The Butler Grizzlies baseball season is just around the corner, and head coach BJ McVay and his team are looking to take the next step.
The Grizzlies are coming off a successful 2021 season, finishing 37-16 as they made it to the Region VI final four for the first time in six years, making it to the Plains District Tournament championship before losing to conference powerhouse, the Cowley Tigers.
The Grizzlies will return plenty of players from last year, with four redshirt sophomores coming back for their third year after the last two years of covid shortened both seasons. A couple of those impact players returning include Cache Stone, who hit a walk off triple in the Region VI quarterfinals against Fort Scott, and Bryce Zimmerer, who finished the season with a batting average of .341. Jackson Syring who has been one of the leaders for the Grizzlies the last two years and Andrew Wisner, a quiet but efficient closer for Butler. The Grizzlies also return ten redshirt freshman players.
"We're excited about the season," McVay said, entering his twelfth season at the helm of the Grizzlies program and 18th overall at Butler.
"Everyone came back in shape, that means we can hit the ground running and I think it's always an advantage when you have third year guys, that can help the new guys out."
And there will be plenty of new faces in the Butler program. The Grizzlies welcome 17 freshmen to the roster, as they look to replace last year's All-Americans Josh Cameron and Jonah Cox.
"I was pleasantly surprised with how good the freshmen were in the fall," McVay said, "but now they have to show they can play in the spring too."
The Grizzlies open the season on Thursday, February 10th, against Northwestern Oklahoma State's JV squad in Alva, Oklahoma in two seven-inning games.
The Grizzlies will play their first five games of the year in Oklahoma, heading to the JUCO Spring Festival for three games before kicking off conference play at Kansas City Kansas. Their first home game will come against the KCKCC Blue Devils at McDonald Stadium on the 26th of February.
The Grizzlies will play a four game series, two games at home and two on the road, against every team in the Jayhawk West Conference, a gauntlet that McVay says the team is ready for.
"It's always a dogfight, it's just tough. Even the teams at the bottom of the conference are good. There's just no days off."
At the top of the conference is Cowley, the powerhouse that the Grizzlies ran into in the Region VI final last year. The Grizzlies will play the Tigers, who are on the East side of the KJCCC in the four-game set non-conference series starting on April 28th, and they know they will probably face the Tigers again if they make a return trip to the Region VI final four, which is on the campus of Kansas State University in Manhattan this year.
"We ran into a juggernaut last year," McVay said. "I know our guys are excited to play them again, but we've just got to beat who's in front of us for now."
The one thing McVay thinks could be the key to the Grizzlies' success in 2022 is consistency.
"We need to be more consistent in all three phases," McVay said. "Last year, when we put all three phases of the game together we were pretty good."
