RENO, Nev. – The Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team opens its 2026 season Friday at Ole Miss, embarking on a campaign fueled by championship aspirations and a roster brimming with returning talent. The team is coming off a 34-23 season in 2025, which culminated in a Mountain West regular-season title and is now aiming to become the first Nevada baseball team to win back-to-back conference championships.
The Wolf Pack, picked to win the Mountain West in the preseason coaches poll, returns seven position starters and two key pitchers from last year’s squad. Among the returning players are five preseason All-Mountain West selections: left-handed pitcher Alessandro Castro, third baseman Sean Yamaguchi, catcher Jake Harvey, first baseman/right-handed pitcher Jayce Dobie, and second baseman/shortstop Junhyuk Kwon.
“You’re not going to spot this kind of team in a while,” Yamaguchi said, expressing confidence in the team’s potential. “I thought our last year team was really good. This year’s team is way better. It’s a lot more special.”
The team’s momentum comes after a disappointing end to the 2025 season, falling short of an NCAA Tournament berth after a semifinal loss to San Jose State in the Mountain West Tournament. That near miss has served as motivation for the returning players.
“With the way it ended last year, I think it left a chip on a lot of our shoulders knowing that we were so close,” Castro said. “We were able to retain a lot of the guys, and we just had that feeling that we desire more.”
Castro is expected to anchor the Nevada pitching rotation, despite the departure of two weekend starters. The team is banking on contributions from transfer pitchers Jordan Giacomini and Aidan Brainard, as well as Dominic Desch, who will open the season as the Friday starter after excelling as a reliever in 2025.
The transition to a team with a target on its back is a challenge the Wolf Pack is prepared to face. “I think this year it’s more of a target on our back,” Desch said. “We’ve proved that One can win. Now, it’s gonna be up to us this year to kind of bring our best to every single game, every single conference games, especially with the shorter conference schedule.”
The team’s new head coach, Jordan Getzelman, was promoted in December following the departure of Jake McKinley, the 2025 Mountain West Coach of the Year, who accepted a position with the Seattle Mariners. Getzelman, who served as McKinley’s hitting coach for the past three seasons, acknowledged the increased responsibilities but expressed enthusiasm for the role.
“My mornings are a little busier,” Getzelman admitted. “Being a hitting coach and a head coach, you’re just doing both a little bit. But I’ve really enjoyed it, and I think for me, just leading the team, coming in the locker room, having something to teach them each and every day, it’s been a lot of fun.”
Getzelman inherits a program that has won four Mountain West championships, the most of any team in the conference. He emphasized the importance of maintaining the program’s established culture and striving for continued success. “I want to thank President Sandoval and Stephanie Rempe for entrusting me with the opportunity to lead Nevada Baseball,” Getzelman said. “I worked under Jake McKinley for seven years and learned more from him than I can ever fully capture.”
Yamaguchi articulated the team’s ultimate goal: a trip to the College World Series. “Us going to Omaha,” he said. “If the team’s winning, I’m winning. And I think that’s the biggest thing is no one on our team is selfish like that where they care about their overall stats more than the team stats.”
