Skyhawks Bring Focused Determination Into 2026 Season

Skyhawks Bring Focused Determination Into 2026 Season

2/11/2026 6:27:00 PM | Baseball

MARTIN, Tenn.- Riding a school-best three consecutive trips to the Ohio Valley Conference Championships, the University of Tennessee at Martin baseball team steps into the 2026 season looking to extend its recent success.

Skyhawk head coach Ryan Jenkins enters his ninth season bringing in 19 newcomers while returning 15 student-athletes.

"I'm excited and our guys are ready to go," said Jenkins. "We've had three good scrimmages and right now we're looking forward to getting this year started. We've got a lot of guys that have a ton of experience that have been coached well and have come from good programs. Our guys have gelled really well together and created good chemistry."

UT Martin begins the season at home for 15 of its first 19 contests and will play 31 games at Skyhawk Field (tied for most in NCAA DI era) this year.

"We've got a lot of people here in Martin, Tennessee that support our team and are very involved. The goal is to try to play as much at home and try to make sure our guys can play in front of the home crowd."
UT Martin expects to see multiple Skyhawks play across the diamond in the upcoming campaign. In the outfield, Garner Anderson and Jordan Hudson return after having played significant time last season. Cullen Box is back for his third season while newcomers Amari Conley, TJ Dunsford and Bo Strickland are ready to start their first season at UT Martin.

Patrolling the infield are several talented players for coach Jenkins. TJ Grines (OVC Player to Watch), Cameron Greene (OVC All-Freshman team last season), and JT Popick enter their second season at UT Martin. Making their debuts for the Skyhawks will be Andrew Davis, Eli Huebner, Andrew Lawrence, Colten Payton and Nate Parsons.

Behind the plate Tommy Koch is back for year two while Eli Dale, Box and Payton could share time at catcher.

On the mound the Skyhawks get eight arms back on the staff with Silas Jones, Jacob Sitton (OVC Player to Watch), Brandon King, Drake Bayles, Brock Arender, JP Nunn, Aidan Karns and Zach Wager. Beginning their first season at UT Martin is Gehrig Wright, Jake DeValk, Will Turner, Dean McCalla, Connor McCaslin, Mason Little, Cason Sharp, Gabe Bryant, Trevor Busyn and Maxwell Schumacher.

"Our offense has an ability to have power, and we can really run so that creates many different ways to score. Our pitching staff has strike throwers and I'm happy about that because that's a big thing to have in our league."

Coming off a season that saw multiple injuries, the Skyhawks health will play a major role in the upcoming year.

"We need to stay healthy throughout this year and make sure we keep our guys where they need to be on the field. I feel confident that if that happens we can have a good year and I have confidence that we'll be happy where we are when the season ends."

For a successful 2026 season, Coach Jenkins lays out what has to happen for UT Martin.

"Our success will be determined on how we develop throughout the season. There's going to have to be someone who shows up at the end and we'll need our pitching staff to be consistent, because I believe we can be offensive enough to win a lot of games and defensively we've been really sound. The big thing is we need to get better every day; we've got to be able to take something from every win and every loss that we can improve on"