I need to follow area summer competitive baseball and softball better. Two recent interviews reminded me of that. The first was with recently retired Excelsior Springs varsity baseball coach Aaron Holst. A few weeks ago, as you might recall, Holst dropped by our offices in Richmond for an in-depth interview with Miranda Jamison (a.k.a., “MJ”), Micah Dillman and me for an episode of the podcast series “Ray County Voices.” The episode went public this week. Since recording the episode, I’ve reflected on my brief, but meaningful association with Holst. It started in 2023, when I regularly began covering Excelsior Springs baseball for our sister newspaper, The Excelsior Springs Standard. I first talked to him on March 17 after Excelsior Springs’ 1-0 win over Wiliam Chrisman, an Independence-based school, for a story that was part game coverage, part spring sports preview. It’s easy to remember that game. One reason was, a combined no-hitter drove the Tigers to victory and it was the…