The 2024 Trojan baseball team has 13 sophomores and 17 freshmen ready to ride the rough terrain that is the MACCC. Head Coach Luke Stanley is on board for his fourth season as the head Trojan in the dugout. Along with assistants Tyler Milligan and Tyler Mize the Trojans have been working hard preparing for the 2024 season.
“We have a lot more freshman than sophomores but a good group of sophomores,” Coach Stanley said. “We’ll have some freshman playing important roles for sure this season. We have a good group and are doing quite well so far. I’m proud of them.”
Freshmen will be heavily relied upon for offense including catcher Drew Jarrell who will be calling pitches for several sophomore arms.
“He’s the guy we’re really looking at behind the plate,” he said. “Colby Lafayette, Tate Anderson, Nash Koczka – they are going to play some big roles. Nash and JP Allen are our bullpen but there are a lot of freshmen who will step up and take bigger roles in those areas. I think they’ve done quite well.”
The team took two pre-season games from the Millsaps JV squad – 6-5 and 11-8.
“We had several of those sophomores step up that way. Colby and Jacob Brooks, who had three hits. Freshman Thomas Kuhn had four hits and John Barajas had three hits. Those guys really stepped up, especially for their first day,” Coach Stanley said.
The team has been working since the fall on team-building skills and Coach Stanley notes, “We have a good group of guys who enjoy being around each other. They are a hard-nosed bunch of country dudes who really like each other. I think Coach Milligan did a good job of getting guys from schools with those types of attitude.”
This season the Trojans will be a hit-and-run team with lots of situational hitting.
“Handling the bat with two strikes on them is a big thing with this team. We’re going to have some guys with power but more guys who are single/double type guys who can run the bases quite well,” he said.
Looking at the competition, Coach Stanley notes the “MACCC will be tough as usual. There are a few teams nationally-ranked already and more will be. We are competing right there with a lot of them.”
This summer the team worked on the Jimmy Bellipanni Complex’s outfield to help improve drainage as the Trojans hosted only one home game last season.
“We added a lot of dirt to bring it up a lot and did some drainage. We were trying to level it back out. It had sunk down over time and just needed to be built back up,” Coach Stanley said.
Follow the Trojan baseball team at www.mdcctrojans.com.
