ Morain, one of 22 players listed as either seniors or graduate students on the Eagle roster. "Team chemistry is way better than it was last year. It looks great this year."

The belief is that this experienced group, many of whom played in the national tournament two season ago, will be capable of getting back to those heights this coming season.

"Our expectation is to win the conference," Bramblett said. "Our expectation is to go to (a national tournament) opening round, our expectation is to compete for an opening round championship. That's what we expect to do this year with this roster.

"Ultimately, they have to play up to their potential and their capabilities. If they do that I think we can be in for a fun ride."

That ride will be a challenging one from the start.

Two of Midway's first four games will be against third-ranked Georgia Gwinnett on Friday and Saturday. The following week, the Eagles are back in Georgia to face preseason No. 6 Reinhardt.

The Grizzlies (three) and Eagles (two) are the only teams to have multiple players selected to the NAIA Preseason All-American team.

But even with a limited amount of time spent outside, Midway players say they're ready to be tested early and often this season.

"I'll put us up against anybody," said Hotchkiss, who hit a go-ahead home run in Lawrenceville to secure Midway's first ever national tournament win in 2023. "I have confidence in every player on this team. We'll be ready.

The Eagles are scheduled to play Huntington and Georgia Gwinnett at 4 and 7 p.m. Friday, then play the same two teams at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday. Friday's games were originally slated for 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., but were postponed due to a rain storm in the forecast.