McCullough, only 28 himself, doesn’t have a player on the team that was born before 1983. The Lugnuts (2-1) return home from a Fort Wayne road trip to face the South Bend Silver Hawks (0-4) in their first home stand of the season, starting at 6:05 p.m. today at Oldsmobile Park.

Through three games, shortstop Kevin Ahrens — an 18-year-old first-round draft pick and 16th overall out of Memorial High School in Houston — leads the team with 14 at-bats and nine total bases and has accumulated a batting average of .500. The Lugnuts have six players batting above .300.

“The biggest thing about learning about yourself early in your career is figuring out what you need to do to play 142 games a season, and that’s going to be the big thing for our team,” catcher C.J. Ebarb said. “Since we’re so young, we need to figure out what makes us tick.”

Pitchers Kyle Ginley and Alan Farina each have victories for the team, as Ginley went six innings in his first start and fanned four while allowing just one earned run.

“We have a lot of talent on the mound,” McCullough said. “Our pitchers are only going to get better.”

The Silver Hawks had the tough task of opening their season in Grand Rapids against the West Michigan Whitecaps, a perennial powerhouse in the Midwest League and always a favorite to win the title. Other than that, McCullough said, there’s not much of a scouting report on this week’s foe.

“The good thing is we’re not going to worry too much about the opposition,” he said. “We’ll see these teams enough to get a feel for them as the summer goes on. We’re excited about getting home and opening the ballpark and getting going.”