Tyler Reis has never played a playoff game in his college baseball career.

Despite the Waynesburg University second baseman developing into one of the top players in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, earning first-team all-conference honors last season as a sophomore, the Yellow Jackets finished fifth in the PAC in both of his Reis’ first two years. In both seasons, the Jackets were one spot short of being one of the four teams to qualify for the conference tournament.

Despite the fact that the team lost 13 seniors from a year ago—nine of which were starters—Reis has never felt better about Waynesburg’s chances to finish in the top four.

“I honestly have never had this much confidence in my team,” Reis said. “I just think the team chemistry this year is different [from the past two years]. Everyone is all in, not too many people are worried about themselves. Everyone is buying in and working really hard. I think we have more potential than we’ve had in years past.”

Last season, Waynesburg fell one game short of the playoffs, with a wild 14-12 lost at Grove City in the regular season finale that gave the Wolverines the fourth and final spot. The PAC preseason coaches’ poll picked the Jackets to end up in the same spot they’ve been in the past two years: fifth place. While the team lost over a dozen seniors, head coach Mike Humiston thought his team deserved a better projection.

“I was disappointed that we were [picked] fifth,” Humiston said. “I thought that every team last year lost a lot of folks. We weren’t the only team to lose a bunch of starters. I think we use that to our advantage and we play every game with a chip on our shoulder.”

For the Jackets to reach the postseason, several players will have to fill the shoes of seniors such as first baseman Jonathan Kletzli, catcher Ben Miller and starting pitcher Luke Carter. Replacing Kletzli, who also earned first-team All-PAC honors last season, will be sophomore Johnny Kutchman, who also looks to be a factor in the Jackets new-looked pitching rotation. Humiston said that third baseman Justin Buberl could see time there as well.

Replacing Miller, who was a second-team all-conference catcher in his senior season, is yet to be determined. According to Humiston, up to five players could see time behind the plate. The two front-runners for the position appear to be sophomore John Pryzbylinski, who split time with Miller as a freshman, and fellow sophomore Tyler Reyes, who transferred from Division II Mercyhurst University at the start of the Spring semester.

The starting rotation will experience almost a complete turnover. Over half of Waynesburg’s innings last season were thrown by the senior class. Kutchman, along with fellow sophomore Mason Miller, junior Brandon Lawless and senior Noah Lolley will look to improve upon a staff that was seventh of nine teams in the PAC with a 6.66 earned run average, with Miller being the only one to log 30 innings in 2017. Both Miller and Kutchman were among four Jackets to appear on the PAC’s preseason players to watch list, with Reis and senior outfielder Tyler Godwin being the other two.

According to Lolley, the pitching staff has already bonded well together despite coming into a new situation.

“With a lot of new faces, I didn’t expect there to be as much comradery,” Lolley said. “I think we’ve meshed as a pitching staff. I think our work ethic has been really good as opposed to previous years as a whole. This year we’ve had a lot of hard-working guys on the team.”

Offensively, Reis and Godwin are the only two returners who were everyday starters in 2017, with the bulk of a lineup that finished third in the PAC in runs scored graduating. Despite losing most of its production, Reis, who led the Jackets in home runs, runs batted in and runs scored, among other statistics, is back. Around this time last season, Reis was changing his approach at the plate. Now, he feels like he is better prepared for the year ahead.

“Last year whenever I was approaching the Florida trip, I was still new to the whole aspect of [my swing],” Reis said. “Everything still felt new, so I didn’t know what to expect whenever the season came. Now that I have a full year of that under my belt, I’m a lot more confident. I feel like I’ve never been more ready for a season in my life.”

The Jackets will begin their season in Winter Haven, Florida, with five doubleheaders scheduled between March 4 and March 9. For Reis, whatever happens down south will set a tone for the rest of the season.

“I believe that everything starts in Florida,” he said. “Our team confidence is at a high right now, and coming into Florida we expect big things of ourselves. So if we come out and perform well the first couple of games, I think we’re going to start on a roll, and that’s going to carry on to us coming back here and playing. I think that’s just going to increase our chances of making the playoffs [against PAC Competition].”

Defending champion Washington & Jefferson was ranked first in the preseason poll, followed by Thomas More, Thiel and Grove City. For Humiston, the key to the Jackets beating out at least one of those teams this season to get into the postseason will be doing the things that they know how to do.

“We have to come out and we have to do the things that we all know that we’re capable of doing,” Humiston said. “That’s playing as a team, executing the plays that we need to execute offensively, defensively, pitching-wise.”

The Jackets haven’t won a conference title in nearly 20 years. While that is the main objective, Humiston feels that simply qualifying for the postseason is a must.

“Our ultimate goal is to win the PAC championship, [but] I think another big goal for us is to make the [conference] tournament,” Humiston said. “We have to be one of the top four teams in our conference.”