Pioneer Baseball Receives Pre Season Votes
For the first time in recent years, the Miles Community College Pioneer Baseball team has received votes in the pre-season National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) 2020 poll. The NJCAA releases its pre-season poll on the third Tuesday of January every year and weekly polls starting the second Monday of February. http://stats.njcaa.org/sports/bsb/2019-20/div2/polls
The Pioneers return a handful of players from last year's 42-14 team that won the Mon-Dak conference and Region XIII tournament, finally falling to Northeast, Nebraska for a birth to the NJCAA Div II World Series. Leading the sophomore class is Lewis Johnson, an outfielder from Evans Head, Australia. Lewis either led or was in the top 3 categorically in every offensive stat. Cade Stuff (Great Falls, MT) and Kiran Carcary (Parksville, BC) each saw time in the infield and outfield respectfully and put up quality stats as freshmen.
Keith Manby from White Rock, British Columbia led the Pioneers as a freshman on the bump with an 8-2 record in 12 starts and 102 strikeouts. Anthony Bleggi (Driggs, ID) and Chris Rofe (Sidney, Aus) saw extended time as freshman with solid numbers.
The Pioneers have arguably the best recruiting class in its history this year. Some possible standouts in the freshman class to watch are Dawson Parry (American Fork, UT), Ian Krump (Rapid City, SD), Jett Hasegawa (Brisbane, Australia) and Deklan Harper (Laurel, MT). Follow the link to the Pioneer Baseball roster: https://www.mccpioneers.com/sports/bsb/2019-20/roster
Coach Brabant on team preview and ranking: "It is always an honor to have national recognition whenever you get it. It says a lot about not only what we do in grinding day to day, but also that other voting members see our history and tradition. Let's face it, it is hard to poll the JUCO ranks with the yearly turnover.
As for the team, I really like where we are at this point, I like our depth, I like our character, I like our skill set. A lot will be determined on how our mental game goes with our failures. If we can learn from our mistakes, grow, and mature, I wouldn't want to play us in May when it matters. We have a long way to go before we need to worry about peaking and we are working hard right now in preparation for those days."
The Pioneers will open up the end of February, barring weather, with non-conference double headers against Montana State's Club team. Following the opener, the Pioneers will head to Tucson, to play 16 games in 12 days. The baseball team's schedule can be found here: https://www.mccpioneers.com/sports/bsb/2019-20/schedule