— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — There is still several weeks of winter to endure, but a sure sign spring is around the corner is the impending start of college baseball season.
Marshall starts its 2026 campaign with four games to be played in a tournament at Kennesaw State (Ga.) this weekend. The Thundering Herd will first take on Evansville at 11 a.m. Friday and again at that time Saturday, before facing the host KSU Owls at 4 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday.
The season-opening road trip continues into next weekend with games at The Citadel on February 20-21, against Navy in Columbia, SC., on February 22 and at Winthrop the following day.
Marshall’s home-opening series at Jack Cook Field is a three-game set slated for February 27-March 1 against Butler.
Marshall was chosen fourth in the Sun Belt Conference Preseason poll, behind 2025 College World Series participant Coastal Carolina, Southern Miss and Troy, each have which have received votes in various national top 25 preseason polls.
Fourth-year Marshall head coach Greg Beals takes the high prediction in stride.
“Preseason polls don’t mean a lot,” Beals said. “If you remember, we were picked 12th last year and finished fourth. What I do believe it is saying is that other people are noticing the energy and growth of Marshall baseball like all of us are feeling in Herd Nation. We are working hard and look forward to completing and building on this momentum.”
The Herd won eight of its final 10 games last season to finish 33-26 overall and 16-14 in the Sun Belt.
Perhaps the most critical part to success for Marshall this season will be strong pitching among starters and the bullpen.
The Herd figure to benefit from the return of the weekend starting rotation in Bryce Blevins, Clint Moak and Griffin Miller, a 2025 All-Sun Belt second-team honoree.
Blevins had a 6-6 record last season with 63 strikeouts, while Moak was 3-2 with a 5.46 earned-run average. Miller had impressive numbers with a 7-4 record, 3.46 ERA and team-high 68 strikeouts.
Marshall also features Drew Harlow, who pitched for the Herd in 2023, before transferring to Lenoir-Rhyne, where he was 12-2 with a 3.65 ERA and 125 strikeouts across 116 innings at the Division II level last season. Harlow returns to the Herd as a graduate student.
Marshall’s offensive pop will come from Jackson Halter, who returns after batting .284 and leading the Herd with 17 stolen bases in 2025. AJ Havrilla is the team’s returning leader in batting average (.287) and RBI (45).
Sophomore Tyler Kamerer will also be a big contributor after he compiled a .271 batting average with 57 hits, including 13 doubles, a pair of triples and two homers to go with 32 RBIs last season.
Marshall will be challenged with non-conference matchups at Louisville, Kentucky and Ohio State and home-and-home series with Ohio, Morehead State and Virginia Tech.
Marshall and West Virginia will again meet three times this season — March 24 in Huntington, April 7 in Morgantown and May 5 at GoMart Ballpark in Charleston.
“We have put together a very competitive schedule,” Beals said. “It is designed to give us the strength of schedule necessary to earn an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament, provided we win our share of games. The Sun Belt schedule will always be tough, but we really focused on beefing up the midweek games with schools such as Kentucky, Louisville and Ohio State as well as WVU and Virginia Tech.
“We will again play WVU three times, with games in Morgantown, Huntington and Charleston. We will begin to play Virginia Tech both at home and at their place each season. The agreement with Kentucky includes a future game here at Marshall. Our beautiful Jack Cook Field is absolutely a key piece to making this happen.”