It is hard to realize that college baseball season is upon us, but the Western Nebraska Community College baseball team will open the season this weekend when they head to New Mexico for a 4-game series.
WNCC head coach Mike Jones, who is beginning his 24th season at WNCC, said the team is ready to get playing for real during a windy and cold January of practices.
"This group is definitely ready to get going, We bring back a lot of experienced guys. They've been waiting a long time to get back on the field and compete for another regional championship," Jones said. "I think this team is 100 percent excited and ready to go."
Jones loves what he is seeing with this team right now during the January practices.
"We got a lot or returners, a lot of experience," Jones said. "So far, this team has been well organized and self-disciplined. It's been a close knit group of guys. Once we go play for real, we'll find out a lot more."
The Cougars will spend the first 18 days in February on the road. The Cougars open with New Mexico Military Institute February 6-7 and then travel to New Mexico Junior College February 13-14 before traveling to McCook Community College February 18. The team's first home games are slated for February 21-22 when they face Miles Community College.
Last year, the team opened against New Mexico Military and split a 4-game series. WNCC won both games the opening day 5-1 and 12-8 and then lost the second day 8-0 and 13-4. Jones knows that New Mexico Military will be a challenge.
"They're a really good team. We've been going down there for a while now and it's been a lot of mixed results," he said. "Chris does a really good job down there. They're a really good team. They're extremely talented. We can definitely go down there and compete but we're a good team also. So, we will see how it goes."
What makes this year's Cougar team dangerous is the amount of talent that is on the team. WNCC returns 14 players that either started a year ago regularly or saw plenty of playing time whether in the field or on the mound as reserves.
The returners that saw plenty of action a year ago included position players Vaughn and Cooper Wilson, Garrison Burns, Ren Sato, Catcher Gladysh, Jase Satterfield, Will Harbison, and Austin Cooper.
The returner pitching staff include Scottsbluff's Carter Reisig, Marshall Forsyth, and Allard Helms.
Jones said that transfer Harrison Hart, who is from Millard South High School in Gretna and played a year at Southeast Community College, transferred to WNCC this season. Hart is a 6-foot-2 outfielder that Jones is high on.
"We do have some good freshmen that are going to blend in and Harrison Hart was a nice transfer guy for us that's gonna blend in and play for us quite a bit," he said.
Jones is also high on a couple freshman pitchers that will see starting nods the opening weekend. Peyton Denny (from Chandler, Arizona) is a left-handed pitcher out of Arizona that we're going to give him a start in the opening weekend. There is a freshman that we're going to be counting on. Arthur Saumande, from France, is another guy that we're gong to be counting on as a freshman. He's a left-handed pitcher and he's going to start game one. Those two guys we're going to be counting on a whole lot."
Another red-shirt freshman that saw action with the Western Nebraska Pioneers over the summer is Alliance's Kaden Ferguson. Moi Panduro, who also pitched for the Pioneers will also be key.
The entire pitching staff of sophomores, freshmen, and red-shirts include Peyton Markheim of Scottsbluff, Saumande of Lille, France, Javier Pena of Panama City, Panama, Ferguson of Alliance, Trevor Beutner of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Allard Helms of Utrecht, The Netherlands, Nelson Martinez of Miami, Florida, Carter Reisig of Scottsbluff, Jack McCrea of Berthoud, Colorado, Payton Denny of Chandler, Arizona, Moi Panduro of Scottsbluff, Marshall Forsyth of Houston, Texas, and Ian Graf Mank of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The position players on the active roster include Jude Russell of Ashten, Ontario, Garrison Burns of Kearney, Dakota Alber of Commerce City, Colorado, Brandon Waltermath of Brighton, Colorado, Ty Buetner of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, Jack Sughroue of Hastings, Ren Sato of Yokohama, Japan, Cooper Wilson of Riverton, Utah, Catcher Gladysh of Brighton, Colorado, Vaughn Wilson of Riverton, Utah, Jase Satterfield of Grand Junction, Colorado, Will Harbison of Parker, Colorado, Harrison Hart of Gretna, Daniel Chavez of West Palm Beach, Florida, Austin Cooper of Bozeman, Montana, Ismael Camara of Paris, France, and Jahrell Mendez of Scottsbluff.
What Jones likes about this team is there are so many guys that will be contributing to the team in so many ways and these first two months are critical for the players' growth.
"From sophomores to freshman, we have Vaughn Wilson, Catcher Gladysh, Carter Reisig, Allard Helms, Marshall Forsyth, Will Harbison, Harrison Hart, Austin Cooper. Boy, there is going to be so many guys," Jones said. "Jude Russell is a freshman. Daniel Chavez as a freshman, Ty Beutner and Trevor Beutner, both Beutner brothers. I mean we go so many guys that are going to be contributing to this team. It's hard to even know which ones are going to be the best right now."
Jones said the month of February is the month to see what everyone can do for the important conference games in March and April as they go for a Region IX title. The last time the Cougars won the regional title was in 2021.
"For us the month of February is extremely important, and, even into March now," he said. "We need to play games; we need to play real games. We need to compete against other opponents. We need to make mistakes. We need to come back and then fix mistakes and keep evolving as a team and find our own identity. All this stuff is going to happen in the month of February and March."