Every new sports season brings a lot of uncertainty for any team and after graduating 10 seniors from the 2023 club, the Roseburg High School baseball team has plenty of questions to answer in 2024.

The Indians got their first chance to start solving some of those questions in the season opener against West Salem at Bill Gray Legion Stadium at Champion Car Wash Field on Tuesday.

“I think the ice is definitely broken,” Roseburg coach Troy Thompson said after the Indians lost 6-2 against the Titans.  “It’s always good to get out and play your first one.

“We’re going to learn as we go and tonight was a good experience for us to learn. It didn’t turn out our way on the scoreboard, but we’re still going to work on those things we need to work on whether we won or lost,” Thompson added.

Nerves, jitters or rust, whatever it was, Roseburg had a couple of blow-up innings where the game got away from an inexperienced group of starters. The Indians committed five errors, leading to a pair of runs in the first inning and four more in the sixth.

“I think we’ve got a good defensive team, today was just an off day. It’s also our first game. We’ll come back, work on some defensive stuff and we’ll be good,” Roseburg’s Brooks Avery said.

Avery, Roseburg’s starting shortstop, is the most experienced returning player for the Indians this year. The senior was an All-Southwest Conference second-team selection as a junior.

He’ll step into a leadership role this season and will lean on experiences from last year to help him navigate that responsibility.

“I feel like I got to see what it was like as an underclassmen,” Avery explained. “I just got to fill (the graduated seniors’) shoes a little bit and do what I can do for the younger kids and lead them on the right path.”

It’s a tall task as Roseburg had first-time starters at nearly every position on the field.

Amos Bowers made his debut at catcher, while Camden Hartsell (first base), Paxton Burke (second base) and Kash Richardson (third base) all had their first start on the infield.

Heath King, Dane St. Claire and Brevin Harrison all started in the outfield. St. Claire and Harrison made only a couple of starts near the end of last year.

Jake Johnson got the start on the mound against the Titans on Tuesday. The junior allowed four hits over six innings, while striking out six and walking one.

Johnson, a second-team all-conference selection last season, was tagged with the loss, although he didn’t allow an earned run.

“I thought Jake threw very well,” Thompson said. “He was in the zone and gave us a chance with minimal walks and minimal hits.”

Johnson will look to lead this year’s pitching staff after racking up four wins in eight starts and over 50 innings of work last season. He said he learned a lot from 2023 graduates Austin Takahashi and Evan Corbin, who were aces on the staff the past two seasons.

“Taking the (ace) role this year is a big thing and I just need to step up, keep playing well and let the defense keep playing good behind me and we’ll make things happen,” Johnson said.

“(Jake’s) leadership is going to be his consistency and how he approaches every game on the mound,” Thompson said.

Thompson, now in his 22nd season with Roseburg, says the team showed signs of what he hopes it can do offensively in the loss to West Salem. The Tribe was aggressive at the plate and on the bases.

Avery, Burke, St. Claire and Hartsell all had a hit in the game. Avery swiped two bags and Burke stole another, but hitting with runners in scoring position proved to be difficult for the Tribe.

“Obviously there’s a little bit of inexperience, but I think as the season goes by we’ll get used to the varsity experience,” Harrison said.

“We got a really good team. We faced some really good pitchers (from West Salem) and they’re a solid club. I think we’ll come around, fix some errors,” Avery said.

“We’ve got a good club. We just got to get some confidence and we’ll be good.”

Roseburg continues the season at 4:30 p.m. Thursday with a home game against Ida B. Wells. The Indians visit Lake Oswego on Friday before beginning Southwest Conference play Tuesday against South Eugene.

W. Salem;200;004;0;—;6;4;1

Roseburg;200;000;0;—;2;4;5

Lesh, East (6), Garland (7) and Howard; Johnson, Harrison (7) and Bowers. W — Lesh (1-0). L — Johnson (0-1).