WNCC baseball team opens the season this weekend at Garden City, Kan.

Western Nebraska Community College baseball coach Mike Jones is not expecting a lot of home runs hit when the Cougars open the season this weekend on the road.

Instead, Jones is looking at this year’s team to be strong defensively with plenty of pitching. Offensively, well, he is hoping that their speed on the bases and executing the small things will five the Cougars the right chemistry this season.

“This year looks like it will be a fun year. We have a group of guys that we enjoy coaching and are fun to be around. They like to compete but at the same time they have a lot of fun while they compete,” he said. “I really enjoy this team. We will be a team that will be focused on pitching and defense. I don’t think we will just outscore people.”

Jones will see the make-up of this team for real when the Cougars open the season this weekend when they face Garden City Community College on the road. Garden City opened the season last weekend when they fell to Lamar Community College 3-1.

Jones said that from what he has heard, Garden City is an offensive minded team.

“People of told me Garden City is a good offensive team; they are able to score runs,” Jones said. “Lamar beat them 3-1 [over the weekend] and the Garden City coach said they didn’t hit very well. They haven’t had a chance to be outside much. They got a lot of snow down that way, so they haven’t seen a lot of live pitching yet. They already had a chance to play someone and they might come out real god next weekend. To me it really doesn’t matter. We are going to go play and let’s get better.”

The Cougars, on the other hand, have been outside periodically going through mini games in preparation for the season. Jones said that time outside should benefit his team, especially on the pitching mound, where the team’s bread and butter will be the pitching staff.

“I think pitching will be a strength, and not just with our starting pitching, but the depth of our pitching staff overall,” he said. “We will be able to go to guys out of our bullpen and they will be solid pitchers. It is the depth that will make us really strong.”

Anchoring the pitching staff will be sophomores Armani Gonzalez of Miami, Rodil Martinez of Honduras, and Tim Beard of Australia. Jones these three will be carrying the biggest load. However, the bullpen is filled with talent as Julion Davilla, a sophomore from Puerto Rico, will get the start on the mound for the squad against Garden City.

After these four, there are a slew of other arms that will see plenty of action, including Gering’s Carlos Palomo. Palomo was the Gering American Legion’s No. 1 pitcher last summer and will be a major arm on the mound for the Cougars this year.

Other pitchers that will be counted on is David Castle of Guernsey, Wyo., John Bravard of Lyons, Colo., Sidney Jones of La Creiba Honduras, JC Morales of Miami, and Josh Parker of Australia.

“We can keep going through quality guys,” Jones said. “Even though these guys are not our starting pictures right now, they will be key for us.”

Jones said for this team to score runs, they will need to be creative. And one way is to take advantage of their speed on the base paths.

“Offensively, we look like a team that will be scrappy,” he said. “We are going to have to show a lot of discipline. We will have to stay within ourselves and try not to do too much. We are not going to have a powerful lineup and you are not going to see us hit a lot of home runs. We will be a team that will find ways to get on base, and then use our team speed to our advantage and create scoring opportunities.”

The Cougars do have a lot of returning players on the offensive side, including Elvis Garcia at first base, Oscar Rodriquez at second base, Josh Parker as an infielder/pitcher, catchers Jason Sloan and Shane Wade, and outfielders Jared Baros and Trace Marsden. Marsden is a Scottsbluff High graduate.

Jones said that with this type of returning talent, it should be a fun year.

“It will be exciting and the guys understand how we are going to play and how we are going to score runs,” he said. “Everyone is on the same page and understands what our philosophy is going to be to try to score runs. We are going to take a lot of chances and we are going to get thrown out some times. It will not always work, but we will be a team that will go for it and we will see what happens.”

The players can’t wait to get on the field to see just how they will fare this year. Last season the Cougars finished with a 25-29 record, including finishing second in the Empire Conference standings. WNCC fell in the first-round of the Region IX playoffs to Northeastern Junior College, who went on to win the regional tournament.

“The players are excited to get out and they want to go play,” Jones said. “I am happy for us that we get a chance to get out and play. I don’t care if it is a little cold, we just need to go out and play. We will make plenty of mistakes, but that is the way you learn. Let’s make mistakes and learn from them and come back to work on things.”

After back-to-back weekends playing contests in Kansas, the Cougars will open their home campaign on Feb. 27-28 at Cleveland Field when they host Miles Community College.