Seniors Aaron Rea, left, of Lawrence High and Tyler Hatesohl of Free State are two of the leaders of their respective teams heading into the 2009 high school baseball season.

One of the most anticipated high school baseball seasons in city history will begin Friday when Lawrence High opens at the Edmond, Okla., Invitational.

The Lions have nearly everyone returning from last year’s Class 6A state third-place team. In addition, the Lions are ranked No. 5 in the preseason polls.

“Our kids are excited. They have high expectations for themselves and believe they can do a lot this season,” coach Brad Stoll said. “I think that confidence is worth a lot.”

That confidence comes with good reason. Lawrence has finished third at state in each of the past two seasons, and returns seven players who were on the field the day last spring when LHS lost to Blue Valley in the semifinals.

The loss will serve as a driving force.

“We’ve been close the past two years,” Stoll said. “We have a handful of kids who have been through the fire here and, quite frankly, they are tired of getting third place.”

LHS features depth and experience at every position except catcher.

Senior Dorian Green joins junior transfer Albert Minnis as the top two options on the mound. Green was the losing pitcher in each of those semifinal games.

Senior Andy Urban and juniors Tanner Kilmer and Ben Wyatt round out the staff, one that Stoll believes is set up for the postseason.

“There are several arms there and we think out of those arms we ought to be able to find a way to win a regional tournament,” he said.

Four outfielders return in Dorian Green, Jake Green, Jack Bush and Tyler Bailey along with five infielders — Clint Pinnick, Aaron Rea, Devin Forio, Landon Moseley and Lance Kilburn.

Jake Green and Chase McElhaney will battle for the starting catcher duties, and junior Taylor Gentry adds depth at first base and designated hitter.

“We like the make-up of this team,” Stoll said. “We have a bunch of ornery, tough, dirt bags and that’s all you can ask for. I think they’ll compete hard for us every day.”

They’ll have to. As always, the Lions have stacked their schedule and will face some of the toughest competition around, starting with the trip to Oklahoma.

“We set the schedule up to face as much adversity as possible,” Stoll said. “We want great pitching matchups and solid opponents every time we step on the field. The bottom line is you have to win two games the third week in May and three games the last week in May.”

“Everything we do until that point is to prepare us for that.”

Lawrence will meet Edmond, Okla., Santa Fe on Friday and Midwest City, Okla., on Saturday during its two-day swing to the Sooner State.

Across town at Free State High, the Firebirds are ranked No. 4 in preseason. Free State has four key players from the team that won another Sunflower League title and was the No. 1 seed at the 6A state tournament.

Coach Mike Hill lost 11 seniors, but earned the preseason respect because of the school’s baseball reputation and recent success, something Hill said has raised the bar for his relatively inexperienced club.

“Certainly, we’re in transition,” he said. “Anytime you graduate 11 seniors and bring back one, I’d say that qualifies as transition. I think that ranking is just the reputation of our program. We have an identity and that’s the perception of our program and what people expect from us.

“The interesting thing to think about is what this team’s identity will be. It can’t be what last year’s was or the year before, but that’s what’s so fun.”

Hill has three returning regulars — senior infielder Tyler Hatesohl, junior outfielder Nick Hassig and sophomore Cody Kukuk.

Kukuk, who earned several postseason honors as a freshman, was often the designated hitter. This year, he’ll also be used as a starting pitcher.

Joining him in that role is junior Ryan Scott, last season’s closer. Kukuk and Scott figure to eat up a lot of the innings. Left-hander Rob Wagner figures to play a role in the rotation somewhere.

Junior Adam Petz and sophomore Cody Oller will battle for the catching job, while Mike Lisher, Hayden Emerson, Cory Delg, Austin Holladay, Bo Schneider and Colin Tollson are in the infield mix.

Joining Hassig in the outfield will be sophomore Preston Schenck and juniors Camren Torneden and Connor Stremmel.

Although the Firebirds won’t be expected to dominate the way they did last year, the players and coaches in green and white expect to be successful.

“We’re going to take some lumps,” Hill said. “We’re going to take a few on the chin and we have to persevere through that and keep getting better on a daily basis. How we’ll do that, what we’ll be good at and what we’ll be weak at, we don’t know yet.”