LAKELAND, Fla. - With big expectations, the eleventh-ranked Fire baseball program turn their gaze to a new season, with new faces, and new coaches.
Gabe Grinder, newly hired head coach for the Fire, makes his return home. Grinder, who played for Southeastern in his college days, is excited to return, "Coming back to Southeastern means a lot to my family and I. This place helped shape me as a person and I grew tremendously as a player. I look forward to providing our student-athletes with the same experience over their time here."
Following a couple preseason scrimmages, the Fire jump right into action. "I am looking forward to the early season challenges for our guys and finding out what our resiliency looks like. We will have some tough games before we encounter conference play, but I believe these games will help shape and prepare us to compete at a high level in The Sun Conference." states Coach Grinder.
Southeastern kicks off their season with the East/West Challenge, an annual invite, in which the Fire will host #10 Arizona Christian, #24 University of British Columbia, #7 Lewis-Clark State, and last year's NAIA World Series champions, #2 Hope International. The challenge begins on January 29th, carrying through February 1st with each game starting at 6 p.m.
The Fire start their Sun Conference play on March 8th, taking on Warner University.
A new roster prepares for the fresh start, and Grinder listed a few names he expects to stand out, "We have a great stable of talent and it is tough to say who will be the big breakout player amongst the group. We look for
Reece Wissinger to have a bounce back year and expect familiar faces like
Agnel Miranda,
Bryce McDonald,
Olvis Genao and
Alfonso Villalobos to have great seasons. We have a great group of new players that are headlined by guys like Aaron Robertson, Connor Hicks and Myles White, all of whom had great fall seasons."
Southeastern looks to return to the NAIA Opening Round for the seventh straight season, and NAIA World Series for the sixth time in a row.
You can view the complete schedule
HERE.
