Austin senior Gabe Kasak finally found a reason to smile this spring.

After dealing with a series of game postponements due to some cold and wet weather to start the Packer baseball season, Kasak signed his national letter-of-intent to play baseball at Division II University of Sioux Falls, S.D. for a partial athletic scholarship at Austin High School Wednesday.

Kasak signed in front of most of the AHS baseball team and a large group of his family and friends.

“It was good to have them here and they all kept asking me when I was signing,” Kasak said. “My dad and my brother have been waiting for awhile.”

Kasak and the Packers still haven’t played a game this season and Thursday’s game against Winona has already been postponed due to weather. Kasak was hoping for a better start to his senior season, but he’ll be ready when the games begin.

“It stinks,” he said. “Our first game was scheduled for April 2 and we’re fifteen days past that. It’s not looking good in the future for weather either.”

Kasak, who has played catcher and second base at Austin, is hoping to catch with the Cougars next season. He’s also going to get in plenty of baseball over the next four months as he’ll play with Austin Post 91 and the Austin Greyhounds this summer.

“It’ll be a lot of baseball and a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to it,” Kasak said. “For high school, we’ll pretty much have a game every day and I’ll have to get my arm ready. It’ll be a tough spring, but it’ll be fun.”

Kasak hit .378 with an on-base percentage of .420, to go along with nine extra base hits, 10 RBIs and 21 runs for the Packers last season.

In 2012, USF finished 10-29 overall and the Cougars are off to a 11-19 overall start this season.

The Cougars play in the Northern Sun Conference.