2025 Baseball Preview Series: Starting Pitchers

The preview series leading up to the 2025 season takes a look at starting pitching. Every pitching staff has guys who can show versatility in situations throughout the grind of a college baseball season and Coach Dax Norris discussed at length that there are several options on this year's pitching staff.
 
Two guys who are familiar with the program and familiar with the competition they'll be facing are Grant Edwards and Cortez Dennis. Between the two, they made 25 starts last season. Edwards started every weekend while Dennis had some strong performances down the stretch and showed his ability not only in starting situations but in some higher leverage bullpen scenarios.
 
"I think Grant has thrown the ball really well from fall to early spring and his stuff has always been there. He's in his second year now and is very familiar with everything. He's learned how to pitch at 90-91 and we're looking for him to have a big year."
 
Dennis had a pair of four-inning shutout performances in conference. He did it against McNeese in late April then shut down the defending regular season champion, Lamar and allowed just one hit in four innings.
 
"To have a guy like Cortez is huge. It might be where our team is better if he goes to the pen or if he starts because he threw well out of the pen last year. Cortez is a veteran guy and to have that it helps the guys who are coming in this year."
 
Zach Longshore, who transfers in from UTSA, did not have a lot of innings on his arm last season. The southpaw pitched in 30 games at Texas Lutheran over the previous two seasons and accrued an 11-3 record on the mound.
 
"Longshore is another guy who has thrown the ball well and has all the potential to be a quality starter for us. To have those options we feel comfortable with is important. Now we don't have to go into a mid-week game and think okay who are we going to pitch."
 
Coach Norris also made note of other pitchers who have had previous starting experience including Hayden O'Dell, Matthew Bienvenu, Sawyer Toney and Jayden Lopez.
 
O'Dell pitched at two different junior colleges and was an All-State selection in Alabama as a senior in high school. Bienvenu made seven starts at Southwest Mississippi CC and finished in the top five in program history in strikeouts per nine innings. Toney was a Perfect Game Underclassmen All-American and had a 2.20 ERA in his first collegiate season at Shelton State. Lopez, who redshirted last season, had 118 career strikeouts in 99.1 innings at East Georgia State College.
 
"We have several guys who we comfortable with starting. O'Dell is a guy who has thrown the ball well and getting Bienvenu back recently was big for us. We also have Lopez and Toney who have started before so we have options to go to. The main thing is these guys continuing to throw strikes, limit free passes and trusting the defense behind them."
 
Our preview series concludes with a look at the relief pitching, which will be out on Wednesday.
 
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