Experience and electricity returning for Jimmie baseball

College coaches dedicate their lives to ensuring athletes receive the best possible experiences and opportunities, something that was made impossible last March.

Before playing a single game at Jack Brown Stadium in 2020, University of Jamestown baseball coach Tom Hager had to gather his players and inform them their season was over after a promising 16-game spring in parts of Missouri, Kansas and Arizona yielded a 12-4 result.

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics canceled the 2020 spring sports season on March 16 in response to COVID-19. The unprecedented action -- spurred by the concern over human life -- came two days after the Jimmies wrapped up a 6-2 stretch at the Tucson Invitational Games.

"It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do as a coach," said Hager, now in his 22nd season heading up the Jimmies. "I have had some experiences as an assistant coach having to share difficult news with the team, I have had some experiences dealing with weather, but there's just nothing like the news that you had to share when you tell your team that their season's over."

The NAIA's decision to not charge athletes a season of eligibility, however, provided a silver lining and has resulted in nearly every Jimmie who charged last spring's electric response to 2019's Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament championship being back in uniform.

Coach Hager won't ever make excuses, but the Jimmies' recent 2-4 mark against rivals Valley City State and Mayville State during fall baseball was misleading. Jamestown's middle-of-the-order difference-makers -- Luke Shekeryk, Lincoln Trujillo, Dylan Dudley, Dirk Eymundson and Derek Almanza -- were mostly unavailable due to the oddity that was 2020, which included working through senior eligibility matters, injuries and sickness.

But the band will be back together this weekend in Missouri. The Jimmies are scheduled to open the spring with five games in Joplin beginning tomorrow (Friday) against Iowa's Graceland University at 4 p.m.

As always, baseball schedules in February aren't penned in permanent ink.

"The majority of our lineup and the majority of our pitching staff is back and we've added some really nice pieces to complement those guys," Hager said. "Our fall ball record didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, but the fact that we have a lot of returning players -- a lot of depth -- we feel like this team has a chance to have a special season."

Great for the team and fans alike, the long ball should be a UJ strength beginning this week. Trujillo and left-handed power bats Shekeryk and Dudley make for an intriguing mix for coach Hager at first base and designated hitter.

UJ fans know Trujillo well, having combined 12 homers and 21 total extra base hits with 48 RBIs (.520 slugging) over the past two seasons. Dudley and Shekeryk are both junior transfers.

Dudley, who formerly played at Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon, has only recorded 22 at-bats for the Jimmies in 10 games, while Shekeryk slashed .421/.569/.526 with four doubles and 10 RBIs in 14 games away from Jamestown last spring after migrating in from Washington's Columbia Basin College.

The 6-foot-4, 265-pound Shekeryk played three Northwoods League baseball games for the Bismarck Bull Moose last August.

The Jimmies have veteran senior leadership up the middle in shortstop Grant Okawa (.342/.443/.511 career), second baseman Jared Bentley (.956 career fielding) and center fielder Chase Hacker (.283/.418/.434). Juniors Tayler Cullen (.304/.389/.468) and Brian Rice (.329/.440/.386) are returning to anchor the corner outfield positions.

Cullen, manning left, clubbed a grand slam against Valley City State en route to eight RBIs in the fall.

Sophomore Kendall Yackley (.273/.355/.432) will be back at the hot corner, and senior Matt Meraz (.335/.407/.489) and junior Almanza will help provide the Jimmies depth in the outfield. Almanza, a transfer from Washington's Big Bend Community College, provided three doubles and seven RBIs in 24 at-bats last spring before his early Jimmie career was cut short.

As always, the Jimmies have brought in more transfer power in the form of senior Brice Foster. Hager said Foster, who transferred in over the semester break from Menlo College near San Jose, California, will float between short and second and will also be a right-handed starting pitching option.

Sophomore Eymundson (.250/.394/.382) leads a group of catchers that includes junior left-handed bat Tanner Shepard (.235/.278/.412) and sophomores Braxton Hewitt and Connor Mormon.

"We feel like we have a very deep team that's capable of being very potent offensively, being able to run and hit the long ball," Hager said. "We think we've got some playmakers on defense and we've got guys on the mound that have experience and provide depth."

Jamestown's experienced pitching staff, all righties, has starting options in senior Kensaku Akiya (8-4, 4.07 ERA, 81 SO) and Dru Fitz (9-2, 4.02 ERA, 86 SO), freshman Mitchell Dennis (3-1, 28 IP, 18 SO), Yackley (1-0, 11 IP), Hacker (2-0, 10.2 IP), Foster and sophomore Payson Mills (0-0, 1.2 IP).

The Jimmies have a seasoned bullpen in the likes of seniors Andy Reed (7-1, 1.60 ERA, 60 SO), Austin Pesicka (6-3, 2.42 ERA, 48 SO) and Aaron Pugh (2-1, 16 SO, 18 IP), junior Cameron Jenkins (2-1, 19 SO, 18 IP) and added sophomore Trey Evans into the mix last fall.

The Jimmies' first weekend of spring action in Joplin is scheduled to include games against Presentation College (S.D.) and Grand View University (Iowa) on Saturday and William Penn (Iowa) and University of St. Mary (Kan.) on Sunday.

UJ currently has 65 players in its baseball program between varsity and junior varsity and will travel between 28 to 30.

"We think we've got a very good baseball team, but it's gonna be a learning process, as it was in the fall," Hager said. "We're going to learn more about our team and figure out how all these pieces of the puzzle go together."