For any baseball team, playing in the South Puget Sound League North 4A is an uphill grind.

After finishing in sixth place last season with a 6-10 league record, life for Auburn Riverside will not get any easier in 2010 as the Ravens look to compete in one of the toughest leagues in the state.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about having that great competitive edge and just going after people,” coach Chris Garrison said. “There is nothing else we can do but just compete, compete, compete. It doesn’t matter what happens as long as you compete.”

After losing catcher and first-team all-leaguer Joe Briggs to graduation, the Ravens will look to their core of returners to be the team’s cornerstone this season.

“We have three seniors, Jordan Hudson, RJ Gius and Ryan Adams,” Garrison said.

On the mound the Ravens will look to lefty Hudson, as well as right-hander Gius, to shoulder the bulk of the team’s innings this season.

“We’re really looking to those guys to solidify things on the mound for us,” Garrison said.

Adams, a second-year starting outfielder, will provide offense. Also returning is Michael Sherwin, who will switch from third base to catcher this season.

“He hit .410 last season and provided some spark for us,” Garrison said. “We’re hoping he can do it again for us this year.”

Also back for the

Ravens will be juniors Kell Garrison, Taylor Maples and John Hakala as well as sophomore shortstop Nick Minteer.

“We’re just going to try to play good defense and scrap out some runs here and there and play with optimistic, good attitudes,” Garrison said. “Our goal honestly is to win every game and allow us to move on. We go in expecting to win every game, because who says, ‘We want to go 5-11 this season?’ Our goal is just to get better every day.”

The Ravens will host Tahoma in their league opener at 4 p.m. Tuesday.