After a week of practice inside, the Hancock baseball team was finally able to get outside for practice last week to get their baseball season started. The team will return plenty of varsity experience, including the majority of their pitching staff from the 2025 roster. The Owls hope that returning experience and strong pitching will help them to climb the Little Eight Conference standings and make some noise in the Section 6A playoffs.

Hancock finished last regular season with a 6-10 overall record. They finished 6-4 in the Little Eight Conference to finish third, behind Border West and champions Brandon-Evansville. 

The Owls earned the sixth seed in the Section 6A playoffs. They had to head on the road to play the third seed Border West for the third time this season with the two teams splitting a doubleheader earlier in the season. The Bucs took down the Owls 5-4 in the first round to end the season and give Hancock a 6-11 record last season.

There is plenty of varsity experience returning to the team this year with seven players with time on a varsity field: Gunnar Curfman, Ambrose Rinkenberger, Eli Mattson, Brady Luthi, Cole Evink, Beau Haugen and Gavin Blair. The team should be particularly strong in the starting pitching rotation with their top two pitchers, Luthi and Mattson, both returning this season. Ambrose Rinkenberger, Beau Haugen and Gunnar Curfman all were able to get on the mound last year and Cole Evink will likely make his pitching debut this season.  “I like our starting pitching rotation, which we return from last year. We will be looking for a couple new pitchers and definitely looking for one or two guys that can step in and play the outfield this year and maybe even an infield spot this year,” head coach Cory Bedel said.

Five players from that 2025 roster were lost for graduation, including: Sebastian Salas, Chase Evink, Brady Cronen, Jeremiah Schmidgall and Riley Miller. Those losses will leave a hole in the Hancock lineup, but are poised to have players step up. “We will be looking for some players from last year or even some new freshman to step up, especially with their bats as we lost some great hitters to graduation and we’re looking for a couple more guys to step into our pitching rotation, especially in the reliever spot this year too,” coach Bedel said.

The first game of the season is set for March 31 with a road doubleheader