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By Ray Hamill — The defending Big 5 champs in baseball don’t have a lot of varsity experience on the roster this year, but that doesn’t mean they won’t contend for a second straight conference championship.
After graduating six seniors from a team that ended an 11-year wait for a conference title in 2025, including Big 5 MVP and Humboldt Sports Player of the Year Preston Daniels, this year’s Del Norte Warriors are a work in progress.
But seven games into the new season, head coach Jeff Cook likes a lot of what he’s seeing from his squad.
“I feel confident in these guys,” Cook said. “Like every other team, if we make plays we should be in every game. We’ve got some good athletes right now.”
It’s been an up-and-down campaign so far.
The Warriors started with four straight losses at the Chico tournament early in the month, but have won three straight games since then, including a doubleheader sweep at Kelseyville last week and a 10-0 win over Hoopa.
They’ll try to keep that momentum going when they travel to play at the Hidden Valley tournament this week, opening against Estacada on Thursday afternoon.
The Del Norte boys will play three tournament games in three days — also matching up against Molalla and North Valley — before opening the Big 5 with a home doubleheader against Arcata on April 4.
Despite the lack of varsity experience on this year’s team, the Warriors do have some key pieces in place.
Pitchers Ben Shrewsberry and Landon Williams both saw substantial time on the mound last spring and both will lead the way on a staff that features seven players.
Williams, a junior, is one of two team captains this year, along with senior Marco Gonzalez, who is expected to play a bigger role in his final high school campaign.
Also back from last year’s team and expected to play bigger roles are seniors Dominick Miller, Kanyon Starkey, Wyatt Sharp and Charles Martell and junior Damian Escalera.
This year’s roster also includes multi-sport senior standout Dane Brown, as well as juniors Markus Parras and Junior Salcedo, sophomore Jerimiah Griffin and freshmen Jaxon Sharp and Michael Marvis.
The Sharp brothers saw time on the mound in the opener at Kelseyville last week and both siblings impressed, along with starters Shrewsberry and Williams, the latter of whom threw a complete game in game two.
“We played two solid games at Kelseyville,” Cook said. “Our pitching was pretty good.”
Finding a way to replace Daniels, who is now playing at Lin-Benton Community College in Oregon, will be key after he played such a pivotal role on the march to the Big 5 title 12 months ago, but Cook has plenty of options on the mound this spring.
In addition to Shewsberry and Williams, who will anchor the pitching staff, the Wyatt brothers, Escalera and Parras are all expected to contribute on the hill, along with Griffin, a lefty.
And Cook says the team may feature some additional arms as needed as he looks to put the pieces together.
“We’re still trying to figure out our identity,” the head coach said. “We don’t have that much varsity experience, but we have good attitudes on our team.”
As he looks to finalize a lineup ahead of the league openers, Cook is hoping this weekend will help towards that.
“We have three games left before league,” the coach said. “Hopefully this weekend it clicks.
“I just want to see who’s going to earn their spots for league. Nobody has a set spot yet. We’re still moving things around.”
Among the highlights through the early-season games was a three-run home run at Kelseyville by Williams, who is making his presence felt in multiple ways.
Starkey, Gonzalez and Shrewsberry have also started the season well.
So too have the Del Norte JVs, who look set for a good spring.
“Our JV team is doing well,” Cook said of the younger team, which features 10 freshmen and a sophomore. “They’re kicking butt. It’s a good JV team. We’ve got a good program for the next few years.”
