Team: Northwestern College Red Raiders
Conference: GPAC
College Level: NAIA
2021 Overall Record: 19-27
Location: Orange City, Iowa
Head Coach: Brian Wede (16th season)
Assistant Coaches: Nolan Hoff, Matt Van Schepen, Jeff Schouten
Key Returning Position Players
Kip Cullinan, (Junior-1B) returns for his junior season after hitting 0.443 as a Freshman in the COVID shortened season and 0.312 last year.
Noa Vogel (Junior-LF) is a career 0.329 hitter in two years as a starter. He has a 0.956 OPS in 207 ABs.
Eli Rash (Junior-SS) hit 0.292 in his first season as our starting shortstop last year.
Jaden Snyder (Junior-2B) has been a two year starter at 2B and carries a 0.845 OPS in 177 ABs.
Sam Stanford (Soph-3B) took over the 3B position late last year and hit 0.311 in 26 starts.
Key Returning Pitchers
Dylan Kirkeby (Soph-RHP) was a first team All-GPAC pitcher last season after posting a 2.73 ERA in 62.2 innings, going 5-1.
Brady Roberts (Junior-RHP) carried a 4.35 ERA last season in 62 innings and is 11-10 in 160 career innings. He has been named All-GPAC honorable mention twice; in 2019 and 2021.
Brett Shelton (Junior-RHP) led the team with 70 innings and had a 4.37 ERA going 5-5. Brett was named an All-GPAC honorable mention last season.
Impact Freshman/Transfers
We brought in some really talented pitchers that could have an impact for us this spring. Drew Dykstra, Colton Korver, Colton Schuchart, Zach Kinney, and Brayden Mackey could all have a big impact on the mound as freshmen. Offensively, Dykstra is the most game ready and will challenge to start from day one in our OF. We have a bunch of really good athletes in our freshmen class who should provide a lift to our team in depth and as bench/role guys.
What things did you see from the team in the fall?
We saw a high level of competitiveness. It is really important to our staff that our guys compete hard and I think our guys really bought into that. Our pitching staff has grown up and showed some really good depth, something we really missed last season.
What was the focus during the fall for the team?
Just like always we preach to our guys about playing with effort and not being afraid to fail. This fall we wanted the hitters to get used to Coach Hoff and his philosophies so we did a lot of new things. With our pitching staff, we wanted guys to be unafraid to throw off-speed pitches in hitter’s counts and to really get used to challenging the strike zone with all of their pitches.
What are the expectations and goals for the team entering the season?
We always expect to be one of the toughest teams to play in our league and every year we expect to win GPAC Regular Season championships and GPAC Tournament Championships. Our schedule in the preseason challenges us every year and our guys need to buy into a growth mindset where they look forward to being challenged. If we can accept challenges head on, without fear, we will get better each day and we will be playing our best baseball at the end of the year.