The 2019 season for the Waynesburg baseball team brought many bright spots. The team had a 15-9 conference record, and made the Presidents’ Athletic Conference playoffs for the first time since 2015.

Looking to have another winning season, Waynesburg will get it’s 2020 season underway in the early part of next week. The program will make it’s annual trip to play in Florida for the Russmatt Invitational. 

“We’re playing a tough schedule down there,” coach Mike Humiston said. “There’s some teams that are traditionally very good. I’m interested to see how we compete.”

The Jackets will play 10 games over a six-day span. Their scheduled opponents are Ohio Northern, Concordia (MN), John Carroll, Albion, Mitchell, and Mount Union. Waynesburg will also have just 27 players on their 2020 roster, but for Humiston, this could be a benefit.

“We’ve got a smaller group this year,” Humiston said. “But that just means that more guys are going to get to play. There’s an expectation.”

This means that every player on the Jackets roster will have a job to do, and some players will be depended on for several different responsibilities.

“A lot of our guys will be playing dual roles,” Humiston said.“I’m interested in seeing how they handle those different roles. Based on what we’ve seen so far, I think we’ll be a lot better off than some people may think we’re going to be.”

For Humiston, the trip provides an opportunity to get a good look at the pitching staff. He’ll be able to see his pitchers compete in games prior to conference play. 

“It always helps us with our pitching rotation and who we’re looking at,” Humiston said. “We’ve got guys in mind, but that doesn’t mean that they’re going to go down there and set the world on fire. We’re excited to see how they’re going to react and how they’re going to perform.”

The pitching rotation will be led by senior Mason Miller. In just under 70 innings of work, Miller collected 97 strikeouts last season. He had an 8-2 record, and an ERA of 1.86. Waynesburg will look for Miller to replicate those numbers this season as well, if not top them. 

“He had a great year last year,” Humiston said. “But he has to expand on that. He has to be better this year than he was last year. That helps us get better and helps him get better looks. He’s working as hard as I’ve seen him work in the last three years.”

Miller is the unquestioned anchor of the rotation, but behind him, Humiston feels the pitching staff will be able to hold its own. The staff will have underclassmen serving as solid support pieces.

“We have  a couple of younger guys that I think we can spot in certain situations,” he said. “When we need three outs or six outs they’ll be able to do that.”

Another element to the 2020 season will be the team’s outfield, which has gotten a lot younger. The team lost two longtime starters over the off-season, Tyler Godwin and Mitch Nordstrom. Humiston mentioned Evan Homison, Carter Uzzell, Vinny Monico and Ryan Mills as players who could see outfield time.

“I think the outfield is going to be better than what we anticipated,” Humiston said. “We have  guys that can hit, run and play the outfield.”

Vinny Monico, Johnny Kutchman, Justin Buberl, Mason Miller, Carter Uzzell and John Przybylinski make up this season’s senior class. Humiston expects them to be leaders on the team, but says that it’ll be a collective effort.

“That’ll be all seniors,” Humiston said. “We expect [leadership] to happen. But it’s an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation for us to be successful and make the [PAC] tournament.”