Wolves look for diamond success

Special to Wesson News

Following one of its best seasons in history with a 34-25 record and a 13-9 loss in its Region 23 pod championship game to the East Central Warriors, the Co-Lin baseball Wolves have high expectations under a new coach for the 2026 season that started this month.  

"I have the best group of guys to start this job, especially with a lot of them returning,” says Kyle Flessner, who moved up to head coach from assistant coach.  "Our guys have to keep the same chip on their shoulder that they had last season.  Last year we had a lot of young guys who wanted to go out and prove to people that they belonged.  Now they have to go out with the understanding that no one is going to hand us wins because of what we did last year.  As far as possibilities with this team, I think it is very possible for us to go further than we did last season if we bring the same attitude and energy for every game."

The roster features 32 players for the Wolves with 18 players that have experience under their belt from last season (17 sophomores including 14 returners and one transfer along with three redshirt freshmen) along with 15 incoming freshmen.

The 14 returners include Trey Davidson, Caleb Brooks, and Nash Sturdivant from Brandon via Northwest Rankin and the one transfer sophomore, a former teammate of that trio, Bryson Jones, who played last season at Jones.

Other returners include Avery Griffin (Brookhaven), Evan Holifield (Stringer), Bradley Hanlon (Monroe, LA), Brady White (Ethel), Cameron Patterson (Central, LA), Caleb Flynn (Laurel), Jennings Kimbrell (Flowood), Donovan Moore (Roxie), Cohen Weinhofer (Ocean Springs), Tanner Blackwell (Flora), and Jacob Buffalo (Foxworth) while the three redshirt freshmen are Brayden Cooley (Flora), Parker Ishee (Ridgeland), and Wes White (Flowood).

The 14 freshmen for the Wolves include Hayes Hebert (Lafayette, LA), Jacob Chancelor (Brandon), John Mark Grissom (Pearl), Kade Walker (Magee), Bryson Bey (Ellisville), Lucian Walker (Starkville), Bryan Travis (Gulfport), MT Breland (Columbia), Matthew Combs (Hurley) Cam Murphy (Brandon), Akavion Griffith (Magee), Ty Blakeney (Taylorsville), Drake Frasier (Waynesboro), and Kagen Semmes (Crowley, LA).

One group that will standout for the Wolves this season is the pitching staff which features four arms that accounted for 23 of the 34 wins last season in Jennings Kimbrell, who tied for the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference (MACCC) regular season lead in wins; Cohen Weinhofer, Cameron Patterson and Tanner Blackwell along with Parker Ishee and Wes White, who had five combined wins before missing all of MACCC play last season due to an injury, and Nash Sturdivant who had nine saves.

"When I was the pitching coach at East Central we had some really great staffs there and I think my experiences with that will be beneficial to us in this situation," says Flessner. "I think having this many guys is a great problem to have because it allows us to keep our guys fresher throughout the season and in postseason play.”

One area of the game that the Wolves will have to answer some questions about is in the outfield losing two out of three players from last year's team, but Flessner likes what he has seen out of that group.

"Donovan Moore has been the most effective hitting outfielder we have,” says Flessner.  "Caleb Brooks is a player that you can tell just has a year of experience under his belt after what was an already successful freshman season, while Bryson Jones is someone that I think will thrive in the outfield for us.”

Flessner says the ultimate goal for the season is to get to the national tournament.

"I've told our guys that there's one trophy at the end of the year that everybody wants, and if you're not trying for that, then you're never going to get there, “ he says.  “I told them to focus on being able to control what we can.  If I can look at our guys at the end of the season and tell them we did everything we could and there's not anything we could've done differently, then that will be successful to me. The result will take care of itself if we handle all those little things."