Butler Baseball looks to carry the momentum of winning the KJCCC West a season ago into this year and try and compete for another conference championship.
The Grizzlies went on an 11-game win streak at the end of last year to win their fourth Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference championship, the first since the 2010 season. Last year, Butler finished with a 39-19 overall record and 22-10 in KJCCC play. The conference championship was the first for head coach BJ McVay, who is entering his 10th season at the helm of the baseball program and 16th overall season with the Grizzlies.
When Butler Baseball takes the field on opening day, they will be fielding almost a completely new team from a season ago.
"We pretty much have a whole new team," said head baseball coach BJ McVay. "I am really looking forward to watching these new guys compete and see what we have."
"Dillan Janak, Colby Standard, Austin Portner and Noah Argenta are a few of our returners that will play a bigger role for us this season," said McVay. "We will rely on them a lot. What's nice is that we return our two catchers from last season and they're the ones who run the field."
Dillan Janak won 10 games as a freshman and recorded only one loss. He pitched 69 innings and had 46 strikeouts on the year. Colby Standard appeared in 47 games last seaosn hitting .338 with 29 RBI's, 33 runs scored and four homeruns. Austin Portner played in 46 games as a freshman chalking up 33 RBI's, 34 runs scored and six homeruns. Noah Argenta split time behind the plate with Standard. He played in 29 games hitting .268 with 13 RBI's, 14 runs, seven doubles and two homeruns.
The Grizzly middle infield will also be covered by sophomores, two of which have really improved a lot.
"Dylan Werries will be our short stop and Thomas Beiswanger will be our second baseman and they will be very important to our defense this season," commented McVay. "They played in games last season as freshman but their role will be much bigger this year."
With a bigger roster turnover than on a typical year, the Butler freshman will have to step in and have an impact immediately.
"Jackson Syring (outfield), Izack Tiger (RHP), Nate Adler (RHP) and Garrett DeHaas (first base and RHP) are four freshman that will step in and have an immediate impact," said McVay. "It is always hard to replace your outgoing sophomore class, but I feel we did a good job recruiting and brought in a good group that will do really well for us."
When the Grizzlies take the field on February 3, it will be just their fourth time to be outside this year.
"The hardest thing will be the timing for hitting," said McVay. "Practices have been as good as they can be when you can't get outside but our timing at the plate will have to pick up quickly on Monday."
"We had a good fall season and improved a lot in a number of areas," said McVay on the fall ball season. "Our approach at the plate got better but can always improve. We played really good defense in the fall that should carry over into the season and pitching threw strikes but, like hitting, can always improve."
Butler travels to Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva, Oklahoma to open up the season. They will play the junior varsity squad in a double-header starting at 1:00pm. The Grizzlies will play their home opener on Saturday, February 8th vs Coffeyville in a double-header at 1:00pm and 3:00pm.
