Stars baseball forming confident culture

By Brodee Gillam

Sports Editor

Entering last season, the LCC baseball program was hard to take seriously. In 2016, LCC had its first postseason appearance in over 15 years, but lost in regionals.

Before the 2017 season, the Stars hired Grand Ledge graduate Drew Huard to lead LCC into a bright future.

Hiring Huard looks to be the turning point in the baseball program. In his first season, Huard coached his way into the LCC record books. He led the Stars to the first championship of any kind last year (including the MCCAA East title) and an overall record of 41-17.

That successful momentum pushed the LCC to a ninth-place finish in the NJCAA Division II World Series.

And the Stars are not slowing down.

This year's freshman class is as decorated as any in the state.

A few players Huard mentioned by name as standouts are starting shortstop Connor McCarron, infielder Aiden Magsig and utility player Michael Stygles.

Huard said that ProBaseballReport.com ranked this year's recruiting class number one in Michigan. Huard continued to explain just how impressive these freshman are.

"We brought in a really strong recruiting class," Huard said. "Out of the freshman group that we have, we had six kids that were on the All-State Dream Team (in high school). "Even kids that were going to (University of) Michigan and Michigan State; we had the most representatives on our team that were in the dream team."

The two returning captains are two sophomores: center fielder Hunter Ruhstorfer and third baseman Drew Cantrell.

Cantrell, who earned Region XII All-Tournament Team honors last season, said he believes each player can contribute when their number is called.

"Compare to last year's team, we are much deeper than we were," Cantrell said. "Anyone at any time could step in and succeed."

Those returnees know exactly what it takes to succeed at this level, and have bought into Huard's mentality and ideology.

Huard said he knows how important it is to get the whole team to continue to buy into that.

"What made last year so special and what I learned from last year is when (kids) come to junior college, (they) want to play right away," Huard said. "This year we have 31 kids that could arguably start for any, especially, junior college program in the state of Michigan.

"Maybe we didn't have as much talent last year. We had all 32 guys on our team that bought into our philosophy; bought into what we were preaching."

He added: "We have a philosophy in our program that: 'It's not me, it's we.' We can say that, but it's another thing for the guys to actually believe in it."

The team began action in Florida on March 4. The first scheduled home game is Friday, March 23; a doubleheader against Mott Community College. The action starts at 2 p.m. at Westside Park.