With the end of winter comes spring, and with spring comes new Georgia College & State University baseball, as the team opened its season at home with a doubleheader against the nationally ranked No. 1 team, the University of Tampa, at John Kurtz Field, Friday, Jan. 30.
The team finished the season under the guidance of long-time GCSU coach Nolan Belcher, posting a 30-24 overall record and 19-8 in conference. The team later took down Flagler University and the University of South Carolina-Aiken in the Peach Belt Conference before falling to Lander University for their second time in the double-elimination tournament.
However, with the new season comes new opportunities. With the departure of Belcher to the University of North Georgia, Department of Athletics, Wendell Staton looked to Flagler College’s pitching coach, Jeff Pelkey, to lead the team during the 2026 season.
“Coach Belcher did a great job here, and the coaches in the past have all been very good,” Coach Pelkey said. “The one constant here at Georgia College of the years, that I’ve noticed, is it’s not really the coaches but it’s the players, and that we’ve always had really good players that have turned into really good alumni, and it’s been a great legacy that basically started with John Kurtz. My job is to organize everything, make sure practices are growing smoothly and hold guys accountable.”
Pelkey leads a different team from the previous one, with quite a few graduations, such as seniors Mitch Cowan, Matthew Mebane and Bradley Wilson, as well as the transfer departures of Gold Glover Braeden Smith and team-ace John Luke Glanton. Pelkey was gifted a tall task to answer to.
The Bobcats will look to many of their then non-seniors to step up in the 2026 season, such as Carson Phillips and Evan Cowan on offense, while Christian Donaldson and Jake Beaver become seniors on the pitching side. The Bobcats will also get their first looks at now-sophomore Blake Bellflower, freshman catcher Carson Vick and freshman infielder Cole Huddleston.
“I think some of the returners have gotten better,” Pelkey said. “I think the Evan Cowans, the Carson Phillips of the world. They’ve gotten significantly better. I think Bobcat fans need to take a peek at the Luke Boone kid, [he’s a] very talented player. We got an incoming freshman, Carson Vick, who has done a great job.”
While the Bobcats struggled against the number one team in the season-opener, 15-1, with the pitching staff sadly giving up a run in each of the innings aside from the fifth, they fared much better in the nightcap of the doubleheader.
“I think it’ll be competitive,” Pelkey said. “I think our guys are ready to go. Obviously, they’ll be talented on the other side, but I think if we play our style of baseball and we play good baseball, I think at the end of the nine innings, it’s got to be a dog fight.”
The Bobcats faced former ace Glanton in the second game. Tampa struck for three in the first off the Bobcats’ Keaton Prior; however, that would be all the Spartans scored throughout the remainder of the contest. GCSU went on to score a run in the seventh, putting the team within two on a Keagan Baxter groundout to shortstop to score Ty Petrocih. However, Tampa’s Sammy Beir came out of the bullpen to collect the three-out save to shut down the Bobcats’ hopes of a win on the first day of the season.
The Bobcats’ season continues Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 5 p.m. against Albany State University in Albany, Georgia. Afterwards is the first three-game set of the year against Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, with the first game of the series on Friday, Feb. 6, at 6 p.m. and the final two in a doubleheader on Saturday, Feb. 7, with the first game at 1 p.m. and the second at 4 p.m.
