Light April snow may continue to dust Nicholson field, but baseball is back on Snelling and Grand with the Scots entering the season full of hope and desperate for improvement.
While the team has been in action for almost a month, the first home tilt for this year’s edition of the Macalester nine doesn’t come until April 9 against Concordia College (Minn.). Now is Scots fans’ chance to prepare for an exciting season on the diamond.
The team had an adventurous start to the spring, visiting U.S. Bank Stadium (capacity: 73,000, attendance: 237) for an early March doubleheader against the University of Minnesota Morris, which they split 1-1.
After a 10-day hiatus, the boys in blue and orange packed their bags and headed over 1,600 miles down to the Grand Canyon State. They faced some of the stiffest competition they’ll see this year in Arizona, including facing a top-10 team, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags, twice.
While the Tucson trip yielded a 3-7 record, Mac made the wins count. The Scots defeated a D-II team for the first time in program history in a 21-20 barnburner over Winona State and handled conference rival Augsburg.
Now, finally back in the land of 10,000 lakes, the team is beginning to settle into their identity. The returning Scots have had it anything but easy. Despite the challenges, they rally around a shared mindset: they’re not going down without a fight. No matter what gets in their way, whether it was four games within 24 hours of touching down in Tucson, losing two key contributors in preseason or the adverse weather classic to Minnesota, the Scots will face it.
When asked what the Arizona trip meant for the season outlook, Ben King ’26 said that it showed “we can compete with anybody. We beat a D-II team, which I don’t know if we’ve ever done before.” Stephen Paulsen ’26 added “we showed that even when we’re down, we’re never out.”
A promising rookie class is hard at work learning from the program’s best, with some making an instant impact. Aram Dombalagian ’28 out of Glenview, Ill. is pacing the class with a .325 batting average through 12 games while driving in eight runs. Bobby Munoz ’28 has started seven games behind the dish for the Scots, working well in tandem with the starting rotation.
“We’re working hard. Even if we’re not involved in the game, we’re all rooting on the team and wanting to see our guys succeed,” Connor Davidson ’28 said. He added that Munoz was “a dog” behind the plate.
Haruto Mizuno ’28 will also share the field with his older brother Shun Mizuno ’25 this year, a heartwarming story for the team. Haruto said playing with his brother was one of the main reasons he came to Macalester.
Something to look out for this season will be Head Coach Matt Parrington’s chase for 400 career victories as he extends his lead as the program’s winningest coach. Currently sitting at 389, it will require an improved season from the Scots, who managed only nine victories in their previous campaign.
Following the Scots’ return from the south-west, they dropped both ends of a doubleheader versus St. John’s University to open conference play at 0-2. However, both games were close, with the Mac pitchers shining in the late game and holding the potent SJU offense to only two runs. The Scots upped their game with an 8-1 win over the University of Northwestern – St. Paul Eagles, and they will continue their schedule with a doubleheader in Winona this weekend.
The shiny new scoreboard in right field could oversee a return to the MIAC playoffs, which the Scots last saw in 2018, and perhaps even arun back to the NCAA tournament, which was last achieved in 2017 when the Scots finished with a 26- 17 record.
These Scots have developed a tolerance for adversity and uncertainty over their past few seasons, and the seniors, after three subpar campaigns, are hungry for success. Teammates heralded captains Tristan Jones ’26 and Shun Mizuno as strong leaders, and the entire team is eager to restore the high standards set for their program.
