2022 Baseball Season Preview

Erik Holth, CBC Sports Information Director

            Conway, Ark. – Coming off a disappointing end to their 2021 season, Central Baptist College baseball embarks on a new season beginning tomorrow afternoon. CBC will take on the University of Northwestern Ohio tomorrow with first pitch scheduled for noon at the USA Baseball Stadium in Millington, Tenn. No live coverage will be available, so check the web for scores and details.

            "I'm really excited about our season this year," said head coach Dr. Aaron Brister. "Last year we worked really hard on hitting and we were good in the field. We led the American Midwest Conference in batting average and I felt like we were very strong there. Our pitching didn't do what we wanted it to do so we went out and recruited four new top arms to join our guys that were coming back. We're excited about those guys and we think they will be making a big splash. We lost three big sticks that graduated and moved on. The guys that we have coming in in those positions are scrappy and have a lot of fight."

            18 returners line the roster for CBC, led by Freshman pitcher of the year Andrew Killough, Freshman player of the year Ruben Hernandez, All-AMC first team outfielder Jay French and All-AMC second team selections Steven Stewart and Wille Baez. Other returning position players include Gabe Walker, Ben Stevens, Nikaylen Morrison, Austin Teal, Ty Decker, Gage Harris and Graham Dykes while the returning pitchers besides Killough are Ben Slate, Devon Koonce, Slayton Holland, Caleb Muns, Austin LeJeune, Garon Johnson and Fernando Escapita.

            "We're looking for leadership out of those returners," added Brister. "Jay (French) was an all-conference player for us last year that we hope can lead the conference in stolen bases. Wille is a guy we kind of hid in the lineup last year, and he's worked really hard in the offseason on handling breaking pitches so we're excited about him. Steven (Stewart) is a great leader. He's that mouthpiece out there on the field keeping guys up and keeping them focused. We've moved Ruben (Hernandez) to first base. He worked really hard in the offseason on that. We have several others that are good there as well. On the pitching side, we've got Killough who's looking really good. We've got Garon, who will be a starter for us on opening weekend. Those guys are all bringing leadership to the lineup."

The newcomers have freshman and transfers sprinkled in all over. The list of newcomers include Jackson Lindsey, Benito Martinez, Julio Escobar, Luke McBride, Logan Easterling, Justin 'Woody' Raines, Jose Monegro, Danilo Taborda, Kyle Bass, Caleb Sollars, Gram Middleton, Dominick McBride, Johan Ramirez, Cayden Hunnicut, Phillip Drilling and Easton Reichard.

"As far as newcomers," continued Brister, "really excited about Logan Easterling, who's going to be our starting catcher. Logan is calm and cool and has a left-handed power stick with a lot of confidence. We are really excited about him. A couple of top arms we brought in are Jose Monegro who is 6'5" and throws gas and we've got Julio Escobar from Venezuela, who has great mechanics and pounds the strike zone and is a high energy guy. We'll have Luke McBride at shortstop. He's got a great glove and really good range and he's going to be scrappy and steal a lot of bases."

CBC finished last season 24-20 and were knocked out of the AMC tournament in the opening game by Hannibal-LaGrange 11-7. The Mustangs have been picked to finish fourth in the AMC by the coaches this season. "We have a really good chance to win the AMC," added Brister. "Columbia's always very tough, Missouri Baptist is at the top as well. Both programs have great coaches who work really hard and are great recruiters. We are hoping to have more good competition with those teams and we are hoping to put a little apprehension in the minds of the coaches that come to play us or when we go play them. When we get off the bus, we want other teams to think that we've been coached well and they're going to be hard to beat."

"If you like intense baseball, you will want to come see us this year," said Brister. "We're going to be competing, keeping balls on the ground. We'll be defending and hustling on and off the field and you'll see a high quality club with high quality baseball. I'd put us up against anybody."

The season will have most of the home games played at Burns Park in North Little Rock with a few doubleheaders being played at Conway Christian School. The schedule will be updated soon with those changes, so be sure to come out and support the Mustangs all season long, no matter where they are playing!