Tyler Legacy’s Mason Blake.

With its third head coach in the past 12 months, the Tyler Legacy baseball program begins a new era.

Tim Arden (351-122) comes to the Red Raiders after a successful run at Brock that ended in the Class 3A championship game in 2022. Arden led Sunnyvale to a state title in 2014.

“When I was a young coach, I was at North Mesquite, and we were in a district with Tyler Lee, and I always thought this would be an unbelievable job and an unbelievable place to be,” Arden said. “Later when I was in Sunnyvale, we actually lived in Ben Wheeler, so we would come here for date nights. We loved it. My wife and I both said this is a place we want to retire. So when this opened up, Sam Gillispie called me, and we went to high school together and coached together. I jumped on it because I know the baseball tradition here is good. We have great kids, great parents and the facilities are amazing. There wasn’t much to think about when this was offered.”

James Boxley was in his seventh season as the head coach for the Red Raiders when he was removed from the position 11 games into the 2022 season with Legacy carrying a 3-7-1 record. Gillispie finished out the season as the interim coach and led the Red Raiders to a record of 16-17-1 and a trip to the second round of the playoffs.

“There were a lot of changes last year,” senior Landon Brown said. “These seniors were a part of it. We’re close, and we have good team chemistry. I’m excited (for the new season). We’ve got a hard-working group of seniors, and our coaches are amazing.”

Arden is joined on the coaching staff by Matt McBrayer, Zack Segovia and Nick Hobbs.

Brown is one of 10 seniors on the Red Raiders roster. Returning with Brown are Tyler Priest, Walker Freeman, Mason Blake and Lucas Grundy. Aiden Stewart, Jordan Crawford and William Gillen join the varsity this season. Tye Arden (Brock) and Hayden Hossley (Whitehouse) are also newcomers for the Red Raiders.

“We have incredible seniors,” Coach Arden said. “I’ve known them for half a year, and they’re already probably my favorite senior group that I’ve ever had. They’re great people, great kids and heck of baseball players.”

“I’m excited,” Freeman said. “I think it’s going to be a really good year for us. We’ve got a lot of good seniors and a lot of guys that want to work hard.”

Junior returners are Luke Davis and Cooper Moore. Junior Kole Huffine joins the Red Raiders from Whitehouse. Other junior newcomers are Landon Miller and Kamden Howard. Cale Zips is a freshman catcher.

The Red Raiders are expected to have a deep pitching staff.

“I think we are going to be really deep pitching wise,” Arden said. “I think we have a lot of arms. We’ve added a couple through move-ins — Hayden Hossley and Kole Huffine — and my son, as well. There are also a couple of kids like Walker Freeman and Landon Brown who didn’t pitch last year who have been two of our better pitchers through the fall, so I’m really excited about the arms.”

Back at the top of the rotation is Grundy, who was 5-3 last season with a 1.44 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 63 innings.

With the pitching depth in place, it will likely come down to defense and hitting for the Red Raiders.

“I think we’re going to play great defense,” Arden said. “And I’ve seen a lot of progress in the bats since the fall. The kids are buying into our philosophy. They were good hitters anyway, but I’ve seen little changes here and there that I’m really excited about this season.”

Legacy will open the season Feb. 23 at the North Forney Tournament. The Red Raiders will also play in tournaments at Waxahachie and San Antonio Cornerstone Christian. Legacy’s first home game will be against Mesquite on March 16 at Mike Carter Field. The Red Raiders’ only non-district home games will be March 24 against Arlington and April 8 against Arlington Lamar.