By John Raffel | Advance Newspapers 
on April 07, 2018 5:20 PM

GRAND RAPIDS -- Covenant Christian baseball coach Jim Schimmel has a good reason for wanting spring weather to take hold, as his Chargers are slated to have a talented team this season.

This is his 13th season as coach. Covenant Christian was 14-9 last year and lost 1-0 to Calvin Christian in the district semifinals.

“We’re looking to maybe get redemption on that this year and see how far we can go,” Schimmel said. “It’s always tough with the pitching limitations. We’ll see what we can do.”

Key returners include senior Jalen VanDyke, a pitcher, shortstop, and infielder.

“Pitching is probably his best position,” Schimmel said. “It’s his best strength. Hitting is a close second. He had our best on-base percentage last year.”

Junior Trent Miedema is primarily a pitcher, but also plays third base.

“He has a very live arm,” Schimmel said. “He’s a grown a lot stronger from even last year. He has a good fastball, a good slider. He’s the same as Jalen, they both have good stuff and are tough to hit.”

Senior catcher/first baseman Nate Nagelkerke is also a key player for the Chargers. Senior Trenton Koole is coming off the basketball state semifinalist Covenant Christian team and will play pitcher and shortstop.

“He’s a quiet leader,” Schimmel said.

Senior Brice VanOverloop also played basketball and is expected to make key contributions on the diamond.

“The group we have this year is very talented, very fast,” Schimmel said. “They all play multiple positions. They all hit the ball really well. I see us having another productive year.

Covenant Christian is an independent school.

“We play a lot of big schools. It shows us how well we’ll stand up against schools in district and regional play,” Schimmel said.