"I'd be lying to you if I said I'm not surprised," said Jays coach Brian Ash, whose team will take a 9-2 record into this weekend's Capital City Invitational at Vivion and Legion fields. "I felt like the potential was there and it would happen, eventually, but I think we're playing better than I expected at this point of the year.

"I really didn't know what would happen, because I hadn't seen most of these guys playing against varsity-level competition."

Success certainly breeds success. While the majority of these players were watching last year's games from the dugout or the stands, they were still experiencing it.

"Their focus in the offseason, all the morning workouts and the lifting and speed training, we had great numbers and they've made the effort," Ash said. "Especially the seniors, they were like: 'Okay, we've got big shoes to fill, we don't necessarily have to fill them out. We might have to put on a couple extra pairs of socks, but we're going to find a way be very competitive.'

"We're still Jeff City and the expectations are going to be the same, regardless of who's back and who's not. And so far, they're doing great."

But it could also have gone the other way.

"Sometimes, the pressure of trying to be somebody they're really not --- trying to produce like some of those guys did last year --- when you try so hard, it backfires," Ash continued. "But these guys are trying to make their own identity.

"I think they just said: 'You know what? We're good enough to compete at a high, high level.'"

We should also mention this important fact --- success for these players is nothing new.

"This junior and senior group has always competed well and won quite a few games," Ash said. "They won at the freshman level, they won at the sophomore level, they won at the JV level. Now, it's just kind of a natural transition to varsity.

"They're older, they're more mature, they're stronger. Ultimately, that's what you want in your program to continue the success."

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THIS SEASON CERTAINLY DIDN'T START ON A HIGH NOTE, as Borgia clubbed Jefferson City 13-3 in the opener.

"We got 10-run ruled in our first game and I was thinking, 'Uh-oh, here we go,'" Ash said.

But the Jays have gone 9-1 since, including two impressive wins in rematches with state-ranked Borgia during the Union/Borgia Tournament --- two wins by a combined 15-0.

"That was really good to see," Ash said, "because they didn't let that first loss to Borgia affect them."

Those are two of the four shutouts this season for the Jays, but they've also won games 7-5 and 16-6.

"Our pitching's been pretty good and when it hasn't been real solid," Ash said, "our offense and defense have been really good. But pitching and defense have been our mainstay."

While the defense has made only a "handful" of errors, the pitching staff has been anchored by three junior righthanders. And so far, the leader of the pack is Blake Terry --- he's 2-0 with a 0.40 ERA, striking out 21 and walking only four in 17 2/3 innnigs.

"He's been our most consistent arm," Ash said. "He's not overwhelming with his fastball, but he throws with enough velocity and he's got two other secondary pitches he can throw for strikes at any time in the count. That makes him hard to hit."

Justin Wood --- younger brother of the Gatorade Missouri Player of the Year last season, Grant Wood --- is 2-1 with a 2.00 ERA, while Jack Shinkle is 2-0 and has yet to allow an earned run.

The hurler with the most varsity experience entering the season is righty Joseph Travis, who was 5-0 last season. This year, he's 2-1 with one save and a 4.20 ERA, as he's battled early-season control issues.

"His biggest problem right now is that he has more walks than strikeouts.," Ash said, "but he'll get it fixed."

No less than six other hurlers have seen the mound through 11 games, including the lone lefthander, junior Landon Dunlap.

Offensively, the two players with the most varsity experience are seniors Payton Bodenstab and Tyler Bise.

On last year's senior-dominated team, it was Bodenstab who delivered the two-out single in the bottom of the seventh to drive in the tying run in the state championship game, a game the Jays would eventually win 2-1 in eight innings.

Bodenstab finished at .333 last year and is hovering around .300 this season.

"He's kind of off to slow start, comparatively speaking, to where we expected him to be," Ash said of the center fielder. "He's our fastest kid and we've got him in the leadoff spot, just because he can create so many problems for the defense."

Bise collected five hits in last year's Final Four and he's batting .308 this year --- the team average, however, is .323. Then there's senior shortstop Michael Skinner (.281) who played mostly defense last year and is still "as good as you're going to find at the high school level, defensively."

So as you can see, it's the other guys who have been doing most of the damage to this point.

"That's the thing," Ash said. "The guys returning haven't gotten it going yet, so once they do ... man, this could be a pretty good offensive bunch."

Shinkle leads the team with a gaudy .472 average, with 17 hits (including seven doubles) and 15 RBI --- "He's hitting the ball really, really well." --- while Travis is right behind at .471.

Others off the good starts include: junior catcher Tucker Schwartz (.412); Wood (.320), who plays first base when he's not pitching; sophomore third baseman Dawson Schuemann (.316); and senior Mason Hansen (.286), the No. 3 hitter who's been "hitting the ball hard, just right at guys."

"We've had timely hitting and we're finding ways to score," Ash said. "It seems like everything has clicked when it needed to."

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LIKE THE REST OF US, THIS BASEBALL TEAM has endured brutally-lousy weather this spring.

"We've played in rain," Ash said, "we've played in a little bit of sleet, a little bit of snow, and in really cold temperatures.

"From a practice standpoint, it's been very frustrating. It seems once the games started, we've only been on the field a handful of times for practice. We have been playing games, because we've played on a lot of fields that have (artificial) turf. So these games are kind of replacing valuable practice time.

"A lot of things we've been doing in games is trying to teach them on the fly, in the dugout and in between innings and prior to their at-bats."

Wednesday was the first time in 12 days the Jays were actually on Vivion Field to practice, just in time for Thursday's start of the Capital City Invitational. The Jays open against Russellville at 5 p.m., while Eureka meets Blair Oaks at 7:15 at Vivion Field.

In Thursday's first-round games at Legion Field, it's Hickman vs. Fatima at 5 p.m. and Helias vs. St. Charles Lutheran at 7:15 p.m.

But after Thursday, the weather, once again, looks like it won't cooperate the final two days. Rainouts won't be the issue, snowouts will.

If they do manage to play, the Jays will be trying to do about the only thing last year's team didn't do --- win this tournament.

"It's our tournament and it's something we take a lot of pride in," Ash said. "The goal is obviously to win it, but the schedule can be cruel --- we play Hickman Monday and Battle on Tuesday, and those are district games.

"So if we have to sacrifice a game in our tournament, as far as not throwing one of our top guys, we'll do it. But we feel like we have as much pitching depth as anybody ... we've got enough guys to win it."

By all appearances, they have enough guys to win a lot of games this season.

Again.

The Jefferson City Jays mug for the cameras after winning the championship of the Union/Borgia Tournament late last month.