The 2017 baseball season is set to begin next week for the Northwestern high school team.

The Tigers will take on Palisades Monday to open the season. Their first home game is slated for Tuesday, April 5 against Southern Lehigh.

The weather already has the team behind. A pair of nonleague games were postponed against Blue Mountain and Tamaqua.

Here’s a look at this year’s Northwestern varsity baseball team.

NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN ... Bob Fatzinger will take over the head coaching position of the Tigers this year. He spent the last handful of seasons as an assistant coach with the program.

MANY DIFFERENT TALENTS ... Fatzinger did a total makeover of the coaching staff. Dan Waelchi left Parkland after over 20 seasons with the program and will serve as an assistant coach with the Tigers. His son, Chad, will be a strength and conditioning coach.

Parkland graduate Joe Cantelmo, who pitched at Mansfield, is on board. Josh Perich, who formerly played for Northwestern and was drafted by the New York Mets, brings his minor league resume to the staff as a pitching coach.

COMING BACK ... Five seniors who are looking to make significant impacts are Niko Fager, Isaac Fatzinger, Tyler Schreiner, Zach Stanley, and Dakota Laudenslager. Schreiner will be playing baseball with Lehigh University next season.

“We have a pretty good nucleus with them coming back,” said Fatzinger. “We’re pretty experienced this year. We definitely want to contend to go after a league title. After that, it becomes another season.”

KEEP AN EYE ON ... Look for a host of younger Tigers to make some noise in Jake Haas, Trevor Schreiner, Mason Vogwell, Andrew White, and Tyler Wiik. “The middle (infield) is going to be big,” said the Northwestern coach. “You want to be strong up the middle. We lost a lot when we lost Brady (Mengel) and Jake (Augustus). If we can make the routine plays, I think we will be all right. I don’t need anyone to be superstars, but we have to make the routine plays, which could be a question mark.”

NO TIME TO WASTE ... Fatzinger will lead a Tigers program that has had a ton of recent success. Northwestern was 16-6 overall last year, making the Colonial League playoffs and earning a District 11 appearance. “We have a nice pitching staff, a good combination of lefties and righties.

“We will probably carry six pitchers. We’ll have to manage it, but it’s nice to have the amount of pitching that we have.”