FAIRMONT — “Don’t stride too far or your release point changes. That’s it — stay on top of the baseball and snap your wrist,” Fairmont High School pitching coach Matt Lytle said while analyzing deliveries.

“Keep your hands back, and then drive the barrel through the zone. Head down, eyes on the pitch. Good job,” Cardinals’ hitting coach Levi Becker said while critiquing players in the batting cage.

Unfortunately for the two current Fairmont Martins amateur players and former Cardinal diamond standouts, their debuts as varsity assistants under the tutelage of head baseball coach Don Waletich only lasted a handful of spring practices.

“It’s a disappointing situation, but there’s not much we can do about it except play the waiting game now,” Lytle said in reference to the Minnesota State High School League’s spring athletics moratorium that was extended on Wednesday from April 5 through May 3 following Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s executive shutdown order due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our first week of practice, the players brought a lot of energy and were fired up about getting on the mound and throwing,” Lytle continued. “Our entire rotation already was making nice progress and then it all came to a grinding stop.”

Becker echoed his fellow assistant’s early assessment in reference to the Cardinals’ up-and-coming batting order.

“The guys looked to be getting good cuts in the cage and seemed to be picking up the ball well,” said Becker. “We’ve got 35-plus players out this spring, including some good senior talent, so if we ever do get a season, I think we’ll fare well.

“Now, all we can do is keep social distancing and wait it out.”

Ironically, for Becker, who’s currently completing his official training in LB Pork’s on-boarding program, adhering to the state and federal government’s requests concerning social behavior has been as smooth as the power hitter’s swing inside the batter’s box.

“Basically, the last two weeks, my life during the day hasn’t changed much other than not going to baseball practice in the middle of the afternoon,” said Becker. “I get up every morning, like before the shutdown, and do my regular chores on the farm, then communicate with the workers to see what has to be done for the day.”

While Becker continues to be an integral cog in his family’s highly-successful pork business outside of Northrop, Lytle’s career path has changed dramatically since every educational institution has locked their doors and quarantined their students in hopes of combating the world-wide pandemic.

“Last week, I went to school every day to talk with my fellow teachers and administrators on how to effectively create lesson plans and assignments for our kids once we start the e-learning process on Monday,” said Lytle, who teaches special education classes at both the seventh-grade and high school levels in the Fairmont school district. “We (teachers) have to figure out how to build connections with our students, but that’s not as easy to do over the internet.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to have the technology to keep the students on the academic track by using Zoom or Google Hangout programs, but our goal — as usual — is to get them the material they need to succeed.”

While Waletich, like nearly every head spring sports coach throughout the country, is holding out hope that his high school baseball team will get the opportunity to play a partial schedule, the Cardinals’ head coach believes that Lytle and Becker will be successful in their own rights in both the near and distant future.

“Both of these guys possessed great work ethic when they played for us in high school, and they’ve established a great rapport with the current kids in our program, mostly from coaching the legion team two of the last three summers,” said Waletich. “I’m confident in their abilities to teach the game, and to be able to keep our program at a high competitive level.

“Both of them just love the game, and that’s huge.”

Lytle said he knew at some point he wanted to return to his home town and coach his favorite sport at the prep level, but didn’t anticipate the chance coming in 2020.

“I guess the timing was right. (Former co-head coach Jerry) Brooks stepped down to teach the aviation program, and Adam (Schmidt) moved from C-squad baseball to softball, so the opportunity presented itself,” said Lytle. “Add the fact that Fairmont had a teaching opening in my field, and everything fell into place.”

Similar to Lytle, Becker’s career path also brought him full circle to his family roots in the pork industry.

“Brooksy and Donnie talked to both of us last summer, and they agreed that we need younger baseball minds to eventually take over the program,” Becker said with a laugh. “I told those guys that it’s a young man’s game in the way we use technology to calculate launch angle for hitters and release point for pitchers instead of using notes on a paper scorebook to evaluate skills.”

No matter whether it’s a veteran coach like Waletich or up-and-coming instructors like Lytle and Becker, neither generation may get the chance to coach this spring.

“In my 26 years of coaching baseball, this situation we’re in now takes the cake. I would’ve never guessed we could possibly miss the entire spring season due to a pandemic,” said Waletich. “I do know, however, that we’re all in the same situation and will pull together to get through this tough time.

“Hopefully, if we don’t get back on the diamond this spring, Matt and Levi will get a chance to coach most of our varsity group during legion ball this summer. I’m sure they’ll do a good job of coaching now and down the road.”