One month and 10 games into their season, the Powell Pioneers baseball team has come a long ways.

“Miles of improvement from the first game to today,” said manager George Laughlin. “We can rely on everybody that we call on, we got confidence in our guys and I think we will be peaking now that conference is getting started.”

Powell lost both games of a doubleheader against Douglas on Saturday — falling 8-6 in the first game and 3-0 in the second.

“Overall we did an excellent job defensively ...,” Laughlin said. “We made one or two mental errors; I’m not sure we made any actual baseball recordable errors, so that was nice, might have been our first error-free day of the year. So we want to build on that.”

In the first inning of the first game, Douglas went ahead 1-0 before the Pioneers came back to lead 2-1 going into the third inning.

In the top of the third inning, the Pioneers held the Cats scoreless with a double play — picking off two runners on the base paths when Tyler Feller received a pickoff throw from pitcher Nate Brown and chased down one Cats runner between second and third and another between second and first.

By the end of the third inning, Powell led 5-1.

Douglas scored one in the top of the fourth and two in the fifth to make it 5-4.

The Bearcats took the lead in the sixth inning, 8-6, and held on to win.

“Our goal this week was to really settle down and stop the big inning,” said Laughlin.

He explained that, during the game there was a couple big walks and couple big hits, but besides the sixth inning, the Pioneers kept their opponents from big innings.

“Defensively, I was really proud of our effort today,” Laughlin said.

In the second game against the Cats, Powell lost 3-0.

Despite the loss, Laughlin said that the fact the Powell team only gave up three runs in a seven inning ball game is a testament to how much they’ve improved.

So far this season, Laughlin said the team has improved “mentally and, I said it last week, situationally we are just doing a ton better. Our first and thirds, our defensive [players] — they’re knowing where they want to throw the baseball and they’re making quick decisions.”

The improvement showed in the doubleheader against Douglas.

“They just hit the ball really well in both games and we kept them from having that big play where they score two or three runs so we cut the ball off really well and got it in fast, held them to a base,” Laughlin said.

Offensively, “we were a lot more aggressive at the plate, especially,” he said. “I felt the first game we did a really good job of seeing strikes well and getting after them.”

“I like that we were staying aggressive and we’ll just continue to work on taking turns and being ready to take that next base and be aggressive for next week,” Laughlin said Saturday.

The first conference game arrives today (Thursday) in a doubleheader against Lovell at Cowley High School. Start times are set for 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

“We’ve been looking forward to that game all season,” said Laughlin of the matchup. “This is what we’ve been building for — this is the result of our process.”

“We’re starting our uphill climb,” he said.

On Saturday, the Pioneers will travel to Sheridan for a 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. doubleheader.

The Pioneers will return to action at home for a double header versus Cody on Tuesday. Games times are at 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.