A new season of baseball will be getting underway for Winfield-Mount Union/Columbus this coming week, and the Wolves are hoping having most of last season’s roster back and better than ever will be what lifts them ahead of last season’s six-win total.

Part of the excitement around WMU/Columbus is the return of the team’s top three hitters. Senior Cole Milks and juniors Riley Kaalberg and Kohlby Newsom all had batting averages of over .350 last season, with the trio combining for 32 runs scored and 41 stolen bases and Milks leading the team in runs batted in.

However, the Wolves scored less than four runs per game last summer, and head coach Nick Swanson tells KCII Sports that he believes his team has evovled into a lineup that can increase that number.

“I think, just in general this year, we’re going to have a little bit more depth,” Swanson says. “We have a total of 22 kids on the high school roster, which is the most we’ve had since I became the head coach. It’s just getting some of those younger guys, like Trevor [Phillips] and Lane [Genkinger] to hit the ball a little bit [and] put it in play. I think that’s going to be a big key for us this year.”

The pitching staff will lean on senior Cael Phillips, who threw the third-most innings on the team and had WMU/Columbus’ lowest earned-run average at 3.45 in 2023. Sophomore Trevor Phillips also returns after pitching nearly 23 innings for the Wolves, who start the 2024 campaign Tuesday at New London.