Northern Michigan Wildcat men’s baseball is now a nationally recognized club team with the National Club Baseball Association.
The Wildcats will join Division II Sector V- East of the NCBA. Competitors such as Grand Valley, Saginaw Valley State University, Lake Superior State University and Michigan Tech will be in the mix for this upcoming season.
NMU student and captain of club baseball Brandon Frazho said he expects the ’Cats to be focused and work hard.
“We are all super excited about the upcoming season. There are about 10 returning players, so we will recruit about 15 more during this year’s fall tryouts,” Frazho said.
Frazho believes that the ‘Cats can really go far and set a high standard.
“We definitely think that we have a shot at taking top two in our division this year, especially with a new class of ballplayers coming in,” Frazho said. “I definitely think we have a realistic goal of placing top two, because we played well last year with less. We were just getting into existence and weren’t NCBA-material yet…but now we’re ready!”
The NMU wildcats will be hosting Grand Valley State University Saturday, Oct. 13 and Sunday the 14th for their season opener.
Frazho has been working with his teammates and his coaches to build the team that will carry them to the championship.
With high hopes entering the season, the team is excited and energetic about playing club teams and rising to the top. Frazho feels that the team is well balanced but there are always areas to improve on.
With recruiting and returning players, he feels that this team can really go far.
Coach Kane Beauchamp said his expectations for his players are promising.
“First and foremost they are at Northern Michigan University for an education. After that comes baseball,” Beauchamp said. “On and off the field I expect them to be good representatives of the game. The baseball program and the university as a whole. I also expect the players to give me 100 percent effort on every single practice and every single pitch thrown in games.”
Beauchamp is happy to be a part of club status but it’s not what is important.
“I’m not a big status or labels guy,” he said. “Every team I’ve coached I’ve tried to treat like a top tier organization. From 10-year old Little League teams to this team, we play baseball plain and simple. “
Tryouts have come to a conclusion this past weekend as the ‘Cats holds a 26-man roster.
“The team will rotate players every game. Some weekends we play up to three games and we cannot have a main roster of only nine players, it’ll be tiring and the focus is to build a team and have everyone to be on the field.” Frazho said.
Frazho likes the new recruits for his team and is eager to see some new pitchers get into action. Mike Fawcett will be the ’Cats pitching coach.
Frazho feels he is a great addition and coach for the ’Cats, Fawcett was once drafted by MLB in his earlier years.
Frazho and his team would like to give a special thanks to former President Les Wong for his tremendous support to the team.
After meeting Northern Michigan University athletic director Forrest Karr Frazho feels that his support with be a big help and they’ll pick up right where they left off at.
“A big thanks to Herman Eleby, who used to be in charge of Marquette Little League but now is in charge of Marquette Reds baseball,” Frazho said. “He will be supporting NMU by announcing their home games from the booth and working on the scoreboard for a legitimate baseball experience for the players and fans.”
The team fee is $300 for freshman and after that each semester will cost $200.
For additional information visit www.wix.com/bfrazho/nmucatsbaseball.
