The Return of NCAA Baseball

With almost a full year without baseball, the 2021 NCAA College Baseball season is underway. Led by seniors and top draft prospects Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, the Vanderbilt Commodores look to defend their 2019 championship title. Vanderbilt comes into the season as the number-three-seed in Division I baseball per NCBWA, following the number-two-ranked University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Bruins and the top-seeded University of Florida Gators. 

After not playing a season the year before, these players were ready to come out and play a full year of baseball. This year meant a lot to the ones who are looking to enter the upcoming draft. Some of the players to watch who will look to make a name for themselves in the upcoming draft are the previously mentioned Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, UCLA Shortstop Matt Melain, University of Miami Catcher, Adrian Del Castillo, and many more.

Outside of the people looking to get ready for the draft, there are so many other players excited for the season, but none more than the seniors who graduated, who lost the last season of their college careers last year due to COVID-19. Not playing a single game last year, students who graduated the previous year seek to cash in on their extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA. They will be stepping onto the field with all the other kids who missed the chance to play last year and are excited for the coming season.

Future University of Southern California (USC) baseball player and current Emery seniorJosh Blum said that he is looking forward to “following USC and other teams around the nation.” Blum is also excited to learn from older players saying, “It’s always fun to pick up on the things collegiate guys do as a team and individually.” Future Swarthmore College Garnet and current Emery Senior Max Roffwarg was excited for something different this year and much closer to home, saying he was excited to “watch all the guys I’ve played with compete at the next level–such as Guy Garibay at Rice, Jackson Loftin at Sam Houston State, and Tanner Witt at UT-Austin.”