ECU Tigers 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 NCAA D2 (Junior College) level: ECU Tigers.

2024 Recap

While it is hard to see the positives in a season where they went 9-41 overall, there were a couple for ECU. The Tigers did win the most conference games (6) since 2019, and they won a conference series for the first time since 2022 (vs OBU).

It has been a rough go of it for ECU for quite a while. They haven’t had an overall winning season since 2015 when they went 22-19 and they haven’t had a winning conference record since before 2010.

ECU was also behind the proverbial 8 ball in 2024 when previous head coach, Sunny Golloway, left for NSU in the middle of the summer not leaving new head coach, Kevin Paxson, much time to get his squad squared away.

The Tigers were at the bottom in the GAC in both hitting and pitching.

Team Basics

Official name: East Central University Bison
Level: NCAA Div II
Location: Ada, OK
Conference: Great American Conference
Head Coach: Kevin Paxson (2nd year at ECU, 4th overall)

2024 Team Statistics

Batting
– Games: 50, .258/.344/.342, 15 HR, 177 RBI, 61 2B, 10 3B, 148 BB, 196 R

Pitching
– Games: 50, 9-41, SV, 10.83 ERA, 374.2 IP, 591 H, 290 BB, 324 SO

Returners

Position Players

Tanner Collins (INF), 2024: G 37, .345/.438/.388, 17 RBI, 5 2B, 11 BB

Pitchers

Cal Birchfield, 2024: G 12/GS 9, 2-5, 2 CG, 6.75 ERA, 61.1 IP, 77 H, 35 BB, 50 SO

Incoming Players

Zac Carroll (CF), Prev school: Western Kentucky; 2024: G 9, .286/.375/.286, 2 H, R
Weldon Sherrell (SS), Prev school: Incarnate Word; 2024: G 8, .211/.250/.211, 4 H, R
Lake Strickland (1B), Prev school: UCO; 2024: G 22, .185/.257/.462, 5 HR, 15 RBI, 2B, 3B, 7 BB
Ethan Rone (INF), Prev school: Murray State College; 2024: G 48, .344/.465/.544, 6 HR, 41 RBI, 12 2B, 3B, 32 BB
Luke Livian (P), Prev school: Central Missouri
Justin Smith (LHP), Prev school: UCO; 2024: G 10, 1-1, 6.10 ERA, 10.1 IP, 8 H, 10 BB, 12 SO
Joel Hogan (P), Prev school: Clarendon JC; 2024: G 12/GS 1, 5-6, CG, 6.64 ERA, 59.2 IP, 76 H, 24 BB, 44 K

Outlook

The 2025 ECU Tigers will practically look like a completely different team than the year before because they essentially are. While seven players were listed as incoming players, there are several more as well. There is a good mix of talented freshmen along with JUCO and 5th year transfers that will see the field the most.

The Tigers should have a good mix of power and speed offensively. Bringing in 2 players that were on NCAA D1 rosters last year along with another who had a standout year at a top level JUCO will help the offense.

On the mound, the coaching staff likes they mix of competitive starting arms with the options out of the bullpen that should give teams different looks.

The talent is better in Ada going into this season and there is optimism about this squad. There should be improvement that results in more wins for the Tigers in 2025 and being one of the top 8 teams in the GAC, which would get them in the GAC Tournament, doesn’t seem too far out of reach this season.

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