Pittsburgh, PA - After being picked to finish 6th in the Presidents' Athletics Conference (PAC) preseason poll, Chatham baseball is ready to start its season off on a high note.
The Cougars are coming off of back-to-back 18-win seasons, narrowly missing out on the PAC Tournament by 1 game in the 2025 season. The preparation for the upcoming season has been marked by challenging circumstances, with the team priding itself on its adaptability to factors outside its control. Head Chatham Baseball Coach Nic Rush spoke about the team's pre-season excitement and hard work needed to overcome these challenges.
"We are looking forward to this season getting underway and establishing some sense of normalcy to our schedule," said Rush. "This winter has pushed us indoors more than usual, and I think our group is ready to get out on the field and compete."
The Cougars graduated 11 players from their 2025 squad, a group that helped shape the program's culture.
"It's never easy when you graduate a large senior class, especially the group that started us on the path to success and also achieved a number of individual accolades, Coach Rush said."
Despite losing a large veteran voice, the Cougars have relied on the current crop of older players to handle an impacted winter schedule. Their experience in handling the ups and downs of a long season has helped keep the team focused on the season opener.
"We are older and more experienced than we've ever been before. Our player level leadership (and our willingness to be led by our peers) has been better than it's been to date."
Seniors Angelo DeLeonardis and Eddier Rueda, as well as junior Nolan Boehm, look to be cornerstones at the plate this season. DeLeonardis led the Cougars in 2025 with 22 stolen bases, ranked 2nd in the PAC, after hitting over .300 for the second straight season. Rueda's 31 RBIs and 54 hits were the most on last year's team, while Boehm led the squad with 4 triples, hitting .333. The three players were joined on the conference's Players to Watch list for the upcoming season by 2025 All-PAC 2nd team member Cooper Baxter. Baxter's two-way play led the Cougars in batting average (.372) while winning 2 games and striking out 25 on the mound.
"Returning several [players] from last year's lineup and the percentage of innings on the mound that we do is a unique situation for us as we have not had that luxury before."
Chatham Baseball opens the season at home on Tuesday, February 17th. The Cougars host Muskingum at West Field with first pitch scheduled for 5 pm.
