STEVENS POINT, Wis. - The UW-Stevens Point baseball team ended their 2021 season as the regular season champions for the first time since 2011 with a record of 32-11. "Last year we were able to execute all our approaches, we executed them really well and as a result, we won," says head coach Nat Richter, who was named WIAC Coach of the Year last season. "Hopefully, the preparation will lead to something great this year."
 
The Pointers will return four All-WIAC first team honorees in seniors Payton Nelson (Wausau, Wis./West) and Aaron Simmons (Franklin, Wis./Franklin), junior Bradley Comer (Rhinelander, Wis./Rhinelander) and sophomore Sidney Ferry (Paw Paw, Mich./Homeschooled), and three All-WIAC honorable mentions in sophomores Nick Carpenter (Lake Mills, Wis./Lake Mills), Casey Pickering (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) and JD Schultz (Stevens Point, Wis./SPASH).
 
Nelson picked up his third first-team selection following the 2021 season. He led the team with 50 RBI and had a .364 batting average. Nelson also picked up D3Baseball All-Midwest third team and ABCA/Rawlings All-Midwest second team selections.
 
Simmons led the conference with 13 home runs and five triples, having the second-best slugging percentage of .740 in the league. This was Simmons' second first-team selection, being named to the team in 2019. Following the 2021 season, he was named to the ABCA/Rawlings All-Midwest first team, the D3Baseball All-Midwest second team and the ABCA/Rawlings All-America second team.
 
Comer led the team last season with a batting average of .372, recording 11 home runs and 46 RBI. He was also named to the D3Baseball and ACBA/Rawlings All-Midwest third team following the 2021 season.
 
Ferry topped the WIAC with nine saves last season. He maintained a 1.53 ERA throughout the season with 26 strikeouts and only three walks. Ferry's strikeout-to-walk ratio of 3.27 was 11^th-best in the country. He was also named to the D3Baseball and ABCA/Rawlings All-Midwest first team and the D3Baseball All-America fourth team for the 2021 season.
 
Carpenter, Pickering and Schultz received their first conference awards accounting for 14 wins and striking out a combined 149 strikeouts throughout the season. Also returning on the mound for the Pointers are senior Caleb Krommenakker (Rudolph, Wis./Lincoln), junior Austin Syvertson (Randolph, Wis./Randolph), and sophomores Nathan Krommenakker (Rudolph, Wis./Lincoln), Tyler Beyer (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis./Lincoln), Nick Paulsen (Balsam Lake, Wis./Unity) and Jacob Meinholz (Middleton, Wis./Middleton).
 
The team anticipates having the same starters as last season in Carpenter, Schultz, Pickering and Caleb Krommenakker (Rudolph, Wis./Lincoln) hoping to add some strength to the bullpen. "Beyer, Nate Krommenakker, Paulsen and Syvertson are all looking good," says Richter. "We have more pieces to build the backend of the game and bridge it to Ferry to close it out."
 
Behind the plate, the Pointers are returning junior Kyle Finger (Clintonville, Wis./Clintonville) and sophomore Tucker Kohl (New London, Wis./New London). Finger recorded 265 putouts throughout the season, the third highest in the conference and threw out a league-high 18 potential base stealers.
 
"Finger did an unbelievable job for us last year," says Richter. "We want to be able to take some pressure off of him and put him in a DH role from time to time." Freshmen Anthony Tomczak (Muskego, Wis./Muskego) and Colten Schillinger (Spencer, Wis./Stratford) will help elevate some of this pressure and get experience behind the plate this season.
 
Joining Comer in the infield for the Pointers are senior Lucas Luedtke (River Falls, Wis./River Falls) and sophomores Quin Henwood (Appleton, Wis./North), Jakob Boos (Littleton, Colo./Heritage) and Jacob Lillge (Little Chute, Wis./Little Chute). Henwood was seventh in the conference for both putouts with 226 and double plays with 14 last season.
 
The second base position is still in question for the Pointers heading into game week. "It will come down to the last week of practice to see who will end up taking over this position," says Richter.
 
Joining the Pointers at shortstop is transfer Logan Matson (Neillsville, Wis./Neillsville), a transfer from UW-Eau Claire. "He destroyed us last year when he was a Blugold, so it is good to have him on our side now." At UWEC last year, Matson maintained a .278 batting average recording 37 hits and 25 RBI.
 
In the outfield along with Nelson and Simmons, the Pointers are returning junior Brenden Canterbury (Waupaca, Wis./Waupaca) and sophomores Matt Baumann (New Berlin, Wis./Eisenhower), Connor Flanagan (Rolesville, N.C.) and Trent Van Ess (Two Rivers, Wis./Two Rivers). Baumann recorded 50 putouts and maintained a .981 fielding percentage in left field for the Pointers last season.
 
"Left field is similar to second base for us," says Richter. "It's kind of a position to see who wants it." Baumann, Flanagan, Van Ess and Canterbury are all playing well. It's a position that multiple guys want. So our problem there with that position is to see the who the best of the best options there are," says Richter.
 
The Pointers have also added two new coaches, Zack Haupt (Carlsbad, Calif./San Dieguito Academy) and Travis Janes. Haupt played for the Pointers from 2019-2021 and was named to the WIAC honorable mention team last season. Janes played under Richter for four seasons at Northwood University, winning two conference championships with the team. "They want to be college coaches, because of that they are willing and able to do extra work," says Richter.
 
The Pointers open their season on Sunday (March 6) with two games in Bloomington, Ill. "It's nice that we get the two Illinois games before we go to Florida, so we aren't going into Florida cold," says Richter. "We'll have a week of preparation for Florida so we can see what our deficiencies are."
 
The team will then head down to Florida to play seven games over spring break. "Florida is going to challenge our depth in all aspects," says Richter. "It's what I noticed last year that we were lacking. Whenever we played a four-game series on back-to-back days, our team struggled to complete the weekend. It wasn't because of a lack of effort or a lack of talent, but a lack of depth."
 
The first home appearance for the Pointers is on April 2 with a four-game series against Finlandia. First pitch is set to be thrown at 12 p.m. at Zimmermann Field.