College: Valley City State University

Location: Valley City, ND

Conference: Frontier Conference

Head Coach: Alec DeMaria

Assistant Coaches: TJ Hokanson, Cameron Pitts, Jay Mendez, Daegen Morcom

Who are some key returning position players and what do you hope to see from them this year?

– Alexis Velasco was the 2025 Conference Freshman of the Year, and was 2nd team all-conference. We expect him to be one of the best hitters in the conference.
– Connor Hoyt was hurt last year, but hit .400 in our countable NAIA games this fall. We expect him to be one of the best outfielders in the conference. He was the NJCAA Region 13 Player of the Year at Northland just a couple of years ago.
– Kaden Rozdeba hit .291 with 13 doubles, 4 home runs, and 32 RBI. We are expecting an all-conference level season out of him. He is also one of our leaders.
– Cam Pero became a mainstay in our lineup late in the season. He ended up hitting .279 with an OBP of .410.

Who are your key returning pitchers and what do you hope to see from them this year? 

– Takao Cookson was the 2024 Conference Freshman of the Year, and has received all-conference awards in each of his first 2 seasons with us. We expect him to continue to be one of the best starting pitchers in our conference.
– Connor Martin led the conference in all key freshman pitching statistics (innings pitched, strikeouts, etc.). He posted a 3.21 ERA with 18 K in 14 innings pitched in our countable NAIA games this fall. We expect him to be an all-conference level pitcher this spring.
– Eli Chabot threw 16 innings last year with a 2.25 ERA and held opposing hitters to a .151 batting average. He threw 4.2 scoreless innings in our countable NAIA games this fall.
– Grady Shipman made one start on the mound in our countable NAIA games this fall. He was dominant, giving up 1 run in 5 innings and earning the win. Grady threw quite a bit last season as a freshman and gained valuable experience. We expect him to be a very effective starting pitcher in our league this year.
– Anthony Carrasquillo, as a true freshman last season, he led the team in pitching appearances. He posted a 5.56 ERA over 34 innings pitched. He also had 4 wins on the mound.

Do you have an incoming impact freshman or transfers that will help the team in 2026?

– Nicholas Senn (transfer) hit .375 with a .464 OBP, and a 1.006 OPS in junior college at College of the Sequoias. He also threw out 70% of runners stealing. In our countable NAIA games this fall, he hit .353 with an OBP of .476, and threw out 3 attempted base stealers.
– Filippo Venditti (transfer) hit .386 with 24 doubles, 5 triples, 5 home runs, and 81 RBI and won a NJCAA Region 15 Championship at Kingsborough Community College.
– Jackson Penner (freshman) hit .273 and played solid infield in our countable NAIA games this fall. He was also the MVP of our Fall World Series.
– Easton Francis (freshman) pitched 3 innings, allowing 3 runs on 3 K and 0 BB, in our countable NAIA games this fall.
– Michael Simbulan (freshman) was the Cy Young Award winner in our Fall World Series.
– Bryce Meyers (junior) threw 31 innings with a 4.65 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP for Dakota Bottineau.

As a team what has the focus been in the fall and winter as you prepare for the 2026 season?

With games in the fall, we focused on winning our individual job on every pitch. Everyone has a different role on every given play. We need to focus on how we can win this play, and then give 100% effort and dedication to winning that job, or that role on every single pitch.

What are the expectations and goals for the team entering the season?

We want to focus on each play within each game individually, but if we had to set a goal: Our goal is to post the most wins in program history (record is 32 in a 60-game season). We have started this season 3-2 after playing 5 countable NAIA games in the fall.

Is there a way for fans to watch your games online?

Youtube: @vcsuathletics1211

Additional info about the 2026 team or your program overall.

Coming off of the first 2 years under a new coaching staff, the team has moved forward from the 2022-2023 season in which it totaled 13 wins and earned a 7th place conference finish (only finishing ahead of 0-48 Presentation College), to now win 20 or more games in each of the last 2 years, earn a top 3 conference finish, earn a 3rd place conference tournament finish, and feature the Conference Freshman of the Year in both of the first 2 seasons under the new coaching staff. As a program that features mostly freshman recruiting, we have finally reached the point where we are not an extremely young team anymore. We are still not an older team, but we aren’t as young as we used to be. The 20-win team last year also lost 11 one-run games while playing 19 games against teams that qualified for the national tournament. The 4 years prior to that, VCSU had played 14 total games against national tournaments over that entire 4-year span. This season the team will return: 8 of the 10 position players with the most at-bats last year, 66% of the total at-bats, 52% of the total innings pitched, 3 of the 4 pitchers with the most innings pitched. Also, 29% of total innings were pitched by true freshmen last year.