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Raidergang Baseball: Preseason Roundup

Raidergang Baseball | Photo by Christian Peters | The Wright State Guardian


Wright State University (WSU) baseball is ready to go for the 2022 spring season and is already looking like a dominant force headed into their first games against #21 Georgia Tech and #7 Oklahoma State.

The team finished the 2021 season on a 35-13 mark, with a 21-1 record at home at Nischwitz stadium. Their post-season included a Horizon League Championship, a trip to the NCAA Knoxville regional, three players signing MLB Contracts and another two entering MLB free agency.

Despite these losses, Head Coach Alex Sogard has returned a ton of talent, including Preseason Player of the Year Sammy Sass, and has built the team’s schedule as difficult as possible, facing off against two ranked opponents from the start.

“We’re excited to get going,” Sogard said. “I know the guys are ready to compete. We’ll get tested right out of the gate, but I’m looking forward to the competition.”

Be the best, play the best

The Raiders are no stranger to building a tough schedule for themselves, ranking 24th in the nation last year in the Rating Percentage Index (RPI).

They ranked 31st this year, bringing some big-name schools to their schedule outside of their ranked opponents, including Ohio State, Michigan, Cincinnati, Xavier and Dayton.

“We like to challenge ourselves, especially early,” Sogard said. “That’s always been our motto. Whatever game or whatever level you’re at, you want to try to play the best and beat the best.”

For the players, the games against strong competition are always exciting matchups, both for preparation and also to improve.

“We’re always excited for those games,” Justin McConnell, a junior for WSU, said. “Going down south and playing against those big schools, we always want to take two or three games from those guys.”

The aim of this difficult schedule is to be as prepared as possible for Horizon League play, in order to move forward to NCAA regional games.

“It was great winning the Horizon last year and getting to a regional,” Sass said. “We’re trying to repeat that, and get a few steps farther as well.” 

MLB Prospects

For the last few years, WSU has been a funnel for great talent heading into the MLB Draft, losing five players last year, and with several Raiders this year on the lookout for opportunities to the next level.

For both the 2022 and 2023 MLB Draft, four Raiders for each year have been ranked in the top five prospects in the Horizon League, showing that year after year the Raidergang continues to push out athletes ready for the next level.

“I think everybody on our team, that’s their goal,” McConnell said. “Everybody has that dream of playing in the MLB one day.”

These prospects come from great recruiting, but also the effort that WSU’s players put in during the offseason with all of their players working for that MLB dream.

“Our culture is, in my mind, second to none, in the way our guys work,” Sogard said. “When you have 35 guys pushing each other and having the same goal, you can accomplish a lot.”

For Sogard, the players that end up making it to that next level are the ones that never get satisfied with where they are, they keep working for more.

“Those guys we have that ended up going to the next level, they don’t get content,” Sogard said. “They’re always pushing themselves to the next level.”


Noah Kindig

Sports Reporter

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