The Wayne State University baseball team will begin its 2026 season with a four-game series against Tiffin University in Florence, Kentucky. The games are scheduled for February 13-15 at Thomas More Stadium, which is also the home of the Florence Y’alls of the Frontier League.
Tiffin enters the series after losing three games to Lee University earlier in February, with scores of 13-3, 8-3, and 5-4.
Wayne State’s head coach Ryan Kelley is entering his 18th season leading the program. His overall record stands at 511-332-1, with a .606 winning percentage. The Warriors’ roster includes 24 returning letterwinners, eight freshmen, and six transfers.
Seven of nine position players who started most frequently last year are returning. Key players include senior Bennett Hitzelberger, redshirt junior Caleb Sanders, junior Drew Hill, and senior Tony Hatzigeorgiou. Hitzelberger is a two-time All-GLIAC honoree with a career batting average of .346 over 116 games. Sanders was named Second Team All-GLIAC in 2025. Hill received Second Team All-GLIAC honors in 2024 and was that year’s GLIAC Freshman Player of the Year. Hatzigeorgiou earned GLIAC Freshman Player of the Year honors in 2023 and has played in 148 games.
Seventeen pitchers from last season return for Wayne State this spring. Graduate student Gabe Nazelli leads the pitching staff after earning Second Team All-GLIAC recognition last year with a 4.08 ERA over 57.1 innings pitched. Senior Ethan Getting also returns after being named Honorable Mention All-GLIAC in 2025; he posted a 2.81 ERA across 32 innings with five saves and four wins.
Tiffin will be led by new head coach Troy Merriman for the first time this season. Merriman previously served as an assistant at Findlay from 2018 to 2024 and played third base there from 2015 to 2018.
In Tiffin’s opening series against Lee University, infielder Julian Hernandez had three hits in five at bats—including one home run—and drove in two runs. Infielder Brayden Clark hit another home run and drove in four runs during the weekend.
Pitchers Brandon Swope (two innings pitched without allowing a hit or run), Trent Hedges (three innings pitched with one earned run), and Mason Brunecz (1.1 scoreless innings) provided strong performances on the mound for Tiffin.
Tiffin was picked to finish fifth out of six teams in its division according to the G-MAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll and ranked ninth out of twelve schools overall when both divisions are combined.
Senior outfielder Griff Cady returns as Tiffin’s top offensive player based on his statistics from last season: .316 batting average, .868 OPS, ten doubles, four home runs, and thirty-nine RBIs over fifty-four hits.
Swope posted a team-best ERA among pitchers throwing more than thirty innings last year (3.45 ERA over thirty-one-and-a-third frames). Brunecz finished last season with a 4.32 ERA across forty-one-and-two-thirds innings along with thirty-two strikeouts.
Wayne State plays its home games in Detroit, Michigan according to its official website, competing as part of NCAA Division II within the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). The team captured the GLIAC Tournament title in 2010 and uses “W the Warrior” as its mascot.
