Low outside expectations for 2025 don’t matter to BYU baseball
-
- BYU’s Stone Cushing throws a pitch against Texas in a Big 12 baseball game during the 2025 season.
-
- BYU’s Crew McChesney takes an at-bat during a game against Oklahoma during the 2024 season.
-
- BYU’s Stone Cushing throws a pitch against Grand Canyon in a non-conference baseball game at Miller Park during the 2024 season.
-
- BYU’s Crew McChesney runs the bases during a non-conference game against Abilene Christian at Miller Park during the 2024 season.
The 2025 Big 12 baseball poll came out last week and BYU was picked to finish 14th.
Out of 14 teams.
The Cougars were 21-31 overall and 7-23 in their first Big 12 season, 13th (last) in the conference standings with the youngest roster in the league.
BYU players understand why expectations outside the program for 2025 are low but inside the clubhouse, they expect much bigger things.
“I think we’re better everywhere,” sophomore outfielder Crew McChesney said. “We’ve got some good hitters. Last year we were pretty young so we have a lot more experience coming back. Our pitchers are throwing strikes and we’ve got a lot of those guys back as well. We’re pretty healthy, too, so we want to just come back and prove people wrong.”
McChesney, a former Lone Peak standout, finished his freshman season strong and led the Cougars with a .340 batting average, starting the final 15 games.
“You think about the football team last season, they were projected towards the bottom as well,” McChesney said. “It (being picked last) gives us more motivation and actually gives us more grit. We want to prove everyone wrong all the time, so it’ll be fun.”
Former Salem Hills pitcher Stone Cushing, who transferred from College of Southern Idaho in 2024, led the Big 12 with 10 saves, posting 57 strikeouts and a 3.93 ERA in 34.1 innings. He is the only Cougar picked to the preseason All-Big 12 team.
“Criticism is going to come,” he said. We didn’t have a very successful year, so it’s not like we can come back expecting people predicting we’re going to win the conference. If we do, that’s just people that we can prove wrong. It’s not something we need to focus on.”
Cushing said the players are not worried about the negativity or distractions from others.
“I think it all boils down to just controlling what we can control,” he said. “If we start worrying about what the umpires are doing, what the other team is doing, what people are saying about us in the media, that’s when we get away from our priorities. If we lose our competitiveness, lose our edge, we’re losing the reason we play baseball. We just have to compete every pitch, every at bat.”
Trent Pratt is in his third full season heading the BYU baseball program. There were definite growing pains last season playing a Big 12 schedule, where 11 of the 14 players in various Cougar batting orders in May were freshmen or sophomores.
“We were crazy young last year,” Pratt said. “We lost 10 one or two-run conference games so we need to learn how to win those close games. We win three or four of those games and we’re probably in the conference tournament. That’s how close it was. We’re getting the belief and learning how to win. Those guys that were here last year understand that being young, getting to play a lot, the experience is such a big thing. Now we’re older and so we’re hoping that experience carries over to success on the field.”
Pratt said he’s seen positive signs that this team will be better than 14th in the Big 12.
“They’re sick of losing,” he said. “These guys are hungry. They don’t like to lose inter-squad games, or cornhole on a Tuesday night. They don’t like to lose playing ping pong. Hopefully that competitive atmosphere will change over to when the lights come on and we get between the lines.”
BYU opens the 2025 season Feb. 14 with a four-game series at Fresno State. The Cougars play their first 11 games on the road before returning home for a four-game set with Stetson at Miller Park beginning March 5.
