Raiders say aloha to new baseball season in Hawaii
FAIRBORN — Wright State baseball coach Alex Sogard planned on sticking with what’s worked in the past to get his players revved up for the season — hopping on buses for trips to SEC country to challenge themselves against the nation’s top programs.
But then the University of Hawaii called.
“Their coach really wanted to play us,” Sogard said. “I told them in the first go ’round (of talks), ‘Listen, there’s just no chance this is going to happen. You’re going to have to give us a really good guarantee.’”
The Rainbow Warriors coach knew that meant coughing up a sizable payout to help with costs. He didn’t flinch.
“He continued to up the amount, and it finally came to a point where we couldn’t pass it up,” Sogard said.
“This is kind of a once-in-alifetime thing.”
After getting most of their expenses covered, the Raiders drummed up enough donations to make the trip budget-friendly.
The defending Horizon League champs will play four games Friday through Sunday at Hawaii, which went 28-24 overall and had its best finish since joining the Big West Conference at 19-11 last season.
And not surprisingly, the trip will include much more than just competition.
The Raiders will have a Hawaiian Luau dinner on the beach one night. They’ve also scheduled a hike that’s popular with tourists.
The highlight of the trip for some, though, may be a tour of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial that Sogard called a no-brainer.
They left at the crack of dawn Wednesday and will take a redeye flight home to get to campus by Tuesday afternoon — just in time to gear up for a weekend series at Kentucky.
The travel may not be an ideal way to start for the Raiders, but they’ve shown they can finish strong.
They were 1-8 last season before catching fire, going 30-27 overall and 20-9 in the league. They won the HL tourney in three straight games by a combined score of 56-7.
In the last eight years (not counting the canceled 2020 season), they’ve won six HL regular-season titles and came close the other two years, finishing second by a game in 2017 and second by a half-game in ’15.
They’re heavy favorites again after losing only one standout to the MLB draft and returning seven of eight position players along with almost their entire pitching staff.
“Last year, we had some older guys, but they didn’t have the game experience,” said Sogard, who is in his fifth year. “I feel like these guys — both on the mound and offensively — have all been through it.”
Junior catcher Sammy Sass
was named the preseason league player of the year by Division1baseball.com. He hit .281 last season with nine home runs and 52 RBIS in 57 games.
Sixth-year senior second-baseman Gehrig Anglin, who tied the program record with 16 homers, was picked by Perfect Game USA as the league’s top player.
“We’ve got three or four guys, in my opinion, who easily will be in the running for player of the year,” Sogard said.
Junior first-baseman Julian Greenwell batted .314 last season and made first-team all-league. Junior Jay Luikart, a second-team pick, was a productive outfielder (.299, 10 HRS) but also was the closer (4-2 record, seven saves and a team-low 2.53 ERA).
The starting pitching also is stout. Sebastian Gongora, a third-year sophomore from Chaminade Julienne, is the consensus preseason league pitcher of the year and top major-league prospect.
The 6-foot-5 lefty went 5-1 last season with 81 strikeouts in 82.2 innings.
Fifth-year senior Alex Theis (6-1, 3.36 ERA, 87 K’s in 59 innings) and junior Jake Shirk (6-6, 5.55) round out the rotation.
“Our pitching depth is better. Last year, we had those three guys and then fell off when we got to the bullpen,” Sogard said.
That needs to change if the Raiders want to reach the next plateau as a program.
They’ve won the league tourney five of the last seven years to advance to the NCAA regionals, but their postseason dreams ended there.
After going 2-2 in 2015 and ’16, they’ve gone 0-2 in each of their last three trips.
They were knocked off by Virginia Tech, 15-9, and Gonzaga, 11-9, last season.
“The reality is we haven’t won any of those games, and we should’ve won multiple games,” Sogard said. “Both games last year, we had a lead late and weren’t able to close the door.
“That was an emphasis in recruiting. We’ve got a talented roster of arms, and you’re just hoping some of the young guys click.”