LAKESIDE HIGH — The Pike baseball team’s home opener remains at the mercy of the infield, which coach Dan Linder described Monday as “improving, if you stand back.”

Rain and late thaw have left the third-base side soft enough to hold footprints and one brief but memorable impression of assistant coach Marty Aune’s left shoe. The team practiced in the outfield Monday, then moved batting work to the cage after a ground ball stopped halfway to short and appeared to reconsider its future.

Linder said the players are restless but not behind. “Everybody in this conference is waiting on dirt,” he said. “The team that complains least usually gets the first win.”

Parents have volunteered rakes, shovels, drying compound, and opinions. Athletic Director Carol Ness thanked them for the first three. The next scheduled game is Thursday against Birchard, weather permitting. If the field is not ready, the Pike may travel, postpone, or conduct what Linder called “another character practice,” a phrase players have begun to recognize with caution.

The outfield, meanwhile, is green, playable, and occupied by robins that have shown better footwork than some teams manage in April.

The result gives the Pike another useful line in a season still taking shape around rainouts, bus schedules, and the normal hazards of spring fields. Coaches said the team is ahead in effort, behind in polish, and exactly where a young roster often is when the calendar says summer but the dirt says wait.

In the bleachers, the analysis was immediate and confident. One grandfather had the bunt sign figured out by the second inning. A parent questioned the strike zone. Two younger siblings spent most of the game under the first row looking for a missing dollar and may have seen more of the infield than anyone else.

Lakeside returns to practice with the usual list: cleaner throws, smarter baserunning, better communication, and enough patience to survive the next weather update.