Gainesville, FL

Santa Fe Baseball awaits their season opener on January 23^rd, marking year 20 for Head Coach Johnny Wiggs.  The first series of the year, beginning with one game on Friday and a doubleheader on Saturday are home Gulf Coast State College, who was ranked #19 in the NJCAA DI Baseball Preseason Rankings.

Coach Wiggs has kept Tripp Kimmell from his 2025 staff and has added Jay Felts who spent the prior 2 seasons at Augusta University as an assistant coach. The staff have a roster full of veterans for 2026. 19 of the 30 players on the active roster are spending their second or third season at the collegiate level including 15 returning from last year's team.

For the returning arms on the mound, Stephen Joyce, Dylan Lovelace, Mitchell Marlowe, Matthew Pagan, and Brady Wright will use all their experience in 2025 and look to take a step forward on the mound again this season. Joining them are a mix of pitchers, either coming off a redshirt season or joining the Saints for the first time in 2026. Look for those useful arms to get innings in early non-conference games but also help navigate through the tough Citrus Conference schedule.

NJCAA Region 8 will be among one of the strongest regions in the country this season, with two Citrus Conference and two Panhandle Conference teams ranked in the NJCAA DI Preseason Top 25. The Saints will face off against the ranked preseason Citrus teams 6 times, including 2 of those dates in Gainesville at Harry Tholen Field for three games total.

The Saints will begin conference play on the road as they travel to Daytona Beach, FL for one game at Daytona State on February 12th before returning for a doubleheader vs the Falcons two days later. They will round out the regular season at home vs Seminole State in a doubleheader on April 25th. 

The state tournament will begin with regionals on May 1^st hosted by the top 4 seeds in the DI FCSAA standings before the championship round begins May 8-11 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida.

1B Ryan Chase will highlight the returners in the lineup, coming off of a First Team All-Citrus Conference and First Team All-FCSAA season in 2025 after going .391 with 10 home runs. Other Santa Fe bats who are returning to the lineup include Wyatt Tesar, Conner Brown, Maddox Lee, Ethan Monrad, and Tucker Hansen.

The Saints come into the season outside the NJCAA DI Baseball Preseason Top 25 rankings but look to return to regional stage for the first time since 2024 and the championship stage for the first time since 2021.