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With 2024 now in the past, Prep Baseball Michigan is eagerly anticipating bringing the state the best high school coverage that can be found anywhere in 2025. Starting in February, we began releasing team previews for squads across the state. Ahead, we will have Preseason All-State Teams as well as the Preseason State Rankings coming your way.

To view the full list of 2025 Team Previews that we have already completed, please click here.

If you are a coach and haven't filled out your 2025 Team Preview, click here.

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2025 Spring Team Preview: Jackson Lumen Christi

JACKSON - Derek Tracy believes he is up to the challenge as a first-year head coach at Jackson Lumen Christi.

“I’ve been preaching toughness all winter,” explained Tracy, an assistant coach the past nine years. “How can you be tough in baseball? A lot of things. Battling ABs, diving in the outfield, taking one off the chest at third base making a play, hustling on the bases.

“My ultimate goal is to make these men better young men when they leave the program,” Tracy continued. “Success is important, but it’s also about being able to instill good virtues and ethics after baseball.”

Phil Clifford, the head coach for 19 years, leaves big shoes to fill after leading the Titans to the Division 3 state finals last season. In addition to finishing as the state runners-up, Lumen Christi won its division in its first year playing in the Catholic League.

“That was some good baseball,” Tracy said of the Catholic League. “It took us a while to get a grasp on starting with a 1-1 count, but we learned you’ve got to be aggressive at the plate. Getting ahead on the first pitch as a pitcher is huge.”

The strong opposition proved valuable once the postseason started. 

“Playing that good competition set the table for the playoffs,” Tracy related. “We won 11 in a row before the finals, and we only lost one non-league game all year. The semifinals was one of the best moments of my career.”

The cupboard is far from bare from a team that scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat Charlevoix 3-2 in the state semifinals before losing to Watervliet in the finals during a 31-11 campaign.

“We have more arms this year than last,” Tracy pointed out. “We have seven or eight solid arms that can eat up some innings.”

Senior Timmy Crowley finished 8-1 a year ago and is back to pitch along with classmate Nathan Hinkley, an Alma commit rated 30th among 2025 catchers in the state who will pitch, catch and play first base. Hinkley finished 5-2 on the hill a year ago.

Wes Learned, the third-ranked sophomore left-handed pitcher in Michigan, is another hurler expecting to make major contributions, with Kash Kalahar and JJ Brown seniors that will pitch. Learned was 1-0 while Kalahar 2-1 last season.

“We have four senior pitchers and a fifth, our shortstop Brodie Gregory,” Tracy said about who can fill key roles on the mound. “They’ve been in the program three or four years, they all pitched last year and I think they’ve gotten stronger and smarter.”

Kalahar, the 28th-rated senior catcher in the state, will share time behind the plate with Hinkley and bat cleanup. Crowley, Hinkley and Learned along with juniors Antoine Baker and Logan Hethington are potential first basemen. Kalahar hit .367 with 25 RBIs and 24 runs scored last season while Hinkley batted .310.

Sophomore Benny Gaston, a left-handed batter who produced the game-winning single in the state semifinals last season, will be at second after averaging .349 last season while driving in 26 runs. Gregory, the 35th-ranked senior shortstop in Michigan, hit .441 with 27 RBIs and 35 runs scored and returns to lead the way at the plate, with junior Jake King another shortstop for the Titans with Paul Sattler, who was the leadoff hitter last year as a sophomore, returns to play third after batting .352 with 24 runs last year.

Junior Jack Fitzpatrick, who hit .326 with 26 runs scored in 2024, is back in center field with Brown, Hethington, Learned and junior Gibby Shore playing corner outfield.

“I like our senior leadership,” Tracy noted. “We don’t typically appoint captains, but last year Brady, as a junior, at our first practice was in the middle of the circle with Gabe King (the senior leader last season).”

There is more than leadership that Tracy likes about the team in 2025.

“Defense last year was why we got where we did and we should be solid there again this year,” Tracy explained. “Our offense this year also has some lefty batters in the lineup. We’ve got good team speed, guys that can hit for power and we can put the ball in play.

“The key is consistent pitching,” Tracy continued. “We have the defense, we’re going to be solid there. If our pitchers throw strikes I’m confident we can make the plays, and I think we’ll be better offensively this year.”

League play will be cut in half this season, with six doubleheaders instead of 12. University Liggett, Lutheran North and Gabriel Richard are teams that Tracy pointed to as contenders.

“Our goals are to win league, districts and so on,” Tracy concluded. “This is an outstanding league, with pitchers, even the number two and three, throwing in the mid-80s.”

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