MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Eastern Kentucky University's baseball team will open its 2026 season with a 3-game series at Alabama State starting Friday.
Jan Weisberg, who won more than 500 games and captivated the baseball world with a College World Series run as the head coach at Birmingham Southern, was chosen as EKU's new head coach in May 2025.
The schedule for the series has changed. Friday's series opener will start at 7 p.m. ET. The teams will now play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 3 p.m. ET. There will not be a game on Sunday.
THE COLONELS
- EKU finished the 2025 season with an 11-44 record and went 8-22 in Atlantic Sun Conference games.
- The Colonels returned 18 players from last season and lost 28 players off last year's roster. Three of the nine starters (including DH) return --
Julius Scearce (LF),
Jay Douglas (CF) and
Silas Shaffer (DH).
- Among returning players, Shaffer had the highest batting average last year at .259. He also drove in 27 runs and scored 18 times. Scearce led the team with seven home runs in 2026, he hit .219 with 21 RBIs and 16 runs scored.
- In his first season as a Colonel,
Hayden Collins made 16 relief appearances, going 2-1 with a 4.23 ERA.
- Redshirt junior
Bradley Gagen will start the season-opener. The left-hander made 10 starts for EKU in 2025 and a total of 14 appearances. In 42 1/3 innings he struck out 29 and had a 7.65 ERA. Sophomore
Carson van Haaren will start game two of the series. As a freshman last season, van Haaren made 13 appearances and started 10 times. The righty struck out 38 in 47 2/3 innings and posted a 6.23 ERA. The game three starter has not been determined.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENT
- Alabama State went 31-29 last season and posted a 21-9 record in the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
- Only one of ASU's top seven hitters returns in 2026. Alex Espaillat hit .331, fourth-best on the team, with one home run, 38 RBIs and 33 runs as a freshman in 2025.
- Jorhan LaBoy and Esaid Pena combined to make 28 starts in 2025 and are both back for the 2026 season. LaBoy was 8-2 with a 3.90 ERA. He struck out 79 in 92 1/3 innings. Pena went 3-3 with a 4.79 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 71 1/3 innings. .
- LaBoy, a left-hander, will start the opener on Friday and Pena, a righty, will start on Saturday. Trey Power, a sophomore lefty, will start the final game. He went 5-4 with a 5.33 ERA in 22 appearances last season.
INSIDE THE SERIES
- Alabama State holds a 2-1 edge in the series. The two teams played a 3-game series Feb. 14-16, 2014 in Montgomery. The Colonels won the opener 8-2 before the Hornets won the final two of the series by scores of 8-2 and 11-3.
- In EKU's victory in that series, starter Brent Cobb pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings and allowed only five hits. Sean Hagen and Bryan Soloman both homered in the game. Hagen finished 3-for-5 with two runs and three RBIs.
