Lane Community College Baseball went 18-18 in conference this season, missing the playoffs by one game. There is positivity around the team as they get their new field and have a great recruitment class incoming.
By Sequoia Hall
The Lane Community College Titans’ baseball season ended on May 3 with a win, but not the one they were hoping for. They finished one game out of the playoffs, with a record of 18-18, ending up one game back of Southwestern Oregon Community College and Chemeketa.
This season has been full of obstacles that the team and its staff have had to navigate including: not having a home field, losing multiple key pitchers to injury early in the season, and a couple of departures before the season. The team was able to band together and be competitive for the whole season. “If someone says that at the end of the year you have one game to decide for playoffs, you’d take that chance, not what we ultimately wanted, but we had an opportunity,” Head Coach Josh Blunt said.
The team only had one practice all season on an actual baseball field; the rest were on various multi-sport fields like the LCC soccer field. “You can’t practice baseball IQ plays on a soccer field,” Blunt said, on not having a field. The specific dimensions for a baseball field make it so that not all activities can be practiced anywhere. The team has helped secure a new stadium for 2026 and will resume play on campus in 2026.
This was the first time that the Titans did not make the playoffs in Coach Josh Blunt’s 13-year tenure with the team. When asked, Blunt said, “It’s disappointing it’s the first time in my tenure, but the future is really bright for Titan Baseball.”
Two players backed out due to personal reasons before the season, and one had a hard time entering the country, so that was three players down. Then by week four, two top pitchers went down to injury. “It was a big workload, lots of stress on the arms. We had guys who had to pitch almost every game,” said Kenneth “KP” Price, freshman pitcher from Riverton, Utah.
The Titans started out conference play hot, going 5-1 in their first six games. A four-game losing streak followed, and from there they stayed at around .500 for the rest of the season. The Titans were very competitive with every conference opponent. Umpqua Community College gave them the most trouble, which was to go 1-5 against the second-best team in the conference. Ultimately, it came down to the last stretch of the season. “We won 5 of our last 12 and Chemeketa won 9-12; that’s the season right there,” Blunt said.
There were bright spots for the Titans as they are graduating all 7 sophomores, a “great success,” Blunt said. One of those sophomores, graduating pitcher Declan Francis, said, “As a pitching staff, we missed barrels. Our stuff was good; there would come times when we would beat ourselves, but when we were on, we were dominant.” Perhaps having their own practice mounds could improve the amount of time they are on their game with more reps.
The team will have a field next year, and that has helped Blunt with recruiting.“Instantly yes! It went from ticky tacky where everyone was using the practice facility against us to “‘This is where I want to go, and having D1 guys calling wanting to play as well.’” There is a lot of excitement around the program, they are retaining 8 marquee players as well as having their best recruitment class since Blunt feels.
The Titans had some breakout performances from multiple freshmen. “Payton Tyner was incredible, he is a special athlete and a special man, Austin Takahashi was incredible for us too, both of them played through injuries most of the year,” Blunt said about the standout freshmen.
An outfielder, Tyner hit for a .312 average and only struck out twice in over 130 at-bats. Takahashi, an infielder, led the team in runs batted in with 31 while also leading in stolen bases with 8. Blunt also had high praise for standout freshman pitcher Lucas Geren. “He developed (this season), and he has a really good opportunity to move to the next level in college this fall. He has the ability, the makeup, the look, the academics, and he is a great teammate.”
Despite not having the best record, the team was banded together. “As a team, we were very united, we meshed really well as guys together, especially in the fall when we didn’t know each other, it was we, not me mentality,” Price said. This speaks to the culture the Blunt has built and the players have nurtured into a supportive culture.
Players were able to pick each other up with their play and off the field as well. “As a group, we do a good job of holding each other accountable, making sure everyone is doing the right thing, which speaks to our team’s chemistry a lot,” said Francis.
There was a lot to learn from this season for coaches and players. “Moving forward as a coach, I think there are things to be said about not having every day so structured, so intense sometimes you gotta let the players choose,” Blunt said on what he learned this season. This year was a period of learning and discovery, trials and tribulations, and the Titans will look to build off of it; hopefully back into the playoffs.
