MACU Evangels 2025 Season Preview

It is hard to believe, but the 2025 college baseball season is less than a month away for several of our squads here in the Sooner State.

Over the next several weeks leading up to the season we will be looking a some of our teams on the college level. Recently we sent out a questionnaire to the head coaches of each squad from the NCAA D2, NAIA, NCCAA, and NJCAA levels asking about their returning players and incoming players as well as their thoughts about their strengths and “opportunities” heading into the 2025 season.

Let’s take a look at a team with high expectations for the 2025 season at the NAIA level: MACU Evangels.

2024 Recap

MACU had their best ever season in 2024. They had the most wins in their NAIA era on the way to winning the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season championship, the SAC Tournament, and earning an automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament while being a #1 seed in their Regional.

The Evangels also cleaned up in the individual awards as they had the SAC Coach of the Year (Brett Stanton), and Pitcher of the Year (Isaac Baez). Six players were named to the All SAC First Team while three more were on the 2nd Team. Zach Stark also took home the SAC Gold Glove for catcher. Baez also was named an NAIA 3rd Team All American.

MACU finished just percentage points behind USAO in AVG/OBP/SLG (.326/.415/.520), and 3rd in HRs (64), but they did lead the SAC in runs (461) and RBIs (413).

The Evangels dominated on the mound. As a team, MACU led the SAC in ERA at 3.94 (2nd was 5.37) and strike outs at 414 (2nd was 398). They were 2nd in team walks.

Team Basics

Official name: Mid America Christian University Evangels
Level: NAIA
Location: Oklahoma City, OK
Conference: Sooner Athletic Conference
Head Coach: Brett Stanton (5th year as HC at MACU and 5th year overall)

2024 Team Statistics

Batting
– Games: 57, .326/.415/.520, 64 HR, 413 RBI, 582 H, 122 2B, 17 3B, 224 BB, 357 SO

Pitching
– Games: 57, 41-13, 9 SV, 432.0 IP, 1.33 WHIP, 414 H, 160 BB, 414 SO

Returners

Position Players

Noel McGeary-Doyle (OF), 2024: G 56, .388/.471/.644, 9 HR, 68 RBI, 13 2B, 4 3B, 25 BB – 2x All SAC 1st Team
D’Andre Gaines (OF), 2024: G 52, .358/.462/.695, 13 HR, 52 RBI, 16 2B, 4 3B, 32 BB – 2024 All SAC 1st Team
Jacob Police (2B), 2024: G 53, .367/.464/.707, 12 HR, 41 RBI, 8 2B, 3 3B, 10 BB – 2024 All SAC 2nd Team
Zachary Stark (C), 2024: G 42, .328/.438/.420, HR, 26 RBI, 8 2B, 17 BB – 2024 All SAC 1st Team/2024 SAC Gold Glove Winner
Taiga Sakuma (OF), 2024: G 48, .345/.442/.471, 2 HR, 34 RBI, 12 2B, 2 3B, 31 BB
Carlos Medina (SS), 2024: G 54, .330/.389/.479, 6 HR, 38 RBI, 10 2B, 13 BB – 2x All SAC 2nd Team/2023 SAC Gold Glove Winner

Pitchers

Carlos Escobosa (RHP), 2024: G 16/GS 4, 3-1, SV, 5.04, 30.1 IP, 31 H, 21 BB, 41 SO
Jordan Smith (LHP), 2024: G 15/GS 1, 1-1, SV, 4.76 ERA, 28.1 IP, 35 H, 8 BB, 11 SO
Luke Bourland (LHP), 2024: G 1, 9.00 ERA, IP, 2 H

Incoming Players

Christopher Munoz (INF), Prev school: Southeastern (FL); 2024: G 56, .340/.454/.516, 6 HR, 44 RBI, 17 2B, 3B, 11 BB
Jonluke Hobdy (OF), Prev school: Cerro Coso CC; 2024: G 40, .356/.429/.528, HR, 36 RBI, 14 2B, 7 3B; All Conference First Team
Nick Hill (INF), Prev school: Southeast Oklahoma State; 2024: G 28, .348/.392/.598. 6 HR, 28 RBI, 5 2B
Brett Justice (1B), Prev school: UA Rich Mountain JC
Payton Matthews (OF), Prev school: UT Permian Basin; 2024: G 56, .251/.332/.349, 2 HR, 19 RBI, 9 2B, 3B, 19 BB
Andrew Long (RHP), Prev school: Southeastern (FL), 2024: G 7, 0-0, 5.40 ERA, 5 IP, 3 H, 3 BB. 5 SO
Gabriel Dixon (LHP), Prev school: Oklahoma Christian, 2024: G 6, 0-0, 23.40 ERA, 5 IP, 13 H, 8 BB, 7 SO
Fabian Hernandez (LHP), Prev school: Western OK State; 2024: G 15, 2-2, 5.17 ERA, 69.2 IP, 83 H, 19 BB, 63 SO
Andrws Acosta (RHP), Prev school: Western OK State; 2024: G 14, 1-0, SV, 4.50 ERA, 28 IP, 32 H, 12 BB, 23 K
Ryan Smith (RHP), Prev school: Lamar CC; 2024: G 13/GS 1, 3-3, SV, 6.45 ERA, 37.2 IP, 35 H, 35 BB, 52 SO
Brock Cordes (RHP), Prev school: Eastern Oregon; 2024: G 13/GS 13, 1-8, CG, 6.53 ERA, 70.1 IP, 82 H, 41 BB, 75 SO

Outlook

As stated before, the Evangels had their best season in their NAIA era in 2024. They have the potential to be just as good this year.

Coach Stanton believes MACU actually got better offensively for 2025. They return 3 All SAC 1st team players (McGarry-Doyle, Gaines, and Stark) and 2 – 2nd teams players (Police and Medina). The player returning that wasn’t an All SAC player still batted .345 in 48 games for the Evangels. MACU is also bringing in Christopher Munoz who appeared in 56 games for national power, Southeastern, in 2024 and Jonluke Hobdy who was a JUCO All Conference player in California. Both had OPS over .950.

The question mark for MACU this year will be on the mound. The Evangels lost a ton of talent including their three top starters in 2024 (Isaac Baez, Zane Robeaux, and Devan Quesada). Carlos Escobosa is the returning pitcher who has the most innings and has done some spot starts for the Evangels. Coach Stanton looks for him to stay in the back end of the bullpen. Fabian Hernandez and Brock Cordes have starting experience with Hernandez starting 2 years at Western OK State College and Cordes logging 13 starts at Eastern Oregon (NAIA) last year where he had 75 Ks in 70.1 IP.

Coach Stanton says he’s “excited about what our staff was able to bring in this year,” and their “pitching has talent, but will take some time to get used to our system.”

With the fire power MACU has at the plate set up for 2025, if they can get the pitching the Evangels should live up to their preseason #13 ranking and make another run at the NAIA National Tournament and look to go farther this year.

Do you like the content that Sooner State Baseball Report provides? Show your support by purchasing an official SSBR shirt or hoodie at our online store at the link below.

Official Sooner State Baseball Report Merch

Like this content? Don’t miss any posts. Enter your email in the box below and have Sooner State Baseball Report content delivered right to your inbox.