This past week, starting Wednesday, Wayne State College hosted a World Series preseason tournament for baseball. WSC baseball players picked teams and played against each other in a best of 5 series. This World Series Tournament ended the 45-day preseason. The Wildcats also faced Northeast Community College and Morningside College earlier in the Fall preseason. WSC did most of their recruiting at Northeast Community College. Last season, the Wildcats went 25-26 overall and 18-16 in conference play. There is a lot of young talent on the team being position players and utility players. 

“We started four or five freshmen in our lineup last year, obviously all of them are back. Every year is a new year but it’s nice to have that experience, especially as young as they were last year,” Head Baseball Coach Alex Koch said. “We did bring in Alex Calabrese as a four-year transfer, Kaden Young, and a bunch of new freshman and a couple of transfers. We brought back eight of our nine starters.” 

With a lot of freshmen and sophomores on the team the young guys need to look good and the veterans (junior and seniors) would have to step up and help build team chemistry with the new young players. 

“We got better as we went on,” Koch said. “Some of the young guy’s Max Heard, an outfielder from Omaha Millard South high school, had a great fall. Even freshmen from last year had a really great fall. The guys that weren’t starters last year made really great strides. We have a lot of depth this year, guys pushing each other to be better at every spot. Quinn McCafferty was our starting shortstop last year had Nathan pushing him at short, but Quinn is a natural leader. He does a really good job and is a really good two strike hitter and has a really high baseball IQ. We really don’t have a lot of veterans. Like I said, a lot of our starters were freshmen.” 

With Hunter Babe no longer at first base, the Wildcats will be looking to find a permanent replacement for first base spot. Babe started 38 games at first base and had 227 putouts, 13 assisted outs, and five errors and had a fielding percentage of .980 in 2023. 

“Kaden Young who we brought in from Northeast Community College is a junior college transfer,” Koch said. “He’s been doing a good job there and he is at the top of our depth chart at first base.”  

 Outfielders Cade and Colin Lynam are back in action with their chemistry playing together.  

“They are both great individuals. Not only going to class together, they live together, they do everything together, but they are great individually,” Koch said. “They both enjoy being on the team and both being leaders. They have been here for awhile and they know the program. I can’t say enough great things about them. Colin who is an All-Conference and All-Region type of player.” 

In baseball, a pretty big rotation for pitching is needed. 

“We don’t have a shortage of arms,” Koch said. “The team captains pick teams and have a limit on pitching. From what I understand, it went to a game five and ran short on arms. As a staff we have plenty of arms. We brought in some junior college players and freshmen. We have everyone for the most part pretty healthy.” 

The regular season for baseball begins on Wednesday, Feb. 21 against the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles.