(RV) Baseball welcomes Wiley for Opening Weekend

UHV baseball head coach Jonathan Stavinoha has a lot of excitement for this weekend.

Not just because the Jaguars open the season receiving votes in the NAIA Poll for the first time or because the team was picked to finish second in the Red River Athletic Conference preseason coaches' poll, also the highest mark since joining the conference in 2015.

The third-year head coach is eager for this weekend because UHV (34-17 in 2024) welcomes Wiley University to Riverside Stadium for a season-opening three-game set. The Wildcats (29-21 in 2024) won the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (now known as the HBCU Conference) regular season title and advanced to the tournament championship round.

"Feels great to play somebody other than ourselves," Stavinoha said. "(Wiley) is coming off a really strong season with a lot of returners. It'll be a good test for us right out of the gate. We're just really excited to see what we can do against somebody else."

The Jaguars are looking to build off a historic 2024 campaign in which the team tied the single-season wins record. UHV returns six of its All-RRAC selections from last year, including position players Hal Perez and Juan Perez.

But Stavinoha knows what to expect from his returners and hopes to see some new faces step up, not only in the season opener, but over the course of the next few weeks to start the year.

"We know what we've got from our returners and then some," Stavinoha said. "We've got to see how we play together and how we play underneath the lights. I'm anxious to see how young guys like Brady Thompson and Xavier Ortega show up. Obviously we've got our transfer guys like Cristian Garcia, DeeAndre Torres, Rafael Gutierrez and Terry Burrel III. You want to see how they're going to play together and feed off each other, and have energy the whole time."

UHV returns a large majority of its pitching staff, which ranked fifth nationally in ERA (3.95), from last year including All-Red River Athletic Conference First Team selections Julian Garcia and Jacob Baker. Garcia tied the single-season wins mark on the mound. All-RRAC Second Teamers Brady Parker and Mason Longoria also return this season after combining for 15 wins. Longoria also notched 100 strikeouts a year ago.

The Jaguars' pitching staff was also bolstered with the addition of Jonathan Jones, a transfer senior from Southeastern (Fla.). The Manvel native was drafted twice in the MLB Draft, first to the Philadelphia Phillies in the 28^th round of the 2018 draft as a senior in high school and then to the Milwaukee Brewers in the 31^st round of the 2019 draft after his freshman season at San Jacinto College.

Heading into Friday's season opener, Stavinoha doesn't want his pitchers "to take anything for granted."

"They've had success in the past," Stavinoha said. "But they need to have that hunger constantly. If we can do that and treat every pitch like it's the World Series, that's when we're really going to take off and put that talent to use. We've got to be locked in every single pitch."

UHV owns a 21-7 record all-time against the Wildcats with the last series coming Feb. 18-19, 2022. The Jaguars took two of the three games in that series.