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Wolves expect improvement in 2026.
Baseball Preview
LORANGER, LA—After finishing one game under five hundred at 13-14, the Loranger Wolves enter the 2026 season with a top heavy roster of four seniors and eleven juniors and a determination to take the next step.
“Last season we had a lot of learning with new coaches coming in and the guys understanding how we do things and just getting to know each other,” said Loranger head coach Derek Sims. “Now everyone is comfortable, and I believe we are in a good place as a program. We are very fortunate to have ten guys that have a lot of varsity experience with eight of them that are everyday players and a couple of guys that are challenging for spots and playing time.”
“We kind of know what we have we just need to improve on that. We played a lot of sophomores last year and now they are more mature physically and more ready to produce especially when it comes to play at the plate,” continued Sims. “Hopefully the natural maturity and weight training will turn into more runs because we feel pretty good about our pitching staff.”
Along with physical development coach Sims has challenged his team to improve their mental toughness something they worked on this past fall. “We had what we called a toughness week where we put them through a series of challenges to see if they could push through the wall both physically and especially mentally.”
Sims continued, “Baseball is a game of failure and you want to see who can flip things around when it is not going well. How a player responds to failure determines their mental toughness. Even though we lost fourteen games last year many of them were one and two run games. We were that close but a mental mistake here or there would cost us.”
The Wolves indeed have maturity on the mound with their top two senior pitchers in Hayes Holton and Logan Matherne already signed up to play at the next level. Coach Sims expects pitching to continue to be a strong part of their game. “Tanner Matherne Logan’s younger brother threw a bunch of innings for us last year so he will bring a lot of experience,” said Sims. “Myles Cunningham is another solid performer for us so we feel good about our top four, and we have about five other guys that are working hard and competing so we can have some guys we can count on out of the pen.”
“Certainly we coaches have the goal that our starters can give up five innings before we have to go to the pen,” continued Sims. “Going into the season believe we will have five starters we just have to determine the order and best matchups as the season progresses.”
Error free baseball is always the goal and can make or break a good pitching performance. “When Hayes is not pitching he will play shortstop and when Logan Matherne is not on the mound he is a mainstay at third. If Hayes needs a day off from playing short he will play first base and DH for us, said Sims.”
The Wolves have senior behind the plate in Braeden Stevens who delivered some log balls last season. “We have a couple of guys capable of playing centerfield and are competing which gives us depth,” explained Sims. “Tanner Matherne played a lot for in right field last year when not on the mound, senior Michael Walker in left field and we have Wyatt Garofalo who is a solid utility guy.”
“It is always like a puzzle creating a lineup everyday determining what combination of players will give is us the best chance,” continued Sims. “Three of our four seniors have earned a permanent spot on the field, but it is not like we always have a set group at every position and the good news for us is that we have a lot of guys that can play more than one position. You start with who is pitching and then who is hot at the plate to arrange the lineup that gives us the best chance.”
Hitting is hard at every level and the ones who can deliver are most prized at every level. For the Loranger Wolves they are working to be more productive in generating hits and good at bats to go with their solid pitching staff. “We are fortunate this year to have four guys that have played a lot of baseball growing up and were productive last season. The large group of sophomores we had last year are now juniors and we have seen a lot of improvement over the past eighteen months not to mention the obvious physical grow that often occurs from sophomore to junior. So this year we feel like we have ten or eleven guys that can help us at the plate,” explained Sims.
“The ability is there in this group,” continued Sims. “It is just about execution and seeing who will step up Starting in the summer the guys were in the weight room two or three times a week and what makes us coaches proud is this group actually loves the weight work, and we do not have to force anything. They want to get bigger and stronger.”
“We have some home run potential in this group but when you start chasing home runs it can have negative affect as to consistency and hitting for average and moving guys around the diamond to generate runs,” added Sims. “We want to eliminate constantly hitting fly balls that make for easy outs.”
The run game to put pressure on opposing teams is another way to create runs explained Sims. “We want to use the run game, but you first have to have base runners,” said Sims. “If you get a runner on and then the next guys strikes out you limit your options so we need hits and good at bats that generate guys on base and then you can create pressure. Good a bats where the pitcher throws ten or twelve pitches and walks you that is another form of pressure on the defense as the pitch count goes up and all those pitches were all for not.”
A good culture and clubhouse is essential for success and Coach Sims credits his players with the Wolves being in a very good place. “The culture with this group is very good, and I credit the players for this a not so much us coaches,” explained Sims. “We have great senior leadership. They want to win and the rest of the guys respect their leadership. A great example of this is one day before practice I had to meet with some folks working on our facilities and my assistant was not there so when I finally got back to the practice field twenty-five minutes later they had already started doing everything we had planned for that day. There was no goofing off and waiting for the coach to come.”
Looking ahead at league play the District was very competitive last season with no real dominate team. “Our district is one I believe prepares you for the playoffs,” said Sims. “If you play well, you have a chance to win but you do not play well you are going to lose. Everyone is well coached and all the teams have good players so anyone can beat anyone on a given day. There is no easy game.”
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