Welcome to the 2025 Potomac State Baseball player diary homepage. This season, Sophomores Jake Compton (Mentor, OH / Mentor High School, Chris Harbert (Bridgeport High School / Bridgeport, WV), and Tanner Haskiell (Southern High School / Terra Alta, WV) will take the lead on the Potomac State Baseball Player Diary.
Hello Catamount Nation, we would like to welcome you to week 1 of the 2025 Potomac State Baseball Player Diary.
The Potomac State Baseball Player Diary has a long tradition of giving you a sneak peek at the behind-the-scenes look at the life for a Catamount Baseball Player on the PSC campus.
A quick introduction of this year’s diary crew. We are Jake Compton, Tanner Haskiell and Chris Harbert. Like you, we have seen and read the past years of the diary. It is one of the best ways to experience what we experience on a daily basis as we compete at the NJCAA (JUCO) baseball level.
We hope you will be following along and keep up with us throughout the year.
We began the 2025 journey back in August of 2024. The fall season of baseball is like an extended spring-training. We learn techniques, protocol, plays and fundamentals that are all designed to make us better players and better people. It is highly structured and intense- but we love every minute of it.
The coaching staff puts us through the paces of a program that sets us up for success. The fall was full of practices that are harder than the games, and an introduction to the way we do things at Potomac State Baseball- the right way.
It was great for returning players to welcome new players to the fold. They quickly come to appreciate the pace of the college game and the importance of every repetition. As Assistant Coach Don Schafer says, “It’s game day, every day.”
Head Coach Doug Little runs a detail-oriented program that can’t help but make you a better player. The success of former Catamounts can easily attest to the fact that the system works.
A full fall schedule. Games against NCAA DI programs. Team Meetings. Intense practices. It all cumulates with the 100-inning fundraising game that wraps up the fall. Thanks to all that supported our team. We raised $22,000 from this game alone! That support from Catamount Nation helps fund our spring season.
This was our first week back on campus from winter break and we wasted no time getting back into action. We started with a team meeting on Sunday evening in which Coach Little outlined our entire spring schedule. He went over the route it is going to take to return to Grand Junction, Colorado- the home of the Junior College World Series. That is the goal foa any JUCO baseball player.
Monday started off with a group of talented pitchers throwing their 50% bullpens to the catchers. Our staff being headlined by returners Dylan Bell, Aiden Sites, Hunter Rothacker, Cooper Polcovich and Jake Compton have taken the lead to show the new hurlers the way we go about our business. Thye have been going through a throwing prgression so that they are ready to go for the opening games of the season.
Our catchers are the backbone of our program. On a daily basis, Caden Johnson, Ryan Conrad, Braylan Knable, Logan Rotruck and A.J. Spears catch bullpens, block pitches, work with the pitching staff and get bruised and bloodied all for the betterment of the team.
After all that, the catchers finally get some time to get some batting practice in. At 5 pm sharp the infielders came in and switched with the catchers to get their work in. Once their 45 minutes was up the outfielders came in for their turn. Due to the weather being so cold, that’s what all of our practices consisted of throughout the first week. We don’t let the weather stop us from getting our work in though as there is plenty of room to get stuff down in the Baseball Performance Center (BPC).
We utilize all the space we can in the BPC during practice. 2-3 of the cages are being used for hitting while one is occasionally used for fielding ground balls and some agility work, and the players that are waiting their turn to get reps work on timing pitches from outside the cage. It is all done in an efficient fashion that slows us to utilize every square inch of the facility and changes occur right on time.
Outside of practice the team has been spending lots of time together doing various things from watching football games to going bowling. These activities increase our camaraderie and makes some great memories.
Some of the team even participated in some sled riding after we got several inches of snow. The area right outside the BPC, known as ‘the hill’ provides some serious conditioning. It was nice to have the hill return the favor with some fun going in the opposite direction.
Be sure to follow us in all of the formats we use:
Instagram @potomacstatebaseball
YouTube www.youtube.com/@PotomacStateBaseball
That’s what the first week back on campus had in store, we hope to see you next week Catamount Nation, "roll chats".