This article first appeared in the February 2024 edition of The Commuter.
Winter term may only be halfway over, but Linn-Benton’s final sport of the school year is already stepping up to the plate. Roadrunners baseball season is set to start, with the regular season running from mid-February to mid-May.
Last season, LBCC baseball finished the year with the NWAC South title and a 29-18 record, eventually falling short in the championship tournament. The Beaks finished the season with a ranking of No. 6 in the final NWAC coaches’ poll. It was a down year for the program, but only by their own lofty standards. Excluding a Covid-shortened 2020-21 season, the Beaks have won the NWAC South in the past six full seasons, and they’re only two years removed from an NWAC Championship title in the 2021-22 season.
Leading the Beaks for the past five years, head coach Andy Peterson hopes to continue in the program’s winning ways in 2024. However, the team had some key departures over the offseason, losing a bevy of All-NWAC South honorees as they completed their sophomore seasons at LBCC. The names include pitchers Dylan Rush, Chase Reynolds, and Brady Baltus, as well as infielder Cole Cramer, outfielder Titus Dumitru, and designated hitter Trey Nelson.
The player losses will be tough to overcome, but Linn-Benton’s 2024 roster still holds plenty of talent, featuring 14 sophomores and 16 incoming freshmen. Among the returning sophomores is outfielder Aidan Dougherty, who made the All-NWAC second team and NWAC South first team last season. Other returning sophomores who saw significant time last year include Kace Naone, Spencer Sullivan, Evan Chadwick, Vincent Iwamura, Camden Christenson, Jordan Hockett, Camden Stephens, and Ethan Buckley.
“Last year I was just following the lead of the older guys and just learning from them what it means to play in this program and how to go about your business,” said Naone. “This year my role has changed because I’m one of the guys trying to teach and lead the younger players on the team so that we can all be successful as a team.”
Some of the names to watch in LBCC baseball’s freshman class include Portland’s Kellen Segel, a right-handed pitcher who was with the Corvallis Knights in 2023, and Mt. Angel’s Ethan Kleinschmit, another pitcher, who can throw over 90 miles per hour and is an Oregon State commit. Linn-Benton looks to field a bolstered pitching rotation in 2024.
“There are a lot of big pieces from last year’s team that are gone, but we are very confident in this group of freshmen we have this year,” said Naone. “Guys are going to leave and move on but we have been working our butts off so we can be the best we can be with the guys we have around us. No doubt in my mind that we can do big things this year.”
In fact, despite the roster turnover, the Beaks enter 2024 as the 37th-ranked JUCO baseball team in the nation according to Perfect Game USA. Only one other NWAC team made the list, with Tacoma coming in at No. 47. However, the Beaks won’t face the Tacoma Titans in the regular season this year.
The Beaks will start off their season on the road Feb. 17 as they start a two-day, four-game series against Columbia Basin. The team’s home opener will be the latter half of a home-and-home series against Clark, with the first game at Linn-Benton starting at 11 a.m. on Feb. 25.
The Beaks will end their regular season against Lane Community College at home on Saturday, May 11. If the team can clinch the NWAC South title once again, they’ll get an automatic berth in the NWAC Championship Tournament as they set their sights on winning their second championship in three years.
